Shepparton United roll into bye red hot in 99-point rout of Tatura

United held the Bulldogs scoreless in the opening term of action, kicking 6.6 (42) to race away with a formidable early advantage.

Demon Matthew Casey impressed as he nabbed a pair in the term, Shepparton United making the most of its kicking at the scoring end of the ground.

In the second term, Tatura’s Tom Sullivan found a look at goal after some back-and-forth in possession between the clubs, however it fell short and was rushed through for a behind.

Despite holding some territory, the Bulldogs couldn’t produce a goal before United found the middle again, this time coming through Jordan Loverso, who secured his second of the match from 25 metres out.

Murray Bushrangers product Blake Sofra hit the scoreboard next as United continue to hold the ascendancy, but a goal off a free kick for Ryan Butler saw Tatura hit the scoreboard with a major.

Both clubs would exchange goals again before the half time break, but the damage was ominous on the scoreboard despite improved Bulldogs heart, with United leading 10.8 (68) to 2.4 (16).

With the scoreline one-sided, there was still plenty of feeling in the match as Tatura’s Michael Archer got under the skin of Demon Joel Serra as the clubs huddled before entering the sheds.

The game tightened up in the third term as tackling pressure heightened, but costly skill errors would be rued by the Bulldogs as the Demons pounced on turnover to snatch the first major after 11 minutes of play.

Desperate defence saw Tatura’s Kieran Andrew lay a tackle, lunge for another, then get up off the deck and smother, but even that couldn’t stop United kicking a goal seconds later, in a telling passage of what the day was offering for the Dogs.

The visitors were held scoreless once again when kicking towards the Skene Street end of Deakin Reserve as Casey unleashed three further goals to his name, leaving Tatura hunting a 13-goal deficit at three-quarter-time.

A clearance in the first ten seconds of the fourth quarter landed in Tatura’s Ben Darrou’s mitts, kicking truly from a 30 metre set shot on a slight angle, before he was found on his own inside 50 three minutes later in transition, securing a second goal in a row.

Darrou nearly went for a third, winning a two on one, but his dribble kick on a tight angle was safely ushered over the line by the Demons.

A turnover by Shepparton United at their defensive arc saw Kitt McCamley and Blake Armstrong combine and send the Sherrin to the forward pocket, marked by Finn Radley who too converted with precision.

But United’s Timothy Looby steadied the ship for the Demons though, and Casey continued his scoring prowess too, ensuring United remained in control to see out the game in red hot form, a 20.15 (135) to 5.6 (36) victory the final result.

Casey finished with nine majors in his best scoring outing of the season as a Demon recruit, which was lauded by Shepparton United coach Trent Freer.

“He’s an absolute champion bloke, which is what we tried to recruit this year - great people,” Freer said.

“His skill set was always going to be great but the way we’ve probably done our forward line structure over the last three or four weeks has helped, we probably did a bit of an injustice to him early on.

“Anyone who kicks nine goals in GV senior football has made a fantastic effort.”

Freer continued his praise for the Demons, stating their “brand” was finally sustained for extended periods in the Bulldogs rout.

“The boys played really, really good football,” he said.

“We played our brand for a long period of time and that’s been our message for pretty much every game to be honest, but we’ve only really played it in patches.

“Everyone played their role today, and I know we had a couple of standout individual performances but our focus was on what best for the next person, it was selfless.”

Tatura enter the bye winless at 0-7, but the Demons now press into a large pack of finals contenders in seventh, sitting at 3-4.

“We’re really confident going forward, we’ve got a lot of belief in our group, Jesse (Cucinotta) has done a power of work with it and we just continue to focus on our strengths,” Freer said.

“We feel we have enough runs on the board where we don’t want to save games, we want to come out the front of it and win.

“We still feel like we dropped a game where we shouldn’t have, but our endeavour is there.

“Excited for the bye, but more excited to get back into it.”