Rochester and Shepparton United were basically inseparable for the bulk of Saturday’s Goulburn Valley League arm wrestle at Deakin Reserve, locked in combat for the lion’s share of the game.
Apart from the third quarter.
Rochester’s 3.5 effort after half-time torqued the Tigers an inch ahead, enough to down the Demons and claim a 10.13 (73) to 9.10 (64) win that has Ash Watson’s troops surge into second on the ladder.
“It was a really good contest; they (United) provided awesome pressure,” Watson said.
“We struggled to get through them at times and we thought the contest was hot.
“It was a close game all the way to the end and we were just fortunate to get the win.”
Heading into the contest, most would’ve figured a 6-1 Rochester side as the heavy favourite up against a winless United contingent.
At half-time, those same people would not have been so sure.
The Demons were ahead by a nose at quarter time, carrying a 15-14 advantage into the break before a role-reversal saw both sides match their opponents’ prior effort during the second term.
At 29-all, United was in the game — and then some.
So Watson knew something had to give.
“It was more just getting back to the way we wanted to play (after half-time),” he said.
“There was a few things we weren’t doing early that was allowing them to score against us.
“We didn’t defend the transition very well and some of our inside 50 ball was pretty ordinary at times so we tried to sharpen that up a bit after half-time.”
During the third term, Rochester tightened the screws, sharpened up its entries and locked it up down back, restricting United to a single major while kicking three of its own.
It was needed, too, given how the Demons responded.
The hosts outscored the Tigers 4.4 to 3.3 to almost cause a remarkable comeback upset, but despite the enthralling late counter, United had to chalk this one up to ‘close but no cigar’.
Mercurial midfielder Kade Chalcraft was named as the Demons’ best, while Liam Serra was productive in front of goals, booting three majors on the day.
For Rochester, Watson praised a handful of his men for grinding out a tricky win against a plucky opposition.
“Wil Hamilton was a big target for us all day; he marked the ball well, kicked three goals himself from centre half-forward and was really good,” he said.
“Hugh Hamilton kicked four goals, ‘Benny’ Henderson was very good down back and Hamish Hooppell in the ruck was really good, won a lot of contested ball for us around the ground.”
Next up, United has its best chance to get off the mark when taking on fellow winless side Tatura.
Meanwhile, Rochester approaches a hardened month of matches, playing three of the competition’s top six, starting with Shepparton.
“We’ve got a really solid month of footy coming up and it’ll probably show us where we’re at,” Watson said.
“We haven’t been setting the world on fire but to be back in the wins has been good.
“But it’ll be a real test this weekend to show us where we’re at against Shepp ... we know their pressure is really strong, they use the ball really well and have got some quality players so we’ll have to be on our best to beat them next week.”
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