NORTH Bendigo staved off a challenge from a gallant Heathcote on Saturday to get its Heathcote District league season away to a winning start and give Jordan Ford a victory in his 150^th game for the club.

Although beaten at Atkins Street, the Saints showed they are going to be a vastly improved side this year under new coach Andrew Saladino.

While the plucky Saints kept coming at the Bulldogs all game, North Bendigo was able to keep Heathcote at arms length throughout after kicking six of the first seven goals of the contest.

The Bulldogs finished 18.10 (118) to 17.6 (108) victors in what was returning coach Rob Bennett's first game back at the helm.

"Take nothing away from Heathcote, but I thought we were well down today," Bennett said.

"We probably only played 10 minutes a quarter of reasonable footy and if we want to get to where we believe we should then we can't accept that."

Kicking against a stiff breeze in the first quarter, the Saints booted the opening goal of the game through recruit Braden Padmore.

The Saints would also later kick the first goals of the second, third and fourth quarters as well.

The Bulldogs quickly answered Padmore's major with a classy left-foot goal from recruit Nick Waterson.

At the 18-minute mark of the first quarter it was one goal apiece before the Bulldogs made their move, starting with controlling the centre square.

In an eight-minute burst the Bulldogs piled on five unanswered goals through recruit Matt Gray (two), Jordan Ford, Dylan Klemm and Shane Harris.

The run of goals, which proved decisive in the Bulldogs maintaining breathing space on the scoreboard throughout the game, was started when Gray was the recipient of a 50m penalty as part of the new rules clamping down on players talking back to umpires.

It was the first of six 50 metre penalties the Saints gave away for the game, three of which cost goals - a telling stat in a tight game they lost by 10 points.

Ford, who was brilliant down back all game with his intercept marking - he took 11 to go with 34 disposals - nailed his goal from inside the centre square after chopping off a Heathcote kick-in from a behind.

The Bulldogs' lead got out to 33 points during the first term before a pair of late goals to new Heathcote small forward Liam Birch and Kai Cavallaro trimmed the margin to 21 points at quarter-time.

And after kicking two of the first three goals of the second term through key big man Jack Brooks and Cavallaro, the Saints were within 11 points at the 15-minute mark.

However, similar to the first term, the Bulldogs were able to up the ante in the back end of the quarter and kick away again as the athletic Klemm imposed his presence on the contest.

Over the last 16 minutes of the quarter the Bulldogs outscored the Saints 4.0 to 1.0 to hold a 29-point advantage at half-time, 11.5 to 7.0.

Klemm kicked three of the four goals, two of which came from contested marks, with he and fellow key targets Harris and Gray combining for seven of the Bulldogs' 11 goals in the first half.

Again, the third quarter had a familiar feel to it, with the Saints starting well to kick the opening two goals through Connor Hamilton and Cavallaro.

At that stage the Saints hadn't missed as they had 9.0 on the board and were showing strong endeavour against an opponent they have copped some horrendous hidings off over recent years.

The Saints closed back to within 15 points before the Bulldogs again were able to respond when the challenge was thrown down to them by the visitors with a burst of four goals to one.

This time it was Storm Giri, playing deep forward and hobbling around after dislocating a toe, that proved the thorn in the side of the Saints' defence.

Giri kicked three goals in 11 minutes, and when Ford added his second - courtesy of a 50m penalty - the Bulldogs were back out to a 33-point advantage.

The Saints refused to lie down and gave themselves some early hope in the final term with the first three goals in seven minutes through Hamilton, Birch and gun midfield recruit Shaun Harrison to again get back to 15 points with momentum on their side.

But as they had done all game, the Bulldogs were able to kick the steadying goal when they needed to, with back-to-back majors to Gray - the first from another 50m penalty - again stemming the tide for the home side.

The Saints finished by kicking four of the last five goals of the game to cut the final margin to 10 points - a far cry from their 117-point average losing margin against the Bulldogs in their previous 15 games.

Gray, Klemm and Giri all kicked four goals for the Bulldogs, while Cavallaro (four) and Birch (three) combined for seven goals for the Saints.

North Bendigo narrowly won the centre clearances 20-19, including 8-3 in the final term of what was an entertaining clash played in tricky conditions.

Although, the windy conditions didn't deter the skill level of Heathcote half-back Codie Price, whose precise disposal by foot was a standout.

As well as Giri dislocating a toe, North Bendigo also had Josh Newlan concussed early in the game, while Marcus Rogers hurt his knee in the first quarter before returning after half-time.

COLBINABBIN overcame a fast start from Elmore to power away from the Bloods in their Heathcote District league clash under lights on Saturday night.

The new-look Elmore burst out the blocks in a flurry before the Grasshoppers took control of the contest to win by 89 points at M.J. Morgan Oval.

The Grasshoppers kicked 19 goals to four after quarter-time as they beat the Bloods for the 20th-consecutive time with their 22.18 (150) to 9.7 (61) victory.

"Elmore came out and kicked five of the first six goals and had us on the backfoot," Colbinabbin coach Julian Bull said.

"Our guys were very reactive early, so we had to work hard to turn things around at quarter-time.

"From quarter-time we went about our business well, which was pleasing to see."

The Grasshoppers' two most productive quarters of the game were the second and final terms when they kicked 15 of their 22 goals - seven in the second and eight in the last.

"It was good to finish the game off the way we did in the last quarter, although, we still had quite a few guys cramping obviously through that lack of match conditioning," Bull said.

Laine Fitzgerald opened the season with a six-goal haul for the Grasshoppers.

"Laine played well; he and Todd Clarke both could have got the three votes," Bull said.

"Todd would have had 15 to 20 clearances and Laine was really dangerous for us up forward.

"I thought we had a good spread of contributors. Will Lowe performed really well when we needed to get cracking and start winning the contest and Logan Fitzgerald was also instrumental in turning things around for us.

"Our big guys Hadleigh Sirett and Matt Riordan were both really good, Ben Barton played well and it was good to have a spread in the forward line."

As well as Fitzgerald's six goals, the Grasshoppers also had recruit James Brain (four), Clint Shields (three), reigning best and fairest Jed Brain (two), Todd Clarke (two) and new signing Luke Moore (two) as multiple goalkickers.

Co-coaches Dylan Gordon and Dylan Friedberger each kicked two goals for the Bloods, as did recruit Sebastian De Napoli.

The Bloods named a trio of recruits as their three best players - midfielder Sam McHale (one goal), Tannar Cerrone and Bailey Sawyer.

With Saturday's game having been brought forward from round 12, Colbinabbin and Elmore will meet again in just three weeks in round three.

After Saturday's two season-opening games at North Bendigo and Colbinabbin, the HDFNL gets into full swing next Saturday.

Round one - White Hills v LBU, Elmore v Mount Pleasant, Colbinabbin v North Bendigo, Heathcote v Huntly. Leitchville-Gunbower bye.

HDFNL: COLBINABBIN

HDFNL: ELMORE

HDFNL: HEATHCOTE

HDFNL: HUNTLY

HDFNL: LEITCHVILLE-GUNBOWER

HDFNL: LOCKINGTON-BAMAWM UNITED

HDFNL: MOUNT PLEASANT

HDFNL: NORTH BENDIGO

HDFNL: WHITE HILLS

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