Image: Mark Avellino
North Geelong have been promoted to the top flight of Victorian football a year after being relegated, bouncing straight back up after riding a wave of confidence and positive results in the back end of the 2016 season.
Repeating their promotion feats of 2014 albeit via the playoff this time around, the club saw off Richmond 4-0 at Jack Edwards Reserve.
Two penalties scored by Matt Thorne and further goals to Michael Anderson and Michael Simms sealed the emphatic result.
“Boys were amazing. It’s a very special moment for the club. The fans were massive for the boys, too,” coach Micky Colina enthused after the game.
The game could’ve taken a different tone early when the ever-dangerous Alex Caniglia took a shot for Richmond that bounced off the post.
I took just 15 minutes for the first goal though when a penalty was called on Bryan Bran. Thorne stepped up to the spot and made no mistake from the spot.
Richmond came out full of intent in the second half and had penalty shouts of their own waved away, before a call at the other end was given for a handball, which Thorne again converted 2-0.
The Warriors had their tails up and looked to kill the contest with a third goal, which came just after 60 minutes via a pinpoint Michael Anderson header.
Michael Simms popped the champagne cork just before the full-time whistle after pouncing on Kene Eze’s initial saved effort.
Colina admitted that bouncing back up the first time of asking wasn’t a set target, and the club went into the campaign without putting any pressure on itself to achieve a certain outcome – but now that promotion was achieved, the club would hopefully learn its lessons from last year and go into the top tier better prepared.
“You play to win every game. If you do that, you’ll get promoted. There was no agenda before round 1 that we wanted to get promoted and that’s what we’re chasing. We just wanted to continue developing the club and continue what I started when I arrived in 2014.
“Last season [promotion] was something nobody saw coming, we didn’t either, we enjoyed the experience and learnt a lot from it. Obviously now we’ve been promoted again, hopefully it will be a different beast and hopefully we’ll have more knowledge on what it takes and everyone is another year smarter and hope we can be competitive and add value.”
In a season where both promoted sides from the West – St Albans and North Geelong – hit their strides on the home stretch of the season, going unbeaten for at least the final month (including the first playoff win against Dandenong Thunder last week), Colina admitted knocking off previous league leaders Whittlesea Ranges in Round 23 was one of the flashpoints for the club in terms of solidifying its confidence and belief.
“Probably the last three-four rounds as things started to happen, the big moment would have been beating Whittlesea Ranges, we set ourselves a goal the last 10 games, we kept ticking boxes and we had a great run.
“We found ourselves where [promotion] could be. But nobody got caught up in the moment, we just kept doing our stuff and worrying about what we could worry about.
“[Then we finished] in second place and got into the playoff position. I said to the boys last week against Dandenong: no pressure on you, enjoy your football. Today, unfortunately I know how Richmond would have felt [going into the game]. They had something to lose, we only had something to gain.”
As North Geelong Warriors and St Albans Saints prepare for the 2017 season, alongside Melbourne Knights they will be the first trio of Croatian clubs in the top flight ever, creating history with a feat Colina described as “special” for the community.
“You reflect on it and you don’t really know what that means until its starts happening. It’s a great things in terms of a Croatian community point of view. [Tonight’s turnout] shows the colour and the vibe that we bring to games and the fans are great from all three clubs and have so much to offer.
“I hope all the clubs do well and can remain in the competition, we will try our best to do that, and from a fan viewpoint it will be a great place in the competition – it’s a pretty special moment for the people in the Croatian community and something they should be proud of.”