Tara Murray
Thomastown will get a clearer idea of how things are tracking in the Northern Football League division 2 in the next few weeks.
The Bears have had mixed results in their first five matches, with two wins, two losses and a draw against Lower Plenty on Saturday.
Coach Mario Bandera said they would have loved to have claimed four extra points in the first five rounds, which would have them sitting in the top four.
“We are getting better,” he said. “We started similarly last year and we think our best football is still ahead of us.
“We had two losses which were pretty frustrating. Not to take anything away from Diamond Creek and Banyule,
“Against Banyule we were right into the game depth. Diamond Creek we were poor for three quarters.
“We are tracking okay. We won’t know how we stack up until everyone has played each other once.”
Bandera said in hindsight they would have done things differently in the pre-season with a few different factors at play.
On Saturday, Thomastown and Lower Plenty couldn’t be separated in the battle of the Bears.
Less than a goal separated the two teams at each of the breaks. At the final siren, both teams finished level.
Thomastown was the more accurate team in the 10.4 (64)-9.10 (64) result.
Bandera said neither team had chances in the dying minutes to get the win.
“It was a good game of football and it was close all day,” he said.
“You can always look at it, that you could have had two points more or have two points less. It wasn’t a bad result in the end.”
Michael Tang kicked four goals for Thomastown.
Bandera said Aaron D’Angelo, captain Josh Beare, Daniel Chadwick and Jarryd Coulson were some of the standouts in the win.
After losing twice to Lower Plenty twice last year, Bandera said it was nice to at least come away with some points from the first match up between the two sides.
Thomastown this week faces Eltham, which is sitting on top of the table.
Bandera said many people had underestimated the Panthers heading into the season.
“If we can win this we will be back amongst it,” he said.
In other matches, Eltham smashed Epping, 21.12 (138)-3.3 (21).
In division 1, Bundoora had a good win against Whittlesea 15.11 (101)-4.7 (31).
In division 3, Mernda and Laurimar had wins, while Laurimar and South Morang both suffered losses.
