Mooroopna holds on by a thread in white-knuckled finish against Tatura

Its sound cut the cries from a vocal travelling crowd as the Cats held on by two goals in a Goulburn Valley League A-grade thriller at Mooroopna on Saturday afternoon.

Tatura was never out of the race all game, but almost stole it from beneath Mooroopna’s nose in a 39-37 crackerjack contest.

Cats coach Di Hanslow admitted her side was slightly rattled in the late phases, stating the Bulldogs’ push caused her side to stray away from its plan as pressure played its part.

“I asked (the players) after the game what were they doing in those last few minutes, were they playing the game or were they playing the situation?” she said.

“Clearly they all acknowledged they were playing the situation and not the game plan.

“You can’t do that, you’ve got to keep playing out the game.

“That’s something we’ll go away and work on, about going about your processes regardless.”

With a position at the ladder’s top on the line, Mooroopna went into the match missing key talents Bree Hanslow and Jazmin Clark.

Ella Ogier and Ash Lancaster formed the Cats’ goaling brigade, helping the host to a 13-7 lead at the first change of ends.

The midcourt battle was exceptional, as Elsie Boyer’s deceptive bullet passes helped create looks for Tatura, while Asha Gray’s work-rate kept Mooroopna ticking.

An 8-8 second quarter meant the Cats sustained their six-goal advantage heading into the third exchange and Mooroopna’s defensive end combination of Caitlin McLachlan and Maddison Wong made life increasingly difficult for Julia Clarke and Steph Smith-Gorrie.

The Bulldogs needed to stand tall, which is precisely what they did.

A ramped-up effort in the third quarter had Tatura trail by less than a handful of goals during patches, with turnovers being forced all over the court.

Mooroopna then wrested back a degree of dominance in the initial minutes of the last term and built the lead back out to seven goals, but could not muster its usual clean and efficient approach to sink the visitors.

Tatura rose, with the deficit reducing to four, then three, then two.

However, all hopes of a magnificent comeback were quelled by the hooter, leaving Hanslow content, but with a string of workable aspects to be ironed out, as her side goes four points clear at the head of the table.

“I was very pleased with the win, but all of us looked at it and thought we had our opportunities to really take a hold of that game,” she said.

“Our decision-making became a little bit hasty rather than being more patient.

“We didn’t need to get ourselves in that situation, so that was probably the disappointing thing about that game, and I think the players all felt the same way afterwards.

“A win’s a win, but we really need to step up in a few areas if we’re going to have any chance of being successful at the end of the year.

“Sometimes you can learn a lot from those games, they expose things that you can go back and work on ... that’s the plus from that.”

Hanslow liked the defensive combination of McLachlan and Wong, while singling out Paigan Impey for stepping into the wing defence role.

For Tatura, Molly Kennedy, Taylor Rokahr and Emma Quinn stood out.

In other games, Rochester vaulted over Shepparton Swans into seventh after taking the spoils 58-53, while Echuca holds fifth place following its 60-23 drubbing of Mansfield.