North Heidelberg’s giant scalp in Round 1 has instilled a sense of internal belief that the club truly belongs in Meadows Greyhounds Division 1, according to coach Jimmy House.
The Bulldogs, who have been promoted into the top flight for the second time in six seasons after winning the A Plus Labour Solutions Division 2 premiership in 2017, were the clear underdogs going into their Round 1 match against last year’s Division 1 minor premier Macleod.
But after unfurling the club’s eight premiership flag prior to the first bounce and coughing up four of the first six goals of the game, the home side showed no signs of fear in the tight contest, rallying to record an unanticipated 19-point win.
“What the win does for us – and we’ve got our sceptics out there whether it be myself or the club – is it gives us a belief now internally that we belong (in the top division),” House told NFNL.org.au.
“It’s still the cliché ‘one week at a time’ for us, because at the same time that we now believe, Eltham beat them last year and are now back in Division 2.
“From our perspective it instills a bit of belief that we’re on the right track but we’re not getting carried away and we’re not talking finals or anything like that.
“Now our focus shifts to Montmorency and hopefully we’ll have a consistent approach about the way we go about our football.”
The Bulldogs kicked four goals to one in the second quarter to take a one-point lead into half time and, down by five points at the final break, booted five majors in the final term to run over the top of the Roos.
House lauded his side’s persistence on Saturday afternoon, with neither team gaining an advantage of more than a couple of goals for the majority of the contest at Shelley Reserve.
“Both sides had opportunities to grab the lead a little bit more at stages throughout the game. It was very back and forth,” he said.
“We never really thought that they controlled the game, and we never thought that we controlled the game.
“It was a really contested affair on the inside and it was just about which side could consistently go to battle and persist with their game plan until eventually the game broke open.
“We were fortunate enough that when we got our opportunities in that last quarter we ran over the top.”
House said it was important at three-quarter time to remind his players of the hard work they endured during the pre-season, confident that if they stuck to the plan in the last quarter the result would go their way.
“We have the utmost respect for Macleod and we knew if we ran away from it (the implemented structures and game plan) we’d let them in the contest,” he said.
“It was just to make sure we continued to play by our structures and eventually one side would break the game open – fortunately it was us.
“Take Brent and Shane (Harvey) out of the equation and we have a really young group. I even said to Garry Ramsay after the game, pretty much his blueprint of success at Macleod is what we aim to achieve.
“I’m trying to create a successful culture here at North Heidelberg for years to come.”
For House, the Round 1 win would not have happened with a full team effort, with many players being given a specific role before the match to nullify the impact of some of Macleod’s key influencers.
Jhye Baddeley-Kelly, who made his Bulldogs debut after crossing from Lalor in the off-season, was named in the best players after his successful shut-down role on Macleod gun Ned McKeown.
“Jhye played a bit of an unusual role on Saturday,” House said.
“He’s a very attacking player. He’s exciting and brings a real run and carry game to our footy side.
“He got the job on McKeown and he did a fantastic job keeping him to just one goal. We really rate Ned as a footballer and Jhye is really young.
“He now firmly believes that he belongs, having not tasted much success with Lalor. He’s an exciting character and just adds to the quality of young men that I’m fortunate to coach.”
North Heidelberg will look to continue its winning start to the season when it travels to Montmorency Park for a twilight game on Saturday.
