By JARROD POTTER
EFL DIVISION 1 – Round 11
NO Shane Valenti, Craig Anderson or Sam Monaghan.
The owners of two Liston Trophies and a swag of Noble Park best and fairests sat in the stands as the Bulls clashed with the Kangaroos on a cold Saturday afternoon.
What did it mean for the Bulls to lose decades of centre-square experience in one foul swoop though? In a show of strength – from the top to the bottom of the squad – Noble Park showed their absences are coverable in the 106-point demolition over East Ringwood.
Valenti (sickness), Anderson (hamstring) and Monaghan (quad) comprise the main midfield rotation for Noble Park, but with the three powerhouses out of action all it did was give the next generation in the Bulls’ armoury a chance to shine.
The forwards failed to capitalise on the strong midfield work of youngsters Josh Ferguson, Andrew Birt and Dylan Collis as the Bulls missed the mark with a two-goal-six first term though.
Sitting 6.10 (46) at the main-break was not much better as the Bulls needed an earnest wake-up call.
While the first half was a tentative display what will sooth a lot of sore spots was the 13-goal barrage after the main-break as the Bulls managed to finally string together their chances.
Shayne Allan (7 goals) added another bag to his 32 goals so far while Kyle Martin, Ziggie Alwan and Luke Mann (3 goals each) found some freedom and kicked truly.
It made for a very happy birthday for first-year player Jake Gains and he copped the Gatorade shower alongside debutant Matthew Kelly.
Noble Park coach Mick Fogarty was pleased his men worked through its wasted efforts in the first half to really ram home the positive outcome.
“The second half was good obviously, the scoreboard indicates that, but I thought our ball use was better going inside-50, our lead ups were better and we had cleaner entries,” Fogarty said.
“First half I think we played outside of our ability – probably doing some selfish things… against every opposition… we (need to) eliminate those and play the brand (of football) we know we’re capable of.”
The coach praised his baby Bulls through the centre and thought their form – especially early in their senior careers – showed the strength of the club going forward.
“When you’ve got the calibre of Monaghan – who won our last two best and fairests – and Shane Valenti, that speaks for itself… and our skipper Craig Anderson out, that’s our three starting mids,” Fogarty said.
“There’s some quality there and for the ability of the young guys to step in and fill that void, so to speak, is great for the future of the footy club.”
While the Bulls sprayed 19 behinds, Fogarty said his side’s conversion is one of the best in the competition – owing to the barrage of goals they add in tandem.
“Behinds are every game – having said that we did the stats on all the teams in the comp and we sit second in regard to goal and behind ratio,” Fogarty said.
“I thought we’d be sitting right down the bottom, but having said that we’re having a lot of shots and the more shots we have on goal, the more chance we’ve got of kicking them.”
The second-placed Bulls travel to South Croydon this weekend.
