Launceston has awakened a bona fide Northern TSL rivalry and ended an unwanted statistic with a 19-point win over North Launceston.
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Saturday's 8.12 (60) to 6.5 (41) home win marked Launceston's first over the reigning premiers in 19 attempts and sent the Blues top of the table following a TSL round where all three games were decided by fewer than 20 points.
Blues coach Mitch Thorp, who led from the stands to make way for a shorter forward line, said the win was exciting for the club but not its end goal.
"We won all four games - we won under-18s, the women's, development league and the seniors and that hasn't been done in seven years at the footy club so it was a really important day," Thorp said.
"We had 17 [senior] players that had never beaten North Launceston until today, so for them it was a really important day but it was only a win - we're off to a good start, but we've got to understand that it's only round two."
PHOTO GALLERY: Saturday sport in Northern Tasmania
The two sides traded punches in an entertaining first quarter as Bombers Brad Cox-Goodyer and Zach Burt launched 50m-plus goals while Dylan Riley (two goals) looked dangerous up forward.
The ex-Devonport forward would kick the only goal of the second term - just a few minutes out from half-time - as the physicality went up a level with North Launceston's defence proving as impenetrable as Tasmanian borders to a Victorian.
Launceston broke the game open early in the third term as Jay Blackberry, who had been kept quiet by Jack Avent for much of the game, snuck two goals in two minutes to establish a game-high 21-point lead.
Strong-marking forward Jackson Callow (three goals) kept the Bombers in it with his second and looked set to be the hero in the last quarter when another pin-point set shot reduced the margin to eight points with eight minutes to go.
But the Blues were able to hold out the dying stages as Jake Hinds added a second at the 20-minute mark and a third on the final siren to ice the cake.
Launceston captain Jobi Harper, Fletcher Seymour were physical and incisive around the stoppages while Tim Auckland had the best of the ruck battle.
Thorp highlighted the efforts of young midfielder Jared Dakin, who kept Bombers coach and round one match-winner Taylor Whitford quiet for three quarters, and exciting half-forward Michael Musicka (nine tackles) among a strong team effort.
"North Launny are a very good side and you need to be at your best or somewhere near your best to get anywhere near them and I thought our team did a great job," he said.
"Everyone played their role - we had 80 tackles in a shortened game and the intent was really evident early that we wanted to get the ball back quickly.
"We've put a lot of work into getting to this point and being fit and ready to go and we're really pleased with the start to the season but we can't get carried away, we've got to knuckle down now and travel to Hobart next week and consolidate the win."
The Bombers had positives to take out of the game, with Callow looking potent despite the absence of forward partner Bart McCulloch while Jay Foon again impressed in a new midfield role.
The ever-reliable back six held up well in the face of constant pressure but Whitford will be looking for cleaner hands in the contest when his side returns against Clarence in round four.
"At the end of the day we got out-hunted - they won ground balls, tackles and clearances," Whitford said.
"The times we did get to a ground ball we'd fumble, we were off the mark and it's not acceptable.
"I thought they won the contest really well so credit to Launceston there, it's something for us to work on is beating them at the contested footy and we get another crack at that in four or five weeks' time."
ELSEWHERE IN SPORT
Despite trailing for most of the game, the Bombers looked ominous at times.
The momentum had swung the visitors' way late in the last term when a Foon set shot threatened to bring the margin back under a goal.
"We had to roll the dice a little bit and got beaten out the back a couple of times - we were playing from behind so it's about taking our opportunities and unfortunately we didn't take ours," Whitford said.
"A lot of things didn't go right for us today and that's on us, but we've got to take this game and learn from it and improve and if we don't do that and improve then it is a bad loss.
"We have to continue to get better - we'll watch the vision, learn a lot about Launceston and how we need to go about playing better footy and we've got two weeks to do that which is a good thing.
"We've got the bye now so we can take our learnings from the first two weeks and go on a good block of training."
SCOREBOARD
- Launceston 3.1, 4.6, 6.9, 8.12 (60)
- North Launceston 3.1, 3.2, 4.4, 6.5 (41)
- GOALS, Launceston: J. Hinds 3, D. Riley 2, J. Blackberry 2, J. Harper 1
- North Launceston: J. Callow 3, B. Cox-Goodyer 2, Z. Burt 1