Venue: City Oval, Box Hill
Conditions: 15 degrees, wet, muddy, windy, followed by bright sunshine in the last quarter.
In action
- Trent Dumont (26 disposals, 11 clearances, 8 tackles)
- Ben Jacobs (39 disposals (25 contested), 16 clearances, 7 tackles, 1 goal)
- Brad McKenzie (12 disposals, 5 tackles, 50 per cent game time)
- Eric Wallace (3 disposals, 56 hit-outs)
- Max Warren (13 disposals, 4 spoils)
- Mitch Wilkins (12 disposals, 4 tackles)
NMFC.com.au’s best: Ben Jacobs, Trent Dumont
Matchups
- Eric Wallace v Sam Collins
- Mitch Wilkins v Ben Ross (first half), v Sam Iles (second half)
- Ben Jacobs v Will Langford (first half), v Zac Webster (second half)
Story of the game
A trip to Box Hill to face the reigning premiers saw North Ballarat as the heavy underdogs. Through three quarters not much had taken place to disprove those theories.
Dreadful conditions were adapted to first by the Hawks, taking the most of their limited chances. With a term to go the Roosters trailed by 23 points after only kicking three goals in the first three quarters.
The clouds broke at the three quarter time huddle and the sun shone on the Roosters. Off the back of an confidence building address from coach Gerard FitzGerald, North Ballarat took the game on and stormed home. A five goal to one final term turned the big deficit into a famous two-point victory, the fourth in a row for the visitors this season.
What the coach said
Quarter time – Gerard FitzGerald
“We’ve set up a number of scoring opportunities through our intent to tackle and pressure, well done.”
Score: North Ballarat 1.4.10 trailed Box Hill 2.3.15
Three quarter-time – Gerard FitzGerald
“Heads up, get into it. This can be done. Hard-nosed defence, penetrate through the corridor… and that’s how we’ll win it.”
Score: North Ballarat 3.9.27 trailed Box Hill 7.8.50
Points of interest
1. Ben Jacobs continued his stunning VFL form with another best-on-ground performance. 39 disposals and 16 clearances continued his quest to break back into the North Melbourne side.
Through five games for North Ballarat in 2014, he has averaged an astounding 37 disposals per game.
“He played a really percentage based game in the conditions which was important. He got the ball on his boot really quickly.
“16 clearances and 25 contested possessions is a pretty nice day’s work. He was tagged as well with (Will) Langford in the first half and Zac Webster in the second half.” – Senior Development Coach Gavin Brown
2. While Jacobs understandably took all the headlines for his performance, the outing of Trent Dumont wasn’t overlooked by Brown.
Relishing the greasy conditions, Dumont had 11 clearances of his own to go with 26 disposals and 8 tackles. North’s second selection in the 2013 National Draft has continued his seamless transition to life in the VFL.
“His work in at the stoppages was really strong. He played a really good brand of wet weather football and he was one of the ones who adapted to the conditions really quickly.
“It was a tremendous game from him. He was probably our best player along with Jacobs.” – Gavin Brown
3. In another day of education for American Eric Wallace, it was one of the first times he’d played in such heavy rain and mud.
The ruckman took advantage of the repeated secondary ball-ups, utilising his strength and size to good effect. By the final siren he’d notched 56 hit-outs, comfortably a career-high.
“I spoke to Eric and he said he’d only played in one other game where it had rained. There’s wet weather footy and then there’s wet weather footy and that was definitely the latter.
“His ball-ups are his strength, but also at centre bounces he got his hands on a lot of them.
“It was a really good experience for him and he would have learned a lot today.” – Gavin Brown
Most likely call-up: Ben Jacobs
Next week: Casey – Eureka Stadium – June 14 – 2:00pm
