Shepparton brought the heat on the heavily-fancied Euroa and trailed the second-placed outfit by eight points at the main break.
A similar scenario was happening only a few hundred metres down the road at Princess Park between the Shepparton Swans and Echuca.
The Bears laid a remarkable 41 tackles in the first half, compared to Euroa’s 19, and finished with an impressive 74.
It’s no surprise to see Shepparton has laid the most tackles in a match this season with 83 in round nine.
Euroa coach Scott Rowan praised the Bears post-match and said “they were really good with their pressure”.
Despite their impressive tackle count, the home side did struggle to get first-use of the ball.
Euroa youngster Lachie Hill had a team-high 13 contested possessions, along with teammate Jacob Gleeson.
Hill gathered a season-high 31 disposals and booted two goals in the win.
Euroa went at 55 per cent efficiency by foot, down on their season average of 63 per cent.
The Magpies amassed 57 inside-50s during the encounter — the outfit’s fourth highest of the year.
Rowan also highlighted that the Bears “stopped us from scoring with their numbers pushing back” which saw the Magpies have their second worst scores-from-inside-50 percentage for the season.
In the second quarter Euroa managed to pile on 12 inside-50 deliveries, but they could only muster two behinds and had a 17 per cent scoring efficiency.
The Magpies finished with 40 per cent for the match, their second lowest in 2022 after their 34 per cent effort against Mansfield in round one.
With the ball living in their defensive 50, it’s little wonder to see that Bears playing coach Ted Lindon collected 31 disposals and 11 rebound-50s.
Key stats
Shepparton v Euroa round 12
Disposals
Shepparton: 281
Euroa: 370
Contested possessions
Shepparton: 114
Euroa: 148
Tackles
Shepparton: 74
Euroa: 53
Kick efficiency
Shepparton: 57%
Euroa: 55%
Inside-50s
Shepparton: 31
Euroa: 57
Scoring percentage from inside-50s
Shepparton: 45%
Euroa: 40%
Spoils
Shepparton: 30
Euroa: 13