GVL: Echuca beats Shepparton at Deakin

After a barrage of rain essentially turned Deakin Reserve into the river the Murray Bombers are named after in the first half, they adapted to the conditions brilliantly and eventually broke away with the final quarter’s only three goals after being three points down at three-quarter-time.

Ned Lanyon goaled inside the final stanza’s first minute, Noah Wheeler took a strong mark and got a 50m penalty to secure a certain goal before a fine contested grab from Angus Byrne allowed him to put the game to bed.

But while the Bears led for the bulk of the game, it was the Murray Bombers who controlled the show, dominating around the contests with the ball locked in their forward half for what seemed the entire game.

It took until the final term, but their control eventually paid off, executing with precision to turn what looked a banana peel of a game into an important win.

Shepparton’s Tom Thorsen had kicked the game’s first goal with a beautiful running effort, matched at the other end by Echuca’s Byrne.

But despite being under constant pressure — the Murray Bombers took six marks inside 50 in the first quarter — the Bears found another two goals on the counter-attack, with Thorsen and Harry Boyd earning their side an eight-point quarter-time buffer.

Echuca simply butchered its chances, with two behinds and two complete misses from simple inside 50 set shots.

But what had been a methodical chess match quickly turned into an arm-wrestle — if not all-out war — as driving, persistent rain turned Deakin Reserve into a swimming pool.

Neither side goaled in a dour second term before four lead changes in the third term, highlighted by young Bear Matt Pellegrino’s first senior goal from 40m.

But Echuca coach Andrew Walker was proud with how his boys stuck to the contest and ground out a win to go to 9-1 for the season.

‘‘It was a scrappy sort of game, but as we said to the boys, it could have been over a lot earlier than what it was, we kicked ourselves out of it at the start,’’ he said.

‘‘I thought our pressure, once again, was outstanding, and we kept them to nine scoring shots in total. It wasn’t anything clicking (in the last term), we were just a little bit straighter with our set shots.’’

And while on the surface a round 10 win is just another four points, Walker acknowledged the importance of knocking off the side that ended its campaign last year at the same ground.

‘‘Absolutely it was a very important win, there were a couple of guys that really wanted to get out there, Noah Wheeler went down with illness in the final and Cam Valentine had a concussion,’’ he said.

‘‘Myself as coach and Kane Morris as captain, we spoke before the game obviously about how important it is for our season, but we owed it to those guys to come out and have a game like that and get over the line.

‘‘Our best footy is as good as you are going to get in the GV and we know when we do that for longer than the opposition, our structures are getting us over the line.’’

Sam Willoughby stood out for the Bombers with elite defensive pressure, while ruckman Jobee Warde attacked the ball with heart across the ground all day.

For the Bears, who sit at 5-5, coach Sean Harrap said the first half pressure had been outstanding, but his side had not handled the weather with the class Echuca did.

‘‘I was rapt with their first half, that was probably the best I’ve seen in terms of just pressure and the things we’ve been aiming to get back to,’’ he said.

‘‘I reckon they adapted to the conditions better than what we did, we tried hard, but we couldn’t get any flow or deep entries into our forward 50.

‘‘They took key moments where we probably didn’t. And they probably hunted the footy a little bit better than what we did.

‘‘There’s no point dwelling on it now, we showed a lot of signs today and Echuca is obviously the second best team having only lost one game.’’

David Stretton missed essentially the entire game with a hamstring, while the same injury kept Walker out of the second half.