Euroa too slick for Tatura as a tough task looms

A 10-goal second half ensured there would be no late fadeout, as Euroa gradually pulled away on the back of strong midfield connection and a backline that held firm under pressure.

Coach Dave Gleeson said the win — the club’s third in a month — was another positive step for a group beginning to find its feet.

“Yeah it is,” he said when asked about the confidence-building stretch.

“But, you know, we had a tough draw at the start, and probably a couple others we thought we were a chance to win.

“But anyway, three out of four’s nice and now we’ve got a tough month ahead of us. We’ll keep trying to improve.”

While Tatura remains winless on the year, the Bulldogs welcomed back some key personnel and made the Magpies work early.

Gleeson said his side adjusted its forward structure to create better scoring opportunities — and the payoff was instant.

“We changed a couple of things yesterday,” he said.

“We pushed Nate Trotter permanent forward so Tat had to be accountable for him — he got a couple early. And then Jett (Trotter) was able to get off the leash a bit and kicked seven in the second half.

“So that was pleasing that we got some more goal scoring power.”

Equally impressive was Euroa’s ability to lock down defensively, restricting the Bulldogs to just six goals from 14 scoring shots.

“If you look at the scores, they’ve only kicked 5 or 6 goals and we’ve kicked 16 or 17,” Gleeson said.

“The defensive side of our game held up. It got a bit tighter late because they had a couple behind the ball so it was a bit harder to score late, but yeah, we managed to do so.”

Without a recognised ruck, the Magpies relied on a shared midfield effort to win territory — something Gleeson said couldn’t be overlooked.

“They’ve got a couple handy players that still play in their midfield, and without a genuine ruckman I was really happy with the mid as a combined group,” he said.

“And yeah, the backline held up.”

Now sitting eighth on the ladder at 3-5, Euroa faces an important fortnight before the bye, beginning with the undefeated Kyabram at home next week.

Gleeson said his side will need to find consistency across all four quarters if it wants to compete with the competition’s best.

“A couple of times earlier in the year we were good for three quarters, even early against Kyabram and Echuca we were good for three quarters and then in one quarter they blew us away,” he said.

“Consistency over the four quarters is going to be big for us and hopefully we don’t fade out like we have done a couple of times this year.”

Gleeson also praised the form of young defender Cohen Paul and clearance machine Lachie Hill.

“Cohen continued on his way for us yesterday as an intercept half-backer,” he said.

“He’s only 19 years old, so there’s a big future there.”