Northcote Park created history 20 years ago, we take you behind the scenes
It’s been 20 years since Northcote Park created history against Montmorency and Cougars greats take us behind the scenes of the famous four-peat.
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Northcote Park created Diamond Valley/Northern Football League history in 2002.
The Cougars won a fourth straight Division 1 premiership with a seven-point win over Montmorency.
As the DVFL/NFL celebrates 100 years, we’re looking back on some of the league’s incredible history.
With Northcote Park hosting 2002 grand final opponent Montmorency at Bill Lawry Oval on Saturday what better time to re-live our two-part feature on the Cougars’ incredible four-peat.
The people at the forefront of Heidelberg’s success take us behind the scenes.
PART 1
At the start of the 1994 Diamond Valley Football League season, Northcote Park was a small club battling to make finals in Division 2.
Just five years later the Cougars were arguably the biggest club in the league and on the verge of something truly special – a historic four-peat.
An ambitious committee led by Michael Chilcott and talent-laden playing group took the club on an extraordinary eight-year run that produced five premierships from six grand final appearances.
Known as the Prince of Wales Football Club until 1952, Northcote Park had a history of success in the Methodist Football League, Metropolitan Football League and Panton Hill Football League but had struggled after switching to the DVFL in 1981.
However, having won promotion in 1994, the club had no intention of slipping straight back to Division 2 and made an instant impact, missing finals in 1995 by just two points.
Steve Easton arrived at Bill Lawry Oval as senior coach in 1996 and was struck by how much the club wanted success.
The former North Melbourne and Carlton big man knew plenty about building dynasties having earlier coached Lalor’s 1991-93 premiership hat-trick.
“The club was extremely strong behind the scenes, we had a board of directors that enabled us to attract some quality players,” Easton said.
“They’d come from nothing. In previous years they couldn’t pay the rent at the old ground at McDonald Park, they made a big commitment to take on Bill Lawry Oval, and the players followed after the infrastructure was put in place.
“I coached senior footy for 27 years and you wouldn’t get a better group than what we had.”
In his first season, Easton guided the club to its first top flight DVFL grand final, ultimately losing to Bundoora by nine points.
Revenge was sweet in 1997 as the Cougars claimed their maiden Division 1 premiership with a 39-point triumph over the Bulls.
In his one and only season at Northcote Park, current day coach Barry Mitchell completed a personal hat-trick – a premiership medal, league best-and-fairest and club best-and-fairest.
The Cougars would follow up that momentous achievement with a preliminary final appearance in 1998, bowing out against Easton’s former club and eventual premier Lalor.
Matt Amad was one of the spiritual leaders at Northcote Park and took over the captaincy from club legend John Origlasso in 1999.
Matt and brother Joey were already Cougar greats, having been a part of the 1994 Division 2 premiership and both finished with six flags.
The hard-nosed defender said the club’s reputation during the period couldn’t have been further from the truth.
“From the outside we were the club that went out and bought a team but we had, in my opinion, the best combination of AFL and suburban footballers in suburban football,” he said.
“The AFL players we did have had a connection to the club through a past player or current player.
“The culture was fantastic, we were a very tight-knit bunch of blokes.”
Two-time Carlton premiership defender Peter Dean and Geelong, Carlton and Port Adelaide forward Brent Heaver arrived in 1999, joining the likes of David Stropper (Fitzroy, Sydney Swans and St Kilda), Michael Gale (Fitzroy and Richmond) and Jason Croall (Collingwood).
However, arguably the biggest recruit was ruckman Brett Jeffery from Boort in country Victoria.
“He was the best ruckman in the comp, always gave our onballers first use and you could push him forward if you needed a couple of quick goals,” Amad said.
“He’d get really cranky with the onballers if he’d tap it to the right spot and they weren’t there.
“He was super passionate and you wouldn’t find a more loyal bloke.”
Full-forward Damien Yze was another key arrival as the likes of Gerard Bevan, Anthony Lekkas, Shannon Logan and Simon Lennox formed the local backbone.
The 1999 season started with a rousing 81-point thrashing of the reigning premier but by Round 7 the campaign was teetering at 4-3 after a two-point defeat at Bundoora.
An 11-game unbeaten run followed, including an 159-point thumping of Epping and 200-point humiliation of Diamond Creek.
The club rolled into finals as minor premier and dispatched Heidelberg by 44 points in the major semi-final before claiming premiership glory for the second time in three years with a 30-point victory against North Heidelberg.
While 1999 had started with a rousing win, the 2000 season started with a reality check – a 19-point defeat at the hands of West Preston-Lakeside.
The Roosters would prove a stumbling block again in Round 11 as they conquered the Bill Lawry Oval fortress with a 33-point victory.
It was a wake-up call to Easton’s men and it proved season-defining.
Northcote Park didn’t lose another game, finishing the home-and-away season with seven straight wins, before dismantling their regular-season tormentor when it mattered most.
The Cougars cruised to a 57-point win over West Preston-Lakeside in the major semi-final and followed up it a fortnight later with a dominant 73-point triumph to claim back-to-back titles.
“The blend of ex-AFL talent, the country boys, the home-grown talent and the juniors we got up and running at Alphington, whatever the mix was it just worked,” Easton said.
“It was no luck we attracted good players – the finances and the facilities were obviously attractions – but we had a ball.
“We had a lot of success, and they still do to this day. The same group are still really tight.
“I know they still go camping religiously on the first week in December at Echuca and that event has been going on for 20-odd years, so to see the camaraderie that still exists between them says volumes.”
Yze claimed the league goalkicking award with 99 majors in the home-and-away season, surprisingly the club’s only individual award during the four-peat.
Easton called time on his tenure at Bill Lawry Oval after the season, having won three premierships and moulded the club into a powerhouse.
Vinny Hanlon would take the reins for 2001 as the Cougars aimed to become just the third club in Diamond Valley Football League history to win a hat-trick of premierships.
PART 2
In 100 years only two clubs in Diamond Valley/Northern Football League history had ever won three premierships on the trot.
Heidelberg achieved the feat in 1910-12 and then, 90 years later, Lalor joined the exclusive club with a hat-trick in 1991-93.
Northcote Park would join them in 2001 and go on to create its own slice of history.
Having risen from Division 2 in 1994 to back-to-back Division 1 premier by 2000, there was a feeling around the DVFL that the Cougars had bought their premierships.
A number of ex-AFL talents had been lured to the club and it had managed to retain the core of its list despite premiership success.
However, premiership-winning coach Steve Easton – who also led Lalor to its three-peat – revealed the rumour mill was far from reality.
“You can get a group together and they’ll perform for a short period, maybe go back-to-back but for a four-peat, it’s just a resolve,” Easton said.
“Not only did they stick (together) but they stuck under conditions where each year they’re match payments came down.
“It was a directive from the footy club that after each year we had to get the match payments down.
“Financially there was no incentive, so you take the finances out and you just had a group that wanted to stick together.”
After coaching the Cougars to three flags in 1997, 1999 and 2000, Easton handed over the reins to Vinny Hanlon but 2001 would prove to be a drama-filled rollercoaster.
The reigning premier lost four of its opening five games, including 10-goal defeats to West Preston-Lakeside in the grand final rematch and Epping.
A 34-point win over Montmorency broke the drought in Round 6, flicking the switch on a run that would catapult it from bottom to the table to minor premier.
Northcote Park rattled off 13 straight home-and-away wins, including a 101-point thrashing of West Preston-Lakeside and final-round 144-point mauling of Eltham.
Bundoora waited in the major semi-final and despite kicking a woeful 9.23, the Cougars prevailed by six points to progress to the decider.
The Bulls won the preliminary final to set up a rematch and while inaccuracy again dogged the team – kicking 12.20 – the Cougars sealed their hat-trick with an eight-point triumph.
Current day club president Joe Amad was a key member of the Cougars’ midfield at the time and can remember the group’s focus
“We knew it was going to be hard any year, let alone winning three in a row,” he said.
“We kept a lid on it, didn’t want to get ahead of ourselves, but we knew if we got there we’d take some beating.
“That year we were 1-4 early, had some injuries, but came good midway through the year and got the three-peat.”
Cougars captain Matt Amad labelled Bundoora his team’s greatest rival during its premiership era.
“Bundoora beat us in 1996 and then we beat them in 1997 and 2001,” he said.
“Bundoora would definitely be the most competitive, we had some good battles with them.
“You bump into those blokes now and it’s funny how your biggest rivals on the field are the blokes you go out of your way to talk to.
“One of the most special things about the four-peat was we beat four different sides, it indicates how even the comp was back then.”
A young forward with a prodigious leap, Saad Saad stamped himself as a star of the competition in 2001, while the likes of Steve Saddington, Brett Wilson and Pierre Haddad developed into key contributors.
Peter Dean – a two-time VFL/AFL premiership winner at Carlton – would take the coaching reins for 2002, tasked with guiding the club to what would be a history-making fourth straight title.
“I think the key part in winning premierships is players getting along really well,” he said.
“I thoroughly enjoyed my time at Northcote Park, obviously the success was a part of that, but there’s still fellas I played with in a WhatsApp group and we hang manure on each other and go camping with each other up at Echuca.
“It was interesting (stepping back to local footy), the main thing I remember was opposition clubs were super competitive and it was super tribal.
“The other thing was you could hear every comment that came over the fence, every now and again you’d walk over and tell the blokes on the hill ‘if you shut up for five minutes, I’ll shout you a beer after the game’.”
Having marshalled some of the great key forwards of the 1980s and 1990s, Dean didn’t get any respite in the strong DVFL.
“Mario Bandera at North Heidelberg was full of beans and a handful, Chris Groom at West Preston had played for Fremantle and North Melbourne, Chris Hall, Jason Heatley and Jamie Shaw. There were some very good players in the league,” he said.
Another slow start put the Cougars behind the eight-ball as they limped to the halfway mark of the season at 4-5 with a growing injury list.
A second-half revival secured third place but Dean suffered a broken eye socket in the final game of the regular season and missed finals.
Old foe Bundoora was brushed aside by 74 points in the elimination final and a 29-point win over minor premier Epping in the preliminary final followed.
Fresh from the week off, Montmorency waited in the grand final.
The Cougars led by seven points at half-time and, despite losing defender Robby Bullock and Saddington to injury, held a comfortable 33-point buffer at the final change, only for the Magpies roar home.
Montmorency kicked 5.4 in the final term to Northcote Park’s 1.1 but it was enough to hold on for a thrilling seven-point win.
“The first three years we’d had the week off but that season we won from the first semi, which was extraordinary,” Joe Amad said.
“There was a confidence that we had the experience to get the job done.
“When you’re winning flags a lot of the blokes realised that instead of chasing an extra $100 or $200 at least we were in a good era.”
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It was a historic achievement, which saw five players feature in all four premierships – Matt and Joe Amad, Brett Jeffery, Anthony Lekkas and Gerard Bevan.
Northcote Park’s dynasty would end in 2003 with a preliminary final loss to eventual premier West Preston-Lakeside.
It was an eight-year run that saw the club never finish lower than third before the Cougars missed finals all together in 2004.
However, the club wouldn’t have to wait long to again taste premiership success with its sixth top-flight flag coming in 2012.
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