Gallery | Shepparton’s second half smoke show silences the Swans in Goulburn Valley League ‘tale of two halves’

Shepparton gradually worked its way back into the match before flipping it on its head with a third-quarter blitz worthy of a finals side rediscovering its edge.

A resurgent Bears outfit went on to claim a 12.11 (83) to 9.17 (71) victory over a Swans side scorned by inaccuracy yet again and, in doing so, got their mojo back after dropping the past five matches.

Shepparton playing co-coach Xavier Stevenson was rapt to see his charges re-enter the top six following what he considered “very much a tale of two halves”.

“I thought in the first half in particular, we were just getting beaten in the contest and I thought their midfield group and their half-backs were having some pretty profound influence,” he said.

“To be honest, fundamentally, we weren’t where we needed to be as well and as a by product of that, we found ourselves with the margin that it was.

“But credit to our boys — after half-time, we were able to flip that on its head a little bit and I thought we started to win more contests than Swans did.

“A lot of it was non-talent act related, but from that point of view, we started to stem some of their ball movement and obviously that gave us more opportunities forward of the footy.

“We were able to capitalise and momentum’s a funny thing in football — we were able to ride that momentum all the way through to pretty much the end of the game.”

It was carbon copy form for both teams heading into the clash.

But the Swans, having not tasted victory since winning seven straight to start the season, began brighter in attempt to break their drought first.

Nathan Rachele crumbed the first goal from a fierce opening contest between Ash Holland and Mark Kovacevic before James Auld added two of his own and by quarter-time, the visitors had the Bears suffocating at 21-1.

Shepparton was reeling from the early blows, but not on the canvas.

The Bears’ needed to rise.

Cue Jake Watts.

The mullet-sporting speedster slipped between two Swans defenders to snag an opportunistic second-quarter goal, before another luscious-locked Bear in Ned Byrne bombed one home to get the boards at the Skene St end banging.

While the visitors still held a 28-point buffer at the main break, something had shifted.

And when the third term opened, Zaydan Leocata sliced through traffic for the opener.

Then, up stepped Luke Smith.

Quiet in the first half, Smith exploded with two goals in 90 seconds to shave the deficit to 10 points.

Stevenson followed with a steadied set shot and within 10 minutes, the Swans’ 28-point cushion was gone, and the Bears had stormed in front for the first time all day.

Smith added another to complete a game-breaking third quarter that ended with Lewis McShane slotting truly on the siren.

From 28 down to nine up — the game had completely turned.

The Swans threw what they had, but Shepparton’s back six stood firm, absorbing 15 minutes of pressure in the final term before landing the knockout blow.

And fittingly, it came from a senior debutant with red and white in his blood.

Xavier Lewis, once a Swan, now a Bear, crumbed a goal against the flow and raised the roof at Deakin.

Moments later, Zac Metcalf finished on the spin with a deft over-the-shoulder dart.

After not kicking a goal in close to an hour, the Swans finally broke through with a lightning chain that found Andrew Riordan on the goal line.

Steele Simpson then made it interesting with a quick reply, trimming the margin to two goals.

But the comeback was not to be.

The Bears had done it.

“I think more so from our perspective — even though the wins haven’t come our way over the last five weeks — we know we haven’t been playing anywhere near capacity,” Stevenson said.

“Even yesterday, we showed a half of that; we’ve just been playing in periods, and we know that our best is well and truly good enough.

“The comp has never been more even than what it is at the moment; all sides in the top six can knock each other off on their day.

“So from our perspective, it was probably just going back to what we do really well and being a bit of a blue-collar football team — our pressure and work rate.”

Stevenson waxed lyrical about having the talents of Byrne and Watts at his disposal, while also paying credit to the likes of Holland, Metcalf, Max Brodie and Liam Duguid.

For the Swans, Max and Zac Clohesy starred alongside fellow young talent Oliver Warburton.