Tara Murray
Burnside Heights continued its good start to the Essendon District Football League division 2 competition, beating Coburg Districts on Anzac Day.
Aiming to go 3-0, the Bears had a task on their hands having not won at Cole Reserve since 2018.
It was a close match for the first three quarters with just one point separating the teams heading into three quarter time.
While the Bears had wind in the final quarter, much of the scoring had been done at the other end of the ground.
The Bears’ experience and height shone through in the final quarter, with four goals to two, to win 12.11 (83)-10.10 (70).
Bears coach Cole Harvey was thrilled to get the win off a short turnaround.
“The younger boys seemed to cope with it a bit better,” he said. “We still had a few sore boys going into the game.
“We’re happy to get down there and get another away win, that’s for sure.”
Harvey said they had the ascendancy from that little bit of breeze in the final quarter, but they just had to knuckle down and get to work.
“I just felt like we just needed to tidy a few things up,” he said.
“Our entries in the forward 50 weren’t flash all day to be honest with it. That’s probably come off the back of a fair bit of good pressure from Districts.
“I just said to them at three quarter time, we had a bit of a theme, I said to them in terms of football, just get the ball in nice and deep and try and give [Daniel] Hovey, [Nick] Gregson and [Jordan] Hughes a chance to jump at it. We tidied that little bit up, all in all a great day.”
Gregson was awarded the Anzac Day medal for the Bears for his five goals in a best on ground performance.
Harvey said he would be one to watch pre-season and he had proved exactly that.
“He was pretty good again,” he said. “He just has an amazing pair of hands.
“We didn’t have that last year, a couple of big forwards to kick the footy at. He gets up the ground and gets back and supports the defence and then rolls forward and he’s able to catch a couple deep and kick a couple of goals for us.
“Certainly a powerful weapon for us, that’s for sure.”
The addition of Gregson and Daniel Hovey has freed up the captain in Jordan Hughes to spend more time in the middle.
Harvey said Hughes, who missed the previous week but they erred on the side of caution, led from the front against Lions especially in the final quarter.
Harvey said it was massive to get two wins on the road against sides that would be around them on the ladder.
The win takes the Bears to 3-0 ahead of a clash with East Sunbury.
