Rochester made it six Goulburn Valley League wins on the bounce with an emphatic 16.10 (106) to 8.8 (56) win over Shepparton at the weekend.
Glimmers of sun peaked through cloudy skies at Deakin Reserve on Saturday afternoon, and there were shades of hope early for the home side, who was keen to atone for a 156-point drubbing at the hands of Echuca last weekend.
Bears’ forwards Mitch Brett, Rowan Hiscock and Achoung Agog made their presence felt early, and if not for some wayward shots on goals, Shepparton would have found itself five goals to the good early doors.
Instead, the Bears entered the first change with 2.4, which left the door open for the Tigers to seize the opportunity and put up a comfortable two-goal buffer by the main break.
“I thought at the start of the game we’ve obviously come out of the blocks a little bit slow, the Bears could’ve jumped a couple of goals on us,” Rochester coach Steven Stroobants said of his side’s start to the game.
“To our credit, we just kept fronting up and eventually the game got on our terms which was really nice and the rewards started to come with some goals later on.”
The Tigers started to flex their muscles at stoppages in the third term; the likes of Nathan Kay, Adam McPhee and Mitch Treacy doing the grunt work for their side in the absence of midfield maestro Shaun Atley.
“We talk about it every week — our contested possession numbers and our ground ball gets and our spread from the contest,” Stroobants said.
“Usually when we win those numbers we win the game of footy, it’s a really big focus for us during the week.
“To our credit we fronted up late in the first quarter and the second quarter, then the second half was really the Rochy style of footy that we want to play.”
A five-goal-to-two third quarter really broke the game open for the Tigers, with Mitch Cricelli spearheading the scoring with another three against the Bears, bringing his tally to 20 already this season.
“It’s been a positive this year in that we haven’t relied on one bloke to kick goals, we’ve had a pretty even spread,” Stroobants said.
“Big Mitch Cricelli launches at the ball and he’s got big hands so when he gets them to the ball they usually stick.
“He’s starting to learn how to use his body and jump at the ball and launch, he’s a really good player for us.”
The win marks the Tigers’ sixth in a row since its crushing 57-point defeat to Kyabram back in round two.
A round one re-match awaits in a fortnight, when the Tigers make the daunting trip to Victoria Park to take on an undefeated Echuca side.
“That’ll be another really tough contest for us, again we’ll focus on our contested ball numbers around the stoppage and ground ball gets, if we get that stuff right we’re on our way,” Stroobants said.
“We know we’ll have to be at our best to front up against Echuca, we did that round one in the first half, then in the third quarter they got a bit of a jump on us.
“Our third quarters have been pretty good lately, so hopefully we’ll bring heat early and make it a great contest, then maintain it for four quarters.”