Whittlesea coach Pete Bugden believes some of his team are guilty of not working hard enough after a Shane Harvey-led North Heidelberg ran all over Whittlesea on a breezy day at the United Showgrounds on Saturday.
The Eagles coach borrowed the words of Collingwood vice-captain Scott Pendlebury, accusing some of his players of ‘cheating’ in the 15.6 (96) to 18.10 (118) loss.
“There are too many blokes cheating – running forward and not running back,” Bugden said
“When it comes down to it, we lost our one-on-one contests the whole day, and if you don’t win them, you don’t win the game.”
It was a close encounter early on as the ball was held in the middle of the ground for the majority of the first quarter.
Eagles ruckman Jeremy Page received a hit in a marking contest and although Page attempted to return after half-time, he missed the majority of the game in an early blow for the Eagles.
With solid work from the likes of Jarrod King and Blake Holmes in the midfield, North Heidelberg went into quarter time with an eight-point lead with Harvey already finding plenty of the footy and causing headaches for the Eagles.
At quarter time, Bugden called for “controlled aggression” at the footy and the Eagles responded in the second quarter, kicking the first four goals of the second quarter to turn an eight-point deficit into a 16-point lead midway through the second quarter.
However, the second half of the quarter saw North Heidelberg respond to the Eagles onslaught with Harvey starting the comeback with a goal on the run. That was followed by goals from Leigh Gilbert and a kick off the ground by Holmes to put the Bulldogs back in front.
A 100-metre penalty to Roy Dyson which saw Holmes red-carded for abusive language put the Eagles back in the lead for only a minute, with John Green snapping truly and Daniel Bramich pushing North’s lead to nine points at half-time with a good set shot goal.
With a solid wind at its back and an unmatched intensity for the footy, North Heidelberg extended its lead in the second half as it began to win the stoppages and run into open spaces.
Despite Eagles co-captains Dyson and Garrett Heenan toiling hard in the midfield, the likes of Harvey and King were seemingly unstoppable for the Bulldogs.
Goals from Harvey, Stephen Saddington and Jake Brown pushed the lead out to 24 points.
Some magic from Lucas Hobbs saw Paul Harrison bring it back to 18 points before Harvey once again showed his freakish ability with a snap from 45 metres making it all too hard for the Eagles.
Green put the next nail in the coffin with a set shot goal to put the margin out to five goals at three quarter time.
After an intense opening 10 minutes of footy in the final quarter, the sting went out of the game as Harvey put his fifth goal on the board and extended the lead to 40 points.
As the game slowed down, late goals to Poorter, Brodric Gray and a big 50-metre bomb from the boundary from Harrison brought the margin back to 22-points.
Whittlesea will be looking to re-group when it hosts ladder-leader Diamond Creek in the Round 5 NFL Match of the Day while North Heidelberg travels to Lalor to take on one of its greatest rivals.
Final score: Whittlesea 15.6 (96) def by North Heidelberg 18.10 (118)
