Shepparton shoots down Shepparton United in a one-sided Deakin Reserve derby

The Goulburn Valley League contest hung in the balance after 25 minutes before Shepparton powered on, kicking 11 goals to United’s two throughout the following two terms.

Shepparton co-coach Ted Lindon was left “super pumped and proud” in his post-match address after a multi-faceted showing from one end of the ground to the other.

“We knew not only tonight, but last week there was a real theme around the contest and I think that was a big asset of how tonight looked,” he said.

“If I look across all parts of the ground, the defenders were rock solid all night; it was a really tight back seven.

“The mids, it’s the second week in a row that we’ve been on top around the source.

“For the forwards, it was a working class effort today ... the pressure rating was through the roof and I can’t be any more happy with that.”

Shepparton almost tripled its rivals’ scoring shots in a dour day for the Demons, but the bulk of the damage was done in the game’s middle as the quarter-time score read 29-26 in the Bears’ favour after an evenly-spread start.

Bears forwards Trent Herbert, Joel Brett and Anthony Andronaco linked up tidily inside the Demons’ defensive 50 for a string of majors, while United workhorse Kyle Clarke kept his side in reach with two smartly-taken majors.

After the huddle, a rift in the scoreline widened as Shepparton began breaking away.

However, Kaedyn Napier made sure the Demons’ fans at the Skene St end pumped up the decibels as he conjured a smart duel win and nailed a conversion from 2m out.

Aggression flared up a lacklustre middle stretch of the second quarter, but Lewis McShane, who kicked four goals the week prior, capitalised on the boil over and boosted the Bears 30 points ahead.

Shepparton’s dominance carried through after the main break as it sliced and diced through United’s midfield.

The game’s action waned at times, and when Liam Duguid severed a dead 10 minutes of non-scoring play with a handy goal, the Bears were prodded back to their earlier, ruthless manner as the margin broke out past 60 points.

United was able to save some face in the last with two goals, but the ho-hum celebrations said it all — the Demons were done.

In the rooms after the siren, co-coach Xavier Stevenson reiterated Lindon’s point that, though close, it wasn’t a perfect win with clean entry into the forward a focus area moving forward.

“The one growth area which we’ve touched on, myself included, is our moneyball kick,” Stevenson said.

“We’ll go to school a little bit about how we want to get our ball into the forward 50 and some of our inside 50 kicks.

“We did make it hard for our forwards at times, but credit to them, they created a contest and we got a little bit blue collared and did what we had to do which was really pleasing.”

Lastly, Stevenson issued a club-wide congratulations after all three football and five netball sides stumped up wins over United, capping a stellar day for the Bears.

“I think even more pleasing is eight from eight wins across the club, how good is that?,” he said.

“We touched on the fact that we want to have really deep wins which means we really enjoy our wins and shallow losses.

“It’s always nice when you knock off your rivals and it’s even better when we get eight from eight, so well done.”