Launceston has kicked off its premiership defence with a comfortable 55-point win over North Launceston.
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Bar a third quarter that saw the Northern Bombers reduce the deficit to 18 points, the Blues seemed to always have the upper hand and kicked seven unanswered goals in the last term to ice the contest.
Dylan Riley (24 disposals, three goals) took out the Adam Sanders Medal for best on ground, while a dominant day for Launceston over five clashes with the Bombers also secured the Phil Edwards Cup.
Blues coach Mitch Thorp, who is serving a suspension, was pleased to win without several experienced players including Jobi Harper, Fletcher Seymour and Jamieson House.
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"Credit to North - they really had a dip early in the game and we knew that was going to happen," he said.
"It was nice to kick away in the last quarter- we thought we could really audit our pre-season against theirs and see the fitness level over four quarters.
"We were confident we could go the journey and the boys were really strong in the fourth quarter."
Riley's efforts were complemented by Jake Hinds and Jay Blackberry, who both hit the scoreboard from the midfield, with Joe Groenewegen performing strongly in the ruck.
Josh Woolley and Brayden Pitcher looked right at home in their first game back, the latter scoring one goal and nearly adding another, while Grant Holt could have finished with four or five goals on another day.
Thorp was excited by the depth at his disposal.
"We had some really good performances in the D-League today - [Jack] Donnellan, [Hamish] Leedham, [Jake] Rice and some younger guys like Bailey Gillow played really well," he said.
There were also promising signs for the new-look North Launceston, who blooded five debutants after Declen Chugg came in as a late replacement for Mark Walsh.
Harry Bayles was lively early, taking North's first two shots of the game while Michael Stingel and Ryan Whitney were both influential.
North looked right in the game after a third term which featured three classy snap finishes from Ollie Sanders, Jack Avent and Dan Withers.
"They kicked their couple of early goals and had that buffer the whole way through," said Brad Cox-Goodyer, who starred in his first game as North coach.
"We battled - the game was pretty even and then in that last quarter I think they just wore us down - our youth weren't used to that pressure and they just turned it up.
"We just happened to run into the best team in the competition round one, but we were in the game so there's positives - the boys will learn from it."
With Bart McCulloch and Jackson Callow exiting in the off-season, Tom Bennett stepped up to have a big presence in the forward line.
"Tommy was really good - his body is back to what it can be and we've just got to look after him a bit more with the forward entries," Cox-Goodyer said.
"He probably missed a few goals he'd normally kick and could have kicked three or four at the end of the day, but if we look after him forward we can get him back to his best where he's kicking 50-plus goals in a year."
SCOREBOARD
LAUNCESTON 2.1 6.4 7.6 14.13 (97)
NORTH LAUNCESTON 0.3 1.3 4.6 6.6 (42)
GOALS:
- Launceston: D Riley 3, C Thorp 2, J Hinds 2, M Musicka 2, B Palfreyman, B Pitcher, C Brown, B Taylor, J Blackberry
- North Launceston: D Withers 2, O Sanders, J Avent, T Bennett, J Foon
BEST:
- Launceston: D. Riley, J. Hinds, G. Holt, J. Groenewegen, C. Brown, J. Boyd
- North Launceston :B. Cox-Goodyer, T. Bennett, B. Van Buuren, O. Sanders, M. Cossins, W. Edmunds