GVL Data | Mooroopna plays keepings off against Rochester

By Bransen Gibson

May 16, 2023

Ball magnets: Daniel Johnston dishes out a handball for Mooroopna – one of the Cats' 385 disposals against Rochester. Photo: Bruce Povey

When Mooroopna faced off against Rochester on Saturday afternoon, it started off as a match of Aussie rules football.

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But by the time the final siren blew, the encounter had seemingly transformed into something else entirely – a giant game of keepings off.

A commanding second half powered Mooroopna to a 65-point triumph over Rochester, with the Cats dominating the ball collection statistics.

The Cats had a colossal 165 more possessions than the Tigers at Mooroopna Recreation Reserve, the largest disposal differential in any Goulburn Valley League game this season

Mooroopna collected 385 total disposals – the second most any side has managed in a game in 2023 – while at the same time restricting the Tigers to 220 touches – the second fewest for a match of any team this year.

It was a total whitewash across the board for Mooroopna – the home side was plus-36 in contested disposals, plus-129 in the uncontested disposals, plus-108 in handballs and plus-37 in marks.

And despite having way more of the ball, the Cats had three fewer ineffective kicks (55 to Rochester’s 58), as well as 13 more intercept possessions (58 to 45), nine more intercept marks (19 to nine) and nine fewer turnovers (53 to 62).

The second half was particularly dominant.

The Cats more than doubled the Tigers’ disposal count in quarters three and four, 210 to 95, helping them boot 10 goals to two for the half while also having 17 scoring shots to two.

Ethan Hunt (33 disposals) and Keelin Betson (30) led the way for the Cats, with all but three Mooroopna players having possession tallies in the double digits.

By contrast, Joseph Atley had the most touches for the Tigers with 28, while 14 Rochester players had fewer than 10 disposals.

Not only did the Cats have more of the Sherrin, they were better users by hand and foot as well.

Mooroopna ticked along with an overall disposal efficiency of 81 per cent (71 per cent kicking efficiency, 91 per cent handball efficiency) compared to Rochester’s overall rate of 67 per cent (57 per cent kicking, 83 per cent handball).