Rochester has a significant improvement on its current 10th ranking in the Goulburn Valley League in mind as it prepares for a “winnable’’ month of football.
While the Tigers must confront fifth-ranked Euroa in two weeks’ time, they face bottom team Benalla this weekend and then have match-ups with the two teams directly above them on the ladder, Shepparton United and Shepparton Swans.
Rochester, Benalla, the Swans and United have all had only one win from seven games this year as the competition has quickly developed into a case of the haves and have-nots.
Mooroopna, which is sixth, already sits two games clear of seventh-ranked Shepparton (which beat the Tigers by just 11 points) as only Echuca remains unbeaten this season.
By the start of July, if results go their way, the Tigers could be sitting just outside the top six teams with four wins, but nobody is counting their chickens.
The Tigers, after Saturday’s 50-point loss to Mansfield, have now faced five of the top six teams and by the end of round 10 will have been matched up with all of this season’s likely GVL finalists.
Rochester went into the match without one of its best players this season, Blake Evans, in the lineup. They did, however, have an almost like-for-like replacement in defensive-minded Grant Fuller back in the lineup.
There was still no sign of long-term injured players Will Hamilton, Doug Wren or Andy Henderson, while the playing future of co-captain Nathan Marrone remains uncertain with continuing problems with his wrist.
A pair of five-goal defeats against the second and third-ranked teams, Seymour and Kyabram, proves the Tigers are not that far off the pace. Apart from the blow out against reigning premier Echuca and a 65-point loss to Mooroopna the team has been super competitive.
Some respite from competing against top teams comes in the form of a match with the only team below it on the ladder, a Benalla team which has suffered four 50-point-plus defeats in its opening seven games.
Like Rochester the Benalla line-up never exceeds 30 player points. In fact, if not for Reid Gordon’s presence in the Tigers’ team there would be only one player ranked above one point; Elmore recruit Mitch Cricelli.
Benalla’s points total against Mooroopna on Saturday, when it was beaten by 58 points, was just 24 points (compared to Rochester’s 26) and it had no player ranked more than two points.
The Saints ran second-ranked Seymour to 21 points in the opening round of the season, fell just 11 points shy of Tatura (which the Tigers beat in round five) and its only win came in a two-point result against Shepparton United.
It will, however, probably have the same high hopes as the Tigers as the next three weeks of its own draw include matches with teams all outside the top six.
More GVL Data stories, including a cross-competition statistical comparison of Joe Atley and Gold Coast Suns bull Matt Rowell, on page 15.
