GFL: St Joseph’s beat North Shore to start the season

St Joseph’s has started its season in emphatic fashion, and coach Ron Watt believes there’s more to come this year. Break down all the stats here.

GFL: St Joseph's v North Shore. St Josephs players Callum Mitchell, Paddy De Grandi and Jack Mullen celebrate a goal. Picture: Mike Dugdale

NEW St Joseph’s coach Ron Watt believes Saturday’s win against North Shore was the start of a “special” season for the new-look club.

Joeys debuted seven players in the 22.18 (150) to 11.8 (74) win over the Seagulls, including three junior players from the under-18s program.

Watt said the 76-point victory gave him confidence that his side could contend this year despite a number of fresh faces.

GFL: St Joseph's v North Shore. St Josephs Callum Mitchell kicks a goal. Picture: Mike Dugdale

“It’s quite a simple game plan that we’ve got, but all the boys are pretty driven and motivated and I think that adds to our performance,” he said.

“We had a good spread of goal kickers, which is always a good thing, we weren’t too reliant on just one target, so I think we achieved what we wanted at the start of pre-season.

GFL: St Joseph's v North Shore. St Josephs Jordan Muhor celebrates a goal. Picture: Mike Dugdale

“We definitely set out to be able to have a number of people contribute on the scoreboard, I like to have players who can play at least two, if not three, different positions.

“We’re really happy to be able to switch it right up, we’ve got a lot of flexibility which is a definite advantage.

“A win like that is certainly a great way to start out the season, and it shows that we’ve done the right things in the pre-season to get there.”

Forwards Paddy De Grandi and Callum Mitchell slotted four goals each, while debutant Hunter Lewis snagged three majors in his first senior GFL game, and Joeys ultimately had 12 different goal scorers in the win.

GFL: St Joseph's v North Shore. St Josephs Paddy DeGrandi celebrates. goal. Picture: Mike Dugdale

St Joseph’s will face defending premiers St Mary’s in the first game after the Easter weekend.

Seagulls laments loss after ‘lack of effort

NORTH Shore coach Darren Winter was left to lament a “lack of effort” in the Seagulls’ round 1 loss to St Joseph’s.

The two sides opened the GFL season with the sole game this weekend, with Joeys piling on a nine-goal third term to win convincingly, 22.18 (150) to 11.8 (74).

Winter said he was disappointed in his side’s efforts against Joeys.

“I was pretty disappointed with our guys, I think we had to bring a better effort than we did,” he said.

“We had a pretty strong side heading in so for Joeys to do that to us just showed that we weren’t working hard enough for each other.

“That’s a bit of a problem for us if we can see that so early on.”

GFL: St Joseph's v North Shore. St Josephs Tanner Owen under pressure after marking by North Shore's Phil Bellchambers. Picture: Mike Dugdale

North Shore faced St Joseph’s in a practice match just two weeks out from the season starting at the weekend, before the two sides played again in the stand-alone fixture.

Winter said his side had “the playbook” on how to beat St Joseph’s but could not execute.

“I think that’s what was most disappointing, we had that book and we had pretty clear plans on how to shut that down and we just didn’t execute,” he said.

GFL: St Joseph's v North Shore. St Josephs Ben Kamaric. Picture: Mike Dugdale

“I suppose that’s what I was most disappointed about with the group, but at the same time it’s the first round, we had a few guys come in for their first look at the team and that will take a little bit of time.

“We still put a team on the park that should’ve been a lot more competitive than what we showed.”

Originally published as GFL: St Joseph’s beat North Shore to start the season