Kyabram was forced to stand in the middle of Deakin Reserve on Saturday night and watch Shepparton raise last year’s Goulburn Valley League premiership flag — but that was probably the only moment of the grand final rematch Bomber players will be erasing from their memories.
Hold tight - we’re checking permissions before loading more content
A far cry from September’s decider, Kyabram’s invincible aura was back, dominating every area of a 49-point win against the Bears that easily could have had a larger margin.
Shepparton kicked the first two goals of the round two contest, with premiership captain Ted Lindon swinging into the forward line for the opener before debutant Jayden Gagliardi soccered one out of mid-air for the second.
Lindon would continue to present with authority and snapped a second goal after Hayden Gemmill and Kayne Pettifer had scored for Kyabram, but by the quarter-time siren the Bombers had assumed their normal position, two points ahead.
From there a procession ensued, with the Bombers taking control with 16 of the next 18 scoring shots to have their lead peak at 51 points before the 49-point full-time margin.
Coach Paul Newman saw plenty of scope for his side to improve, despite the big win.
‘‘Really happy, bit of a sluggish start, but after the 15-minute mark of the first quarter we worked our way into the game,’’ Newman said.
‘‘We were probably able to dictate things around the ball a little bit, which was really pleasing.
‘‘Everyone contributed really well, really good to get a bit of footy into (Jake Reeves) and Zac (Norris), I thought both our ruckmen were dominant all night.
‘‘We’ve got plenty of improvement left in us and a number of guys to come back in, even some guys still a little bit underdone within the group.’’
Lachie Smith starred with six majors, beating whichever different Bear was tasked with dealing with him in the air, while Brad Mangan delivered another bruising performance, finishing with two.
But it was third-gamer Riley Ironside, 17, who shone brightest, with overhead marking, intense attack on the football and sparkling clean ball use part of a brilliant display that was capped by a 50m set shot bomb goal.
Ironside did not just look like a functioning cog of the Kyabram machine, he looked one of the key pieces — but Newman said he had come to expect that from the Bendigo Pioneers starlet.
‘‘He’s a star all right — any time the Pioneers don’t want him, we’ll have him for sure,’’ he said.
‘‘It’s the most exciting thing with kids like that, they can improve so much from one year to the next.
‘‘We’ve seen a lot of him through the pre-season, we expected him to come out and do his thing tonight, and we just encourage him to have fun with his footy, which sometimes they’re not able to do in the NAB League with the grind of it all.’’
For the reigning premier, an inexperienced side could not match it with the well-oiled machine, with Liam Duguid’s shutdown role on Kyle Mueller one of few standouts.
‘‘They’re a good side, there’s no doubt about that,’’ Shepparton coach Sean Harrap said.
‘‘I think we had 14 players under 24 years old, and I look at that and think it’s a really exciting thing for the club. We had two first-gamers (Gagliardi and Harry Brodie) that gained that exposure.
‘‘Ky defended really well and used the footy really well to not let us do what we wanted to. They’re a bloody good team and we knew that anyway.’’
Shepparton will look to bounce back against Shepparton United in a Good Friday Deakin Derby, while Kyabram heads to Rochester to battle the Tigers.