The Northern Blues have recorded a massive win away from home, defeating Box Hill by 36 points on Saturday afternoon.

The Blues took the lead in the second half and never looked back, running away 15. 13. (103) to 10. 7. (67) winners.

The ball moved freely from end to end despite the weather, but the Hawks capitalised with the next three goals to take an early lead.

Tim Jones and Tom Wilson also enjoyed the first-quarter conditions, with 14 disposals between them, helped by Andrew Phillips who dominated the hit-outs.

Hisham Kerbatieh kicked a goal late as the Blues trailed by two goals at quarter-time.

Northern dominated the second quarter, locking the ball in its forward half for most of the quarter: however, the team was unable to capitalise, only kicking two goals from 16 inside 50s.

Twenty goalless minutes in the second term saw Box Hill take a four-point lead into the main break, in a quarter where Carlton rookie Bill Gowers had nine disposals and provided a lot of rebound from half-back.

Northern got off to a blistering start in the third with Liam Jones kicking the first goal from a contested mark to put the Blues in front, before goals to Jack Silvagni, Kristian Jaksch and Phillips gave the Blues a buffer early in the quarter.

It took Box Hill 25 minutes to get a goal back, but Northern still took a 23-point lead into three-quarter time, with Jaksch and Silvagni combining for four goals in a quarter.

With Jaksch, Jones and Silvagni all firing and Totevski, Buckley and Kerbatieh at their feet, Northern’s forward line looked potent and Box Hill couldn’t stop them once they got on a run. 

In a similar vein to the second quarter, the Blues had all the play, but it was the Hawks who kicked the first two goals of the final term.

Against the play, Box Hill turnovers resulted in goals to Jones and Silvagni and the Hawks simply couldn’t reel in the margin.

Silvagni got his fourth, volleying the ball out of mid-air from the boundary line before Jaksch put through his fourth a minute later as the Blues stormed to a six-goal lead.

Phillips finished with 53 hit-outs, 13 disposals, eight marks and a goal in a performance that saw him voted best on ground by his coaches.

The backline held up against the Box Hill forward line, while the likes of Tim Jones (31 disposals), Mark Whiley (28 disposals) and Jason Tutt (27) gave the Blues some drive through midfield.

The Blues kicked their third consecutive score over 100 points, as Silvagni, Jaksch and Liam Jones combined for 10 goals.

Speaking after the game, Liam Jones said the win was one of the best he’s played in with the club.

“The Hawks have been in basically every Grand Final for the last four or five years so to beat them at home was pretty special,” he said post-game.

“After beating Box Hill, we should be pretty optimistic about what we can achieve this year.”

Jones said the Blues didn’t make the most of their opportunities in the first half, and turning that around got them the win.

“We went over the key stats (at half-time) and we had a lot of opportunities and making the most of those opportunities and really working for each other turned things around,” Jones said.

“I think it was a really strong team effort, I don’t think you could’ve named a bad player today.”

Jones said pressure was the key to changing the game in the second half, which he thought was at its best in the win over the Hawks in the last 18 months.

“A team with fantastic skills is going to be vulnerable to really hard pressure: that’s what we’re trying to build across VFL and AFL level, being really relentless with our pressure,” Jones said.

The Blues have a bye next weekend, with the next match to come at Ikon Park on Saturday, June 25 against Sandringham.