The latest chapter in a rivalry spanning almost 150 years will be played out at Victoria Park on Saturday, as Echuca and Rochester do battle in round five of the Goulburn Valley League.
The senior football contest is set to be a thrilling occasion, with Rochester looking in the mix to contend for a finals position this season, while back-to-back reigning premier Echuca has been at its dominant best.
The Murray Bombers sit comfortably atop the ladder with four wins from four games so far, including victories over Mooroopna and Euroa in the last two weeks.
Co-coach Simon Maddox is expecting a solid contest against the Tigers on Saturday, with the long-standing animosity between the two sides adding an extra element to the contest.
“I actually reckon they probably play 15 per cent above when they play Echuca, if you ask the Rochy guys it’s probably the one win they want for the year,” he said.
“They'll come out red hot and they'll give us a contest absolutely, and we respect Rochy greatly.
“But like I tell you a bit, we’ll worry more about our own backyard, and if we get that right we’ll cause some headaches for them in certain parts of the ground.”
Rochester meanwhile has made a resurgent start to its 2024 campaign, recording victories over Benalla and Tatura, while falling by just two points to 2023 grand finalists Kyabram.
The Tigers sit at 2-2 and coach Ash Watson is optimistic about his side’s prospects for the rest of the year.
“We're still a work in progress, (we’re) working on a lot of things, but confident that if we play our best footy that will continue to improve for sure,” he said.
“We've got a lot of players back from injury from last season and we've recruited well.
“We're trying a few newer things with our game style, so that's taking a little bit of time, but we think we're moving in the right direction.”
Watson knows the Murray Bombers are the team to beat again this season, but believes his side is up for the task on Saturday.
“Obviously, we know Echuca are the yardstick of our competition and have been for a couple of years,” he said.
“We know it's going to be a big challenge, but we're up for the fight for sure.”
The Murray Bombers enter the clash with a few things to work on, however.
Against the Magpies last weekend, co-coach Maddox was happy with the performance of his side against what looks to be a fellow finals-contender, winning by 45 points, but lamented a 10-minute lapse in the third term.
He said there were a number of points the team focused on from that lapse that they are looking to rectify against Rochester on Saturday.
“For 110 minutes out of 120 we played pretty well,” Maddox said of the match against Euroa.
“I'm not sure if we just put the cue in the rack or to Euroa's credit, they might have come out red hot in the third quarter, they flipped the script for half-a-quarter and got right on top.
“But to our credit, the boys wrestled the momentum back and we played really well in the last quarter, so on the whole pretty happy with the performance, but there's always things you can improve on and work on, and that's what we've done this week.
“We've watched the tape and picked a few things we can work on, and we'll try and rectify those on Saturday.”
Much has been made of the fact that the Murray Bombers have faced the Cats and the Magpies with just 24 player points on the field over the past fortnight, and it is not something that will change this week, Maddox said.
While there is one certain inclusion, and another key player a half-chance to get up for the big clash, the Murray Bombers will still be a far from full-strength side this weekend.
Formidably, Echuca looks likely to only get better as the season wears on.
“We’ll get Will Monahan back, so we get our captain back, and (Kane) Morris maybe, but if he doesn’t play this week, he’ll play next week,” Maddox said.
“The Reid boys, no (they won’t play), and I think the VFL boys will be in the VFL, so probably only Monahan and Morris.
“There's probably only one or two changes, but very similar side to what we've had the last two weeks.
“In terms of personnel, we've still got plenty of room for improvement, there's still plenty of players to come back in."
Echuca and Rochester renew their rivalry this Saturday, May 4, at Victoria Park with the first bounce to take place at 2pm.