RELATED – WEEKEND FOOTBALL PREVIEW, SELECTIONS
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NORTH Bendigo will contest its fifth Heathcote District league grand final in a row – and sixth in the past seven years – on Saturday against Leitchville-Gunbower.
There were plenty of questions surrounding the Bulldogs during the off-season, mostly about how they would adjust to losing their three leading goalkickers of last year in the focal point trio of Sam Barnes, Brady Herdman and Rhys Ford?
But the Bulldogs have remained a potent scoring outfit as shown by their average for of 137 only narrowly down on last year’s 141, with a sharing of the load in attack the key to their productivity inside 50.
Tyson Findlay (51), Sean Morris (46), Darcy Richards (42), mid-season signing Sean Christopher (39), Jeremy Mills (35), Ben Knight (25) and skipper Jarrod Findlay (24), who has been named, have all kicked at least 24 goals and been strong contributors in keeping the scoreboard ticking over.
With a new coach at the helm in Matt Dillon, the Bulldogs made a 1-2 start to the season, which included kicking just six goals in their round one grand final re-match against Leitchville-Gunbower.
However, that slow start proved to be just a blip on the radar as the Bulldogs then went on a tear of 13 wins in a row to finish on top of the ladder, before suffering a four-point second semi-final defeat to the Bombers that sent them into a preliminary final against Colbinabbin last week, which they won by 39 points after trailing at three quarter-time.
Athletic ruckman Troy Kelm has been a driving force in the middle and around the ground for the Bulldogs in his return season, while good mate Mills – who is also back at North Bendigo this year – finished runner-up in the Cheatley Medal with 17 votes.
Aarryn Craig has been superb in setting the Bulldogs up off half-back with his crisp ball-use, while the return to form this season of centre half-forward Richards, who has kicked a goal in 17 of his side’s 18 games, has also been pivotal.
North Bendigo
B: T. Metherell, R. Alford, C. Tardrew
HB: D. Morris, B. Thomson, A. Craig
C: T. Devereaux, J. Mills, J. Ford
HF: T. Findlay, D. Richards, Z. Alford
F: B. Knight, S. Christopher, J. Findlay
R: T. Kelm, S. Morris, M. Thalasinos
Int: R. Gow, W. Brohm, S. Giri, B. Ryan-Storey, B. Robertson
In: C. Tardrew, J. Findlay
Out: R. Threlfall
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