GVL | Shepparton United eyeing 10-year first when it takes on Shepparton Swans

It might only be round two, but there will be plenty on the line when the two sides face off on Saturday afternoon at Deakin Reserve.

United will be hoping to achieve a 10-year first for the club, while the Swans will be fighting to keep their finals hopes alive. Yes, you read that right — keep their finals hopes alive.

A win for the Demons would see them start a season 2-0 for the first time since 2013, while also surpassing the total number of victories they had in 2022 — one.

Off the back of United’s 19-point triumph over Shepparton on Good Friday, coach Duane Hueston said spirits had been high at the club.

But the focus for the side was being consistent.

“The vibe has been really good. There is confidence there,” Hueston said.

“You could see in last week’s game that they really wanted it. I was pleased with the hard work and that they got to see the reward for it.

“We have spoken about how good sides don’t have one great game then go missing for a couple of weeks.

“We chatted about the things that put us in the right position to win the game of football and we have to repeat them again this week.”

The United boss said his side would need to have plenty in the tank when it took on the Swans.

“When the Swans get the ball on the rebound, they are very quick, and they run hard. We just have to make sure we can stop that hard running from them,” Hueston said.

“In a game of football, mistakes will happen. We have to be better at not ball-watching, if we do that against the Swans we will see them run hard past us and kick some goals against us.

“Like every week, we are going to be respecting every opposition. We are not going to get ahead of ourselves.”

Hueston said Jamie Atkinson would be unavailable for the Dees this weekend, with recruit Lewis Stanton — an NTFL premiership winner with Waratah alongside Jayden Magro and Marcus Wattie — set to replace him.

0-2: An unwanted record

Meanwhile for the Swans, a loss to United could be potentially crippling to their finals aspirations.

The Swans fell in their season-opener to Mooroopna by 34 points, with a costly last quarter hampering their efforts.

They trailed by seven points at the last change, but failed to score in the fourth quarter as the Cats kicked away to what was, in the end, a comfortable six-goal triumph.

Now though, the pressure will be on for the Swans to get that first win on the board.

History is not on the side of teams who drop to 0-2 in the GVL. Dating back to 2015 — excluding the two years without finals — 22 teams have failed to take points in the opening two rounds of the season.

Of them, only two — Rochester in 2019 and the Bears in 2016 — have bounced back to finish in the top six.

The other 20 have all gone on to miss the post-season, which shows that while a team can’t earn a finals spot in April, it can certainly cost itself one.

Swans coach Jedd Wright said his side would be hungry to get that first win on the board come Saturday.

“It is a huge game for us,” Wright said.

“United is coming off a good, solid win and they have improved a lot from last year. We think we have as well, so with a bit of luck, we will put in another good showing and hopefully get a win.”

Wright named one key area that his side could improve on following the game against Mooroopna — the start.

“They (Mooroopna) were really quick and jumped us in the first 10 minutes of the game. We will be looking to come out firing and hopefully start better than we did last week.

“We were pretty happy with the effort we put in, we thought we were in the game enough to have a chance to win it, but we will go again this week.”

Wright said Russell Eden would miss this week’s clash with a hamstring injury, with a similar line-up otherwise.