EFL: Noble Park notches 20 years in Eastern league
In 2000 the Bulls left the Southern league searching for stronger competition. They certainly got it, but their four premierships show they’ve made their mark on Eastern and along the way they’ve given the league some champion players.
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Noble Park last won a senior premiership in 2011.
That counts as a drought for the Bulls.
“Yeah, it’s been a while, hasn’t it?’’ president Grant Connolly was saying on Monday.
“Hopefully the next one’s not far away, but they’re never easy to win in Eastern. You have to earn ‘em.’’
Noble Park found that out two decades ago.
It’s 20 years since the Bulls joined the EFL, leaving the Southern league in search of stronger competition. They have certainly found it.
But they’ve won four flags and stayed in the top division all the way, in Connolly’s mind a constant much like Vermont, with whom it has forged a strong but respectful rivalry.
Although Noble Park went east in 2000, it had been keen to make the move earlier, but only if it could start in division one.
That made for some toing and froing with Eastern officials, but Clayton’s exit in 1999 created an opening that Noble happily filled.
The Bulls had been a power in the South East Suburban Football League and then in Southern after the merger with the Eastern Suburbs Churches leagues.
Some stats: they made the finals every year from 1982 to 1999 and won flags in ‘83, ‘85, ‘86, ‘87, ‘90, ‘92, ‘94, ‘96 and ‘97.
And from 1990 they played in 10 consecutive grand finals (their reserves were even more successful, winning 14 flags on the hop).
As Connolly remembered it, Noble’s seniors would often win games by 20 goals. Easy pickings brought on complacency; supporters and sponsors began to lose interest.
Connolly was vice-president to Jeff Marshall when the transfer to Eastern went through. Southern, not wanting to lose one of its standard-setting clubs, opposed it all the way, taking it to appeal.
“We presented to all our members and they were keen to go,’’ Connolly said.
“All the (EFL) clubs were fairly unanimous in voting us into first division. We had to go the VMFL because Southern blocked us. We won the appeal and we were in, and at that stage we needed to be, because in Southern some of the opposition wasn’t that strong. We’d probably only have half a dozen good games each year and that was it. So we jumped ship, and it’s been great for us.’’
Noble Park went into the new competition with a new playing coach, Springvale champion Denis Knight.
“We had a good man at the helm,’’ Connolly said of Knight. “Because we were going to a higher level, we wanted someone who had played at a higher level. We made a pretty good choice there.’’
Knight said before the first season that he was looking for his team to “just be competitive”.
The Bulls didn’t make the finals, but they finished with a commendable eight wins, knocking over Bayswater in the final round thanks to seven goals from ace forward Scott Simister. Club champion Peter Reece won the best and fairest.
“We copped a couple of hidings, I remember that, but we thought that might happen,’’ Connolly said. “We actually had a five-year plan when we went across and the first year was about seeing where we were at, understanding the competition and where we needed to be on and off the field, training-wise, playing-wise.’’
Strengthened by recruits including Springvale’s Tim Courtney, Noble Park improved to 10 victories in 2001, with Knight finishing runner-up in the league medal.
And in 2002 it had 15 wins and made the finals, along the way beating Vermont for the first time.
Connolly said the milestone victories over strong clubs brought excitement to compare with finals. Knight won the league medal, by one vote from teammate Daniel Donati.
Ahead of 2002 the Bulls recruited Donati, best-afield in Springvale’s 1999 VFL grand final victory, as well as future league medallist Benn Logan, Brent Williams and Nigel Scott. And in 2003 they added more class players in Peter O’Brien, Adrian Little, Shane Burgmann and Phil Murton.
They had a formidable side. Come September, they had a premiership side after defeating East Burwood by 25 points at Bayswater.
There was another accolade for Knight, taking the medal as best-afield. His team had 18 wins and two losses for the season.
“That was enormous,’’ Connolly said. “We’d challenged ourselves as a club to go to a higher competition, did a lot of work to get ourselves up and then we won the flag. I remember Craig Braddy (for EFL CEO) saying to me, ‘Outside of the AFL and the VFL and the state leagues, do you realise you’re the best club in Australia?’ That’s the way he put it. And I thought, ‘Shit, that’s not a bad feather in our cap’.’’
Knight retired as a player ahead of 2004, but even without his brilliance the Bulls went back-to-back, again besting East Burwood in the grand final, this time by 45 points.
Young James Gwilt was best-afield in a performance that prompted St Kilda to nab him, a likely left-footer drafted from suburban football.
The league medal stayed in Noble’s hand, with Logan returning from a knee injury to top the vote count.
The 2004 premiership made a for a triumphant farewell for Knight, who decided to relocate to Queensland.
Burgmann succeeded him, and in his three years coached Noble Park to the 2005 and 2007 grand finals. Both were lost to Vermont.
Anyone who watched the 2007 decider will never forget it. With the Bulls trailing by five points, Daniel Kennedy juggled the ball and was paid a mark, setting off howls of protest from Eagles supporters. The siren went but few people at the ground heard it.
Kennedy took his kick from about 15m out on a slight angle — and unfortunately for the popular “DK’’ it slipped to the right, right at the last second.
Kennedy had played a tremendous game, as had O’Brien, Logan, Craig Anderson (who the won league medal) and Kris Barlow.
Former Hawthorn forward Barlow was locked in to replace Burgmann and took the team to the preliminary final, where it fell to Balwyn (which had also made the move from Southern).
Barlow had to stand down after one season because of his work and family commitments.
Former Bomber Alan Ezard replaced him. But it was an unhappy time for the club — the players didn’t care for the coach’s methods — and president Kevin Wright made the tough call to sack Ezard with six rounds left.
At that stage the Bulls were sixth on the ladder with seven wins and five losses. Assistant coach and football manager Jason Fennell stepped in as caretaker coach.
Remarkably, from turmoil emerged triumph: 12 months later Noble Park was enjoying the view from top of the Eastern league.
Former player Mick Fogarty returned as coach, and the Bulls returned to the premiership dais, defeating Scoresby by 42 points, with Sam Monaghan showing the way.
The season was notable for the century of goals from Tory Dickson (he booted seven in the grand final) and the emergence of young Kyle Martin.
Dickson went on to play in the Western Bulldogs’ 2016 premiership and Martin went on to play with Collingwood and go on a remarkable run of best and fairests.
Just as Knight’s team did in 2003-04, Fogarty’s side made it back-to-back flags, defeating Scoresby again in 2011, this time by 70 points.
The great O’Brien took the best-on-ground medal and Anderson landed a second Chandler Medal as league best and fairest. Both are among the best players to have won the jumper.
Connolly was on the panel that selected Fogarty as coach, and he chuckled as he remembered the process.
He said Fogarty was quite casual in the interview, to the point that officials wondered how keen he was to take the job.
Connolly rang him the next day. He remembers the conversation going like this:
Connolly: “Mick, do you want to do it or not?
Fogarty: “Yeah. But surely you’d have better candidates than me. I thought I’d do the right thing and come down for a chat.
Connolly: “Mate, you’re in it up to your neck.
Fogarty: “Really?’’
The next day he was offered the senior coaching position at VFL club Frankston. He was flattered, but he’d already committed to Noble Park.
Connolly thought there was a lot of Denis Knight about Fogarty in that he was a man’s man, there were no airs and graces about him, he was a great clubman, he coached the whole club, not just the seniors, and he had strong views on how football should be played.
“Mighty Mick’’ stood down after the 2013 grand final loss to Balwyn, after which there was silly among some people about the club having to change its “culture’’.
Jon Knight stepped in, but he inherited a tough job after Noble farewelled nine of the 2013 grand final players.
Knight departed with two rounds to go in 2014 (champion player Stewie Kemperman saw out the season) as the Bulls missed the finals.
The new coach for 2015 was an old familiar face: Fogarty.
“He’s refreshed after a year off and he’s got the fire in his belly and some new ideas and he’s ready to go,’’ Noble Park president David Allan said.
“The club is reloading. Beware of the charging Bull.’’
Noble returned to the finals in 2015 but dropped out in straight-sets.
The Bulls rose to the preliminary final the following year, losing to Balwyn after suffering a spate of injuries during the match.
Fogarty coached through to the end of 2019, after which Connolly (back for a second stint as president) and his committee decided to advertise the position.
Although the Bulls didn’t play finals in his last three years in charge, Fogarty’s nine seasons brought two premierships, a grand final and three other finals campaigns. “Mighty Mick’’ made a mighty contribution.
Steve Hughes, who had played in Noble’s earliest years in Eastern and whose family has strong ties to the club, was appointed to take over for the 2020 season that never was.
Just as they did ahead of 2000, the Bulls are challenging themselves to go to another level.
“It’s a tough competition, it really is,’’ Connolly said.
“We’ve had our successes and we’re going after more but the best thing to come out of the last 20 years is that we’ve earned respect in the Eastern footy league.
“We don’t go up and down the divisions, we’re not in and out. We’ve earned our stripes on and off the ground, and that’s something we’re proud of.’’
BEST OF THE BULLS
Grant Connolly’s best Noble Park team of the past 20 years
B: Matthew Joy, Shane Burgmann, Stuart Nagle
HB: Stewart Kemperman, Adrian Little, Sam Monaghan
C: Benn Logan, Peter O’Brien, Daniel Donati
HF: Kyle Martin, Ziggie Alwan, Jackson Sketcher
F: Gavin Vassallo, Brent Williams, Adam Quinn
FOLL: Tim Howe, Denis Knight, Craig Anderson
INTER: Tim Courtney, Will Sangster, Kris Barlow, Craig Jacotine, Shayne Allan, Tim Kelly, Glenn Manson.
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