Maiden premiership hopes outweigh personal milestone

THE significance of a personal milestone will be pushed into the background for onballer Josh Parkinson today as North Warrnambool Eagles try to enter uncharted territory.North will take a giant step towards making its first finals appearance since joining the league in 1997 if it can topple fifth-placed Camperdown at Leura Oval.The Eagles are sixth with the same win-loss record (5-8) as Camperdown but trail the Magpies by more than 11 per cent.Parkinson will today become one of only a handful of players to reach the 100-game milestone with North Warrnambool Eagles.Yesterday he said the visitors would not put all their eggs in one basket at Leura Oval but were conscious of the opportunity.``Without putting our entire season on this one game it is certainly an important contest,'' he said.``This game will go a long way towards deciding who gets fifth spot.''Football fortunes have also favoured North in the match lead-up as the home side's injury list stretched to nine this week with Troy Stephens (quad) and Zac White (calf) the latest to succumb.North lost defenders Chris Bell (unav) and Billie Smedts (state under 16 duties) but were able to recall gifted utility Clinton Baker to play against his former club.Parkinson has moved into the centre in recent weeks after starting the season across half-forward.An attacking role in the early rounds enabled him to play alongside his younger brother, Jeremy, who is North's leading goalkicker this season with 26. Jeremy Parkinson will also achieve a milestone today with his 50th appearance, as will young onballer Nick Mills. Josh Parkinson is pleased with his consistency this season after major interruptions to the 1996 and 1997 campaigns when he was sidelined with a bulging disc in his lower back.He missed the best part of 12 months across two seasons and took on coaching the reserves last year before returning to senior action midway through the season. ``It's been good to get a pre-season under my belt this year,'' Parkinson said.``It's good to have a bit of continuity after getting through a few niggling injuries early.''Parkinson has experienced the club's painstaking evolution across eight seasons.He made his debut in 2001 under playing coach Wayne Walsh.He recalled many seasons of high expectations - which quickly evaporated - until coach Leigh McCluskey took on the challenge of transforming the side three years ago.``I think he's had the major coaching influence in my time there,'' Parkinson said.``He set a vision to try to build the club with the players we had.``In his first year in the job we probably didn't win a game and we hadn't won one halfway through last year but everything Leigh continued to drum into us came to fruition in the second half of last year and it gave us a lot of confidence going into this year.''The Eagles finished on a run of three wins in 2007 and launched this season with successive wins.North lost at home to Camperdown in round seven but kept in touch with the Magpies by upsetting third-placed Warrnambool in round 12.Parkinson said the Eagles were still searching for consistency against the top teams, a point underlined by last week's 21.10 (136) to 5.10 (40) loss to top side Terang Mortlake.Camperdown fared no better at Cobden, where it was humbled 20.21 (141) to 3.3 (21).Parkinson said the key for North today was to be in touch with Camperdown at quarter-time.Competing for the match-of-the-round status is the contest between Terang Mortlake (first) and Warrnambool (third).The return of key forward Josh Baxter has the Bloods close to full strength and they have the midfield firepower to match the visitors.Cobden can stay within striking distance of the top three by defeating Port Fairy at Gardens Oval.Koroit will have beaten every side in the competition if it can get the points at South Warrnambool.