GLENORDEN has buried its long-standing drought with an emotion-charged 19-point win over Coburg Districts in a Western Region Football League division 2 season opener at Heathdale Oval on Saturday.
Winless last season, the Hawks claimed their first victory since 2010 on the day they ushered in a bold new era with first-year coach Nick Diker taking charge and a playing list almost unrecognisable to last winter’s.
Diker was apprehensive driving to the ground but ecstatic when he left as the winning coach that night.
“Today was massive for the coaches and players,” he said. “I was so excited about the game, I couldn’t sleep and had to get up at 5.30am.
“We needed to get that one win on the board and get it out of the way.”
The Hawks need no reminding of their horror finish in the first division. They failed to claim a premiership point last season and were on the end of some harrowing losses, leading to a percentage of 17.58.
The club had to do everything in its power to regenerate because there’s no guarantee of success when you step back into second-tier football.
Diker was given the keys to steer the club back to relevance and Saturday’s win over a Lions side tipped to challenge for a finals berth was a step in the right direction.
“We put in a lot of time and effort over pre-season,” he said.
“But you never know how you’re going to go once the season starts.”
The Hawks displayed all the traits Diker wanted from his charges.
They were ferocious at the contest with their bigger bodies, unrelenting in tackling and applied the one-percenters that he has programmed into his players’ minds.
“I asked for 30 one-percenters a quarter and we knocked that out of the ballpark,” Diker said.
At first look, the Hawks appeared well drilled and executed their game plan. Their skill level was superior to the Lions and their run and spread was hard to contain.
The Hawks sprung to life with five goals to two in the second term and kept the Lions at arm’s length for the rest of the game after taking a 16-point lead into half-time.
The onball brigade of Nathan Addamo, Jesse Fortune and the Angelini brothers – Tristan and Stefan – kept the momentum moving.
The defence stuck to their end of the bargain, in particular Ash Peters, Matthew Antonello and Nathan Schmidt.
Then there was teenage excitement machine Josh McDonald, who got Hawks supporters to their feet with his innate ability to find the ball and do special things with it across half forward.
The only downer for the Hawks was a broken ankle to Shayne Comensoli. The half forward was playing his first game in over 12 months and it will be up to eight weeks before he returns.
SCORES: Division 2
Albanvale 55.33 (363) d North Sunshine 1.1 (7)
Glenorden 13.13 (91) d Coburg Districts 11.6 (72)
Laverton Magpies 10.6 (66) lt Braybrook 12.12 (84)
West Footscray 12.11 (83) d Caroline Springs 10.13 (73)
