Demons know what it takes against top rival

NORTH Hobart coach Clinton French doesn’t know why his Demons match up well against North Launceston, they just do.

When they met at UTas Stadium in round six, the Demons led at quarter-time, got hit by an 8.1 to 1.0 second term by the home team but held it to only one goal after half-time to go down by just seven points.

French hopes for another concerted effort from his young Dees when they meet at North Hobart Oval on Saturday.

“I don’t know what it is, we just play well against them,”

French said. “They’ve got some high-end footballers in their team with Alex Lee and Brad Cox-Goodyer.

“Our contest up north earlier in the year could have gone either way so we are looking forward to another good contest this time.

With only two wins for the season, both against winless Glenorchy, “growth” is the buzz word at North Hobart.

“There has been plenty of positives for our team,” French said.

“We would like to have been higher up on the ladder but we’ve taken some big steps forward and we’re looking to taking more steps forward in the back end of the year.”

French played a handful of games earlier in the season but has hung up the boots.

“It was a tough decision,’’ he said.

“I really enjoyed playing footy.”

French said he can focus on the development on his young side, which includes returning Devils trio Sam Banks-Smith, exciting young key forward Will Splann, Logan Elphinstone.

“Sam is a hard-nosed onballer/backman, Logan is another ruckman for us and Will can play either full-forward or centre half-forward so to have them back is exciting for our club,” French said.