Northcote Park ends winless start to the NFNL Division 2 season, defeating Thomastown

Northcote Park’s decision to train through the King’s Birthday break has paid immediate dividends as the Cougars ended their winless run with a commanding win over Thomastown.

Matt Perry in action for Northcote Park. Picture: Josh Chadwick

A new season begins for Northcote Park.

After going 0-9 to start the NFNL Division 2 year, the Cougars made the perfect start to the second half of the campaign on Saturday, trouncing Thomastown by 67 points at Main Street Reserve.

A six-goal opening burst set up the win as the visitors took complete control of the game, winning 16.12 (108) to 5.11 (41).

After a horror beginning that saw a host of key players missing and heart-breaking losses, the club showed what it could be capable of with a fully fit first-choice team on the park.

Despite taking 10 weeks to register its first win, the result also sees Northcote Park move off the bottom of the ladder.

Leo Amad in action for Northcote Park. Picture: Josh Chadwick

Coach Anthony Palmer revealed the club had continued to train through the King’s Birthday weekend in a bid to turn its season around.

“Going into mid-season at 0-9 isn’t ideal but there were a few reasons around that and we thought we were travelling a bit better than the ladder suggested,” Palmer said.

“We still think we’ve got some upside, our training standards have been good and we trained really hard through the break.

“We knew a lot of oppositions might not, so we thought that might give us an advantage on Saturday.

“We got off to a good start, that’s why we trained through the break, we’d been in good form and didn’t want to let it go – the boys took it upon themselves to train over the weekend.”

Northcote Park exploded with a six-goal first quarter, earning a 35-point lead, as Thomastown went goalless – left to rue a wayward 0.5.

The Cougars kept the heat on, extending the margin to 42 points at half-time and 61 points at three-quarter-time as the hosts were held goalless for a second term.

There would be no cue-in-rack finish either, the visitors kicking four goals to three, to round out a commanding performance.

“As I’ve said in the past we just needed some consistency around selection and training and we’ve had that the last three or four weeks,” Palmer said.

“We’ve had lapses in games, so the consistency in games hasn’t been there either, we’ve had good quarters and good halves but haven’t been able to put it together.

“It was good reward (on Saturday), we did that, we put four quarters together and those are the types of results we can get.

“We’ve got two or three to come in next week, Ben Reddick played his first game on the weekend who’s a senior player.”

Ever-reliable brothers Jordan and Matt Perry were named best-on-ground in the win, while Jon Naddaf, Damon Marcon and Janus Waldron also impressed.

Key forward Jacob Thompson continued his outstanding season with four goals and now has 14 goals in five games, while Ricky Fandrick booted two to take his tally to 21 – fifth in the competition.

For Thomastown, Aaron D’Angelo was best afield, while James Lucente (three goals), Youseph Dib and Mo Dabab stood tall.

Northcote Park now has matches against Panton Hill and Lower Plenty as it looks to continue its momentum.

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“You can’t get too far ahead of yourself when you’ve won one game for the year,” Palmer said.

“We see no reason why we can’t go to another level in the second half of the year.

“I’m really proud of the boys for the way they’ve stuck at it, it’s easy to turn up when you’re 0-9 and it’s getting cold at training, but they’ve really stuck fat, so we’re just happy for the boys.”

Elsewhere in Division 2, South Morang was too strong for Lower Plenty in a 33-point win, Diamond Creek eased past Panton Hill by 23 points, Whittlesea held off Laurimar by 28 points and Watsonia humbled St Mary’s by 46.