Eastern league: Noble Park noses out newcomer Berwick

First-gamer Harley Fairbank was a talking point as Noble Park edged out EFL newcomer Berwick at Edwin Flack Reserve.

Berwick’s Michael Riseley comes over the top with a big spoil.

What Steve Hughes believes will be a keen regional rivalry started with a two-point victory for Noble Park over Berwick.

But Noble coach Hughes declared his team was “extremely lucky’’ to leave Edwin Flack Reserve with four premiership points over the Eastern Premier newcomer on Saturday.

VFL-listed player Josh Stern put away a set-shot late in the last quarter and the visitors held on until the final siren, the first both teams had heard in more than 18 months.

Hughes, in his first match as Noble’s senior coach, was more relieved than pleased with the 8.13 (61) to 7.17 (59) result.

He said Berwick deserved to win the match and shaped as a good team as it stepped up from AFL Outer East.

“If they play like they did yesterday, they’ll be in most games, I would have thought,’’ Hughes said.

“I said to ‘Boofa’ (Berwick coach Clint Evans), ‘You should be really proud of them’. I thought we were extremely lucky. Probably the better side didn’t win. We’ll take it every day of the week. We got out of jail, I thought.

Noble Park coach Steve Hughes work the huddle. Picture: Stuart Milligan

“They controlled the pressure of the game. They missed, conservatively, four or five goals they should have kicked. So, yeah, I’m acutely aware we were lucky. We had our patches but nowhere near the footy that we want to play. Happy with the win, of course, and maybe a sign of us trying to mature a little bit as well, grinding it out.’’

The Bulls had four players wearing the colours for the first time: Frankston supplementary lister Stern, from the NEAFL; Riet Pal from Keysborough; 18-year-old Harley Fairbank from Doveton; and Mitch Woolgar from Hampton Park.

Fairbank made a blistering start to the match, kicking the first goal inside a minute. He kicked the second too.

His first 20 minutes were little short of electrifying, Hughes said.

“He had five shots at goal,’’ he said. ‘”He got a corkie late in the first quarter, which slowed him down a bit. But gee he was very good to watch early on. He’s tiny but he’s a little hare, runs hard. And he does not fumble, which is a sign of talent, I reckon. One grab, no matter what, below his knees.’’

Noble Park’s Ali Zijai.

Hughes thought it an entertaining and intense match, which was played before a bumper crowd.

“I made a comment about halfway through the third quarter that the air hadn’t gone out of it at all. It was there all day. Lots of pressure around the footy. It was a good game of local footy for people to watch. Beautiful day for it at a nice ground.’’

Evans lamented some poor kicking from his team, particularly in the last quarter.

“We just didn’t take our opportunities, which was unfortunate. We missed five from 25m out and the other ones were probably 50-50 or 60-40, so it wasn’t like they were from the boundary line,’’ he said.

“Bad kicking in the end, you’re not going to win too many kicking like that, unfortunately.’’

He praised Riley Heddles for his job in Bulls champion Kyle Martin, who played well, but didn’t have his usual dominating influence.

Martin may take a few weeks to reach his brilliant best as he recovers from an ankle reconstruction.

“We couldn’t tag all of them – they’ve got so many good players,’’ Evans said. “We know Marto’s (Kyle Martin) a jet so we tried to nullify as much as we could with him, which I think we did with him for the most part.’’

Asked about the difference between Outer East and EFL, Evans said: “It’s chalk and cheese realistically. We know Noble are going to be a side that might make finals, so if we can sort of compete with them, we know that we belong.

“In Outer East we’d have our Narres and Cranbournes, but then we’d have sides where we knew we had their measure. Here, we’re going to have to be up every week and that’s going to be the big thing for us if we can do that.’’