Northcote Park coach Anthony Palmer discusses Cougars pre-season and expectations

31 for 31: Despite missing finals, Northcote Park owned the third best defence in NFNL Division 2, and coach Anthony Palmer is confident the foundations are in place for a strong 2024.

Chris Clark gets a kick for Northcote Park. Picture: Josh Chadwick

New Northcote Park coach Anthony Palmer is confident the club has the foundations of its next premiership team already in place.

The Cougars surprisingly missed NFNL Division 2 finals last season after relegation from Division 1 the previous year but saw strong key performance indicators.

The club owned the third best defence in the competition, behind only grand finalists Diamond Creek and Eltham.

However, its offence was ranked eighth and an 8-10 record saw it miss the top-five by just four points – with a superior percentage than Watsonia.

Foundations has been a key word in pre-season as Palmer looks to implement his plan.

Rory Patterson looks for an option for Northcote Park. Picture: Josh Chadwick

“We’ve focused on our foundations of team and club culture and progressed to implementing game style and brand of how we want to play,” Palmer said.

“Obviously when a new coach comes in he’s going to have different requirements and try to rollout his own game style.

“We’ve spent the bulk of pre-season doing match sim and game style training, it’s been high-intensity game-focused training.

“What I know about last year, they played 40-plus players in the seniors, with a bit of luck we won’t have that turnover.

“They missed finals by a game with the third best defence in the competition, so it gives you strong foundations to work with.

“The guys were disappointed they didn’t play finals but we’d like to think we’ll be competitive with those teams pushing for top-five.”

Northcote Park has lost star swingman Alex Boyse and former AFL player Jordan Schroder (Daylesford) as well as Adrian Cirianni, Dallyce Taylor and James Tadd (all Epping).

However, Terence De Santis (Preston Bullants), Ethan Miller-Gaff (Montmorency) and Caillin Kett (North Heidelberg) have arrived.

Alastair Punshon keeps his eye on the ball for Northcote Park. Picture: Josh Chadwick

The Cougars ramped up Round 1 preparations with a practice match against Western club Spotswood and will face Goulburn Valley outfit Seymour at Nagambie this weekend.

Palmer has been pleased with his players commitment to pre-season and been impressed with some standout performances.

“We had a pre-season camp at Anglesea and players covered at least 20km on the Saturday, so we learnt the players are prepared to push themselves physically and mentally, which is pleasing,” he said.

“We had a practice match against Spotswood and there were some good signs there, certainly our indicators were pleasing, but there’s a lot of improvement as well.

“We’ve got a couple of Northcote juniors that have come through, which is really pleasing, Ben Armstrong and Sullivan Everett will get opportunities this year.

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“We’re trying to build that base of younger players, obviously not having under-19s is a challenge, but we’ve been able to recruit a few, as well as Terrence De Santis who’s still young.

“Everyone is flying in March but we’ve recruited a couple of guys, in particular, Caillin Kett who’s had Division 1 experience, is really fit and can play at both ends of the ground.

“Then our more experienced players like Daniel Tallariti, Jordan Perry, Matt Perry, Chris Clark, they’re as fit as they’ve ever been and they’re dragging the others along with him.”

The Cougars will kick off the 2024 campaign against Thomastown under lights at Bill Lawry Oval, first bounce at 7pm on April 6.