Shepparton's Jacob Watts is deservedly excited after nailing one of his three goals.
Photo by
Megan Fisher
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Tatura attempts to take in a lesson at three quarter time.
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Megan Fisher
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Shepparton's Ted Lindon was seldom challenged down back.
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Megan Fisher
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Shepparton's Mitchell Brett comes out with the pill.
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Megan Fisher
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Tatura's Curtis Ryan attempts to put Shepparton's Ned Byrne off the scent.
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Megan Fisher
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Shepparton listens in for the message.
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Megan Fisher
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Shepparton's Ashley Holland is challenged in the air by Tatura's Daniel Maher.
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Megan Fisher
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Tatura's Jacob Chessells gets his hands on some contested ball.
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Megan Fisher
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It was physically gruelling action throughout, regardless of the scores.
Photo by
Megan Fisher
What he meant by that was scrappy, unfiltered and, more than anything else, imperfect.
The final scoreline bears that out to a point, of course, with 23 behinds on the board including nine in the third term.
Nonetheless, it couldn’t have been much more comprehensive according to the raw eye test as the host went about totally smothering Tatura through the middle of the ground.
Reigning Morrison medallist Ash Holland retained plenty of influence, as you would expect, though it looked at times as if he may have met his physical match in the ruck contest as big new Bulldog Ben Darrou asserted himself on debut.
Having kicked the visitors’ only major of the first three and a half quarters, Darrou was one who could walk off with a feeling of individual achievement matching up against the single most fearsome individual in Goulburn Valley football.
It was the two players who will almost certainly split five Morrison votes between them come September who broke this one apart from the beginning, with Jacob Watts contributing the game’s opening goal before Lewis McShane announced himself as a full-time forward focal point with three in the first term.
Watts was impossible to ignore for more than just the distinctive headband and mane, in and under everything with a few highlight reel moments capped by a tremendous long running goal late in the game after taking on the man on the mark.
Zaydan Leocata, set to enter his first primarily senior season of football, was another to make an impressive start with some crafty work inside 50 leading to three goals on the day.
Having secured the day’s biggest winning margin in a round featuring plenty of lopsided results, Lindon was at least satisfied.
“Ultimately, we’re rapt to get a 100-point win in round one. That’s something you don’t usually see,” Lindon said.
“There was a bit of rust in the system, but you do so much work over the summer and it’s good to be competing and winning games of footy early in the year.
“From here, we’ll probably be focusing more on us and what we can do to continue to get better; there were things from today we’ll go to school on during the week.
“It’s more about focusing on the vision of how we’ll get better.”
There was no shortage of kind words for the two burgeoning Bears who put themselves at the forefront of Saturday’s demolition job, either.
“That performance from Lewis isn’t a surprise,” Lindon said.
“He’s been doing that for two years and he flies under the radar a bit; he adds a lot of value to our side and he’ll be a big target going forward.
“Jacob is another one who’s not a surprise in terms of his output. He’s been in the state system for a while, but he’s been in the state system and all the exposure to that level of footy is shining through.
“He has huge attention to detail, so it was good to see him get a lick of the ice cream.”
The Bears will go into their Benalla meeting this week widely expected to produce something similar, while Tatura will lick its wounds ahead of an encounter with Corey Carver’s bolstered Kyabram outfit.
