Northcote Park defied rivals, injury and history to win premiership four-peat
On more than one occasion it looked like Northcote Park’s dynasty would come to an end but the Cougars defied rivals and history to claim the first Diamond Valley Football League four-peat.
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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.
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“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 Heidelbeg 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 Robbu 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.”
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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