By Ryan Long.
There’s reason to be bullish about the chances of back-to-back flags for Noble Park in season 2023.
The club have come off a fantastic season, winning the 2022 EFNL Premier Division premiership, defeating Rowville in a brilliant brand of wet-weather footy.
Premiership Coach Steve Hughes was thrilled with everything the club was able to achieve, giving credit to the entire organisation.
“Really proud of the entire club, a lot of hard work, not just the players but the entire network of people like our president, our trainers, our volunteers, our sponsors,” Hughes said.
After being defeated by Rowville three times throughout the year, including a seven goal Hawks comeback and a strong Semi-Final win, the Bulls headed into the big dance as the slight underdogs.
But as the rain poured all afternoon, the Bulls played a near-perfect game, harder at the contest and capitalised when going forward.
“Really proud of their performance on game day,”
“I know it was difficult conditions but it was a terrific display of wet weather footy and the boys should be proud of the way they played.”
It now sparks the question of whether this talented side have what it takes to repeat history.
It’s always been a very difficult task in any sport to win consecutive flags but history in the Eastern Football Netball League certainly says it can be done. Both Balwyn and Vermont have done so in recent years and Noble Park themselves won back-to-back premiership in 2010 and 2011.
The question can always be linked back to the hunger of the playing list and Hughes has no doubt in his mind that the same hunger and passion they played with last year will be visible again in 2023.
“This is the best training group I’ve had so their habits with their training is outstanding, they work really hard so I think we’ve already ticked that box,”
“The work ethic and the amount of effort and work the group has put in since early November off the back of only a five-or six-week break has been excellent so that’s demonstrated to me that they are hungry.”
They’ll be challenged hard with the likes of Doncaster East and Balwyn spending a lot of time over the off-season focusing on recruitment and how they can put themselves into a potential premiership position.
One thing that will keep the Bulls in a great spot is the depth that the club possess. On the field, there are no areas of the ground that they particularly struggle with.
The likes of Kyle Martin, Jackson Sketcher and Chris Horton-Milne have always been viewed at as some of the best players in the competition but the rest of their less talked about players have always been consistent strong footballers playing important roles.
On top of that, Hughes has noted the amount of quality players that they have, unable to break into the 22.
“I think we have a competitiveness in the group where there’s five or six or even more that are excellent footballers who missed out on Grand Final Day,”
“From week to week, we’ve got five or six players running around in development that are more than capable to be in the senior squad.”
Their talented list has grown even stronger with Bonbeach stars Jackson Casey and Shane McDonald joining the Bulls.
Unfortuately an ACL injury means McDonald, the eight-time club best and fairest winner will miss the entire 2023 season.
His Sharks’ teammate in Jackson Casey will still be a fantastic inclusion and someone Hughes knows well.
“I coached the both of them at Bonbeach for five years so I know them really well,”
“Jackson has been winning most of our time trials, he’s always had outstanding training standars that he’s brought back to the group, along with great leadership qualities as well, I appointed him as captain at Bonbeach at a 23 year old so he captained their for eight years consecutive,”
“On field, he’s an amazing competitor, very coragueous player, he’s all team.”
One player that Hughes is looking forward to see back out in action is Lachlan McDonnell.
“Had a fantastic grand final, kicked two goals and a had a big influence on that game.”
“But I think throughout pre-season, he’s gone to a new level. His decision making, we’ve been doing a lot of match simulation and I think his skills combined with his decision making makes him a pretty complete player.”
“He’s only young, got a huge future in front of him, stepped away from the VFL program so he’ll be permanent with us which I think will help his continuity this year.”
The Bulls first month of games will see if the pre-season premiership favourites are still the team to beat with a tough early slate fixture.
It’s the focus of Hughes and the club on getting through these matches with a positive win record before worrying about everything
“All we can do is focus on our first month because it’s a very difficult first month, we’ve got Rowville, South Croydon, Doncaster East and Berwick in Round Two.
“The goal is of course is to do what we did again last year but we’ll focus pretty heavily on our first month.”
