The Northern Blues have opened their account for season 2012, dispatching of Bendigo Gold by 100 points to achieve their first win.
Northern Blues head coach Robert Hyde was impressed with the Club’s significant win but thinks the team still has a way to improve.
“We were lucky to catch Bendigo with a depleted squad to choose from, but saying that we played good footy.”
The Northern Blues held the lead from the first goal of the day until the final siren. Bendigo showed glimpses of form at certain times in the game, pushing the Northern Blues early in the second term. This surge would provide the Gold with over half of their final score, but it was not enough to cut into the Blues lead.
Hyde was pleased with the Northern Blues collective effort and was able to identify a few players that had notable performances.
“A few stood out - Dave Ellard with 38 possessions, Adam Marcon through the middle, Nick Heyne on the wing and Rob Warnock with 52 hitouts.”
The Northern Blues led in all aspects of the game, but their hit-outs were a key factor to the one sided nature of the contest. Warnock’s dominance resulted in the Northern Blues beating Bendigo 78 to 18 in the total hit-outs over the day.
Robert Hyde suggested the areas that the Club had been focussed on to ensure improvement had been met.
“We haven’t structured up very well in the forward line in previous weeks so we concentrated on that and our tackling.
Their accomplishment in these areas was evident with the Northern Blues controlling inside 50 possessions 80 to 28 and leading the tackle count 85 to 31.
The Northern Blues success may have run its course for the moment as the Clubs’ next battle lies with Port Melbourne on Saturday.
When asked if this large win would provide the Northern Blues with confidence leading into Round 6, Hyde responded in his well-known charismatic way.
“To beat Port we either pray for lightning to get a draw or try and be as hard as we can to be competitive,” Hyde said.
Last Modified on 24/04/2012 22:23