Bundoora refuses to give in after a poor start to the season

Dale Marshall. Picture Shawn Smits.

Bundoora continues to build in Northern Football League division 1.

Having won just two games from the first seven rounds, the Bulls have now strung together two wins in a row.

The Bulls defeated Whittlesea last round, then went on to upset Montmorency on Saturday.

After an even first quarter, the Bulls found another level in each quarter to blow out the lead.

They kicked 14 goals after quarter-time, compared to Montmorency’s four, to win 18.7 (115)-7.11 (53).

Todd Hughes kicked four goals for the Bulls, his best output so far this season.

Kain Proctor, Joseph Palazzolo and Hughes were named the best in the win.

Speaking before the match, Bulls’ playing coach Ricky Dyson said they were hoping to build some momentum in the second half of the season.

“We have put ourselves in that position,” he said.

“We are a fair bit behind the top five or six teams at the moment. We need to get that momentum going.

“We need to just worry about what we can control. We need to train hard and put in four-quarter performances.”

Dyson didn’t make any excuses for the poor start to the year.

He said the absence of several key players in multiple games, including Hughes and ruckman Matthew Dennis, wasn’t an excuse.

Nor was taking this season lightly coming off a premiership. Dyson said there was no complacency in the side.

“We had a really good pre-season and were driven to succeed … Other sides have got better and if we’re a bit off they will beat us,” he said.

“We were not playing the team football that we expected.

“It wasn’t one thing, it was a number of things.

“We weren’t defending well and weren’t putting the score on the board.”

Dyson said at the moment they weren’t looking at finals, instead they were making sure they were playing good football consistently.

The reigning premiers now sit seventh on the ladder, one game outside the top five.

“Because it is a long year, we have a chance to rectify it,” Dyson said.

“We’re not winning the games we were winning last year.

“We’ve only played a couple of good games and we need to play consistent football.”

Whittlesea’s tough season continued with a loss to North Heidelberg.

The Eagles were in the game up to half-time, before the Bulldogs found another level, winning 17.10 (112)-10.6 (66).

The Eagles remain bottom of the ladder, one game behind Hurstbridge.

In division 2, Thomastown maintained its spot in the top four with a 17.16 (118)-13.4 (82) win against Epping.

South Morang, Mernda and Laurimar were among the winners in division 3.