The Cougars were dominant from the outset and claimed their fourth win of the season, 23.9 (147) to 7.8 (50) at Bill Lawry Oval.
Midfielders Bronik Davies, Anthony Hogan, Paul Scanlon and Will Debruin slaughtered Greensborough’s on-ball brigade as the home side extended its lead at every change.
Northcote Park coach Jason Heatley praised his side’s resilience just a week after being dealt its biggest loss of the season.
“We’ve been really poor the past two weeks and we’re really mindful of that,” Heatley said.
“The guys did a lot of soul-searching during the course of the week and it was just really good to come out and see their composure and their ability to work for each other and their pressure was great.
“In the end I think we ran Greensborough off their legs.”
Heatley swung Nyaburu Kelly forward and the move worked wonders with the prolific midfielder booting two goals and setting up several others with his hard-nosed attack at the football.
“They (Greensborough) have got a few good blokes down back and our key forwards have been down a bit so we structured up a bit differently and went with a more mobile type forward line,” he said.
“The great thing for us is that we don’t expect one bloke to kick 60 goals year and I think we had 12 goal kickers today and kicked 23 goals. If we can have that sort of spread and have our on-ballers chipping in as well we’re going to be pretty dangerous but we’ve got to be able to control the footy.”
After such an imposing display, Heatley said his side now needed to find consistency to ensure that effort became the benchmark.
“Consistency is what we need and we’re working really hard to find it,” he said. “We were terrible last week, but in saying that full credit to Whittlesea, they deserved the win.
“That’s the fickle nature of the competition. If you’re having an off day, anyone can beat anyone. That’s good for the competition going forward.”
Early goals to Josh Grubb and Josh Riddle – after a massive hanger over Nick Carter – gave Greensborough the lead after 10 minutes before the Cougars ran rampant.
The home side booted kicked six unanswered goals in ten minutes to race to a 29-point lead before Boro ruckman Joel McLellan converted from a free kick to trim the margin to 23 at the first break.
Northcote Park’s first quarter onslaught was orchestrated from its midfield dominance with Davies, Hogan and Scanlon instrumental from the centre clearances.
Three goals came in the space of two minutes with Davies breaking three tackles to convert from 30m before Mitch Papas and Joseph Woonton both snapped truly immediately after.
A week after kicking six second-half goals against Lower Plenty, Luke Stanton kicked his first to open the second quarter as Greensborough closed to within three goals.
Davies then reasserted his dominance on the encounter and soccered through a goal from 20m.
Ensuing goals from Patrick O’Connell and Nyaburu Kelly helped Northcote Park open up a 36-point lead – the biggest for the first half – before a late major to Conlan Gunn cut the gap to 31 at the main break.
Having overturned a 33-point at half time a week earlier the Boro weren’t without a chance of mounting a comeback but two early misses – including one by Mitch Anderson from a 15m set shot – didn’t help their cause.
The game was then effectively sealed when Mitch Papas and Nick Carter booted the opening two goals of the quarter to give the Cougars a seven-goal buffer.
The Boro managed two of the next four goals to maintain some respect on the scoreboard before a 55m goal on the run from Doug Morris and a Daniel Rajab major gave Northcote Park a 53-point lead heading into the last.
With the four points already sewn up, the final quarter was a procession.
Northcote Park was unrelenting even when Greensborough’s resistance was well and truly broken.
The Cougars slammed on seven unanswered goals in the final term and earned a healthy percentage booster as they leapfrogged the Boro into sixth place on the ladder, just a game behind fifth-placed Eltham.
The heavy defeat leaves Greensborough’s finals hopes hanging by a thread, having claimed just one win in its past eight games after a 3-0 start to the season.
Northcote Park faces a mighty challenge next week when it hosts first-placed Heidelberg and Heatley acknowledged his side would need to replicate its performance against Greensborough to claim consecutive wins.
“That’s the nature of the competition,” he said. “Heidelberg have been a very proud and successful club over the last decade.”
“I know their coach very well and he’ll have them prepared to come here. We had a good game first up against them but we’re going to go out there and if we can put our best foot forward, then who knows?”
Final score: Northcote Park 23.9 (147) def Greensborough 7.8 (50)
