Echuca served up a treat for the elimination final between Rochester and Euroa, with only victory assuring anyone of tomorrow.
The clash at Victoria Park kicked off with a bang, neither side evidently willing to keep too many cards close to the chest in the early going.
It wasn’t your average feeling-out process despite a few minutes passing prior to the first goal, with Dillion Williams and Mitch Cricelli saluting to put Rochester ahead before a quick answer from Jett Trotter, all in the space of about five minutes.
Euroa would achieve its first lead of the contest shortly before time-on when Silver Yousif embarked on an untouchable run into an open goal, then proceeding to trade goals with Cricelli as the sides regrouped at the quarter-time huddle with nothing in it, locked at 3.2 apiece.
A bomb from Nathan Stewart constituted the first salvo fired after the break as Euroa inched ahead once more, but Wil Hamilton’s angled set shot levelled proceedings in short order.
An enthralling contest loomed as the two sides very seldom had consecutive looks on goal, with Yousif putting some distance on his third of the half from a set shot.
The blows simply continued to land from all directions as James McPhee brought it back to two points after being marched to the goal line following some late contact.
Shaun Atley was the one to finally snap the back-and-forth scoreboard scenario, converting very shortly before Dillion Williams made it three in a row as Rochester rocked and rolled into a nine-point buffer at the main break.
Without the numbers being immediately available, this looked like a half that had staggeringly few midfield stoppages; rather, it resembled a free-flowing, end-to-end ‘for the neutrals’ type of spectacle.
For 10 minutes to open the third term, it looked almost like a different game entirely had bounced down in the middle as both teams squandered opportunities in succession until Cricelli unleashed one from range for his third and a game-high 16-point lead.
Williams’ third, a dribble bouncing home out of traffic moments later, immediately preceded Adam McPhee’s finish from the pocket — and appeared to put the Magpies on the brink.
It was a full-blown goal glut before long as the margin neared 40, with the drive back to Euroa rapidly starting to look like an agonisingly long one.
Thirty-eight points was the mountain for Euroa to climb with only the faintest of mathematical hopes left in the tank.
Faint was good enough for Ryan Pendlebury’s side, however, which went to task all guns blazing in the final term’s early stages through goals to Trotter, Lachlan Hill and the playing coach himself.
Any hopes of a fairytale revival were dashed for good, however, when a sudden 50m penalty walked Nate Rasmussen into point-blank range to stop Euroa in its tracks.
Cricelli was more than happy to grab a couple for the road, wishing Euroa faithful ‘good night’ as his sixth sailed home with Rochester ultimately moving on, 16.6 (102) to 11.11 (77).
Tigers coach Ash Watson reflected on a game — to borrow the old cliche — of two halves.
“The first half was a pretty taxing game of footy for both sides,” Watson said.
“We just knew that if we kept plugging away, we could pick up some momentum.
“Our pressure was way up in that third term and it helped us get that result.
“It was hard to gauge for a while with the cross breeze, but I was just glad we could get going after half-time.”
Cricelli earned his plaudits as well in a clearly best-afield display, having lifted the standard as much as anyone on the park in the second half.
“He’s such a huge talent at only 21 years of age,” Watson said.
“He played a lot more forward today and he’s got a great set of hands; (Euroa’s) got a lot of great talent in that team and we knew we couldn’t let them off the leash too much.
“I was really pleased with what he could do and he clunked a few, which was awesome.
“We just have to ride this momentum and you never know what could happen over the next three weeks of footy for us.
“We’ll hopefully have a few players back and be ready to go forward.”
