Mooroopna makes monster moves in handing Euroa first Goulburn Valley League A-grade loss

Saturday’s titanic round 10 meeting had all kinds of implications far beyond this weekend, but the home side at Mooroopna Recreation Reserve started out as if it had gone in clear favourite all along.

The Cats soared high early, making the fast break and holding the unbeaten visitors to just six goals in the opening term — with star goaler Olivia Morris withdrawn early due to injury, to make matters worse.

The Magpies were stuck in single figures for what seemed an unfathomably long time as Mooroopna assumed full control through the midcourt, even as Sarah Ternes battled hard in place of Morris.

Euroa starlet Hollie Reid moved into the centre to fight the tide but the Cats had already largely done the required damage, comfortably ahead by 13 at the half.

Morris was back on court shortly before half-time despite what initially looked like a serious blow to her arm, and rallied valiantly to eventually finish as Euroa’s top scorer in spite of it all with 16 goals as the Magpies saved face by narrowly winning the third term.

That said, it was all about the action inside the opposing arc as Ash Lancaster and Jacqui Ball went to town, with a fierce four-quarter effort one of many key takeaways from a resounding 50-34 Mooroopna win.

Coach Di Hanslow was ecstatic at her side’s continuous efforts against a top-tier outfit.

“It has to be everything working against a team like Euroa,” Hanslow said.

“If you’re down in one position, it’ll probably cost you the game but I reckon we won in every position.

“We were well up at half time, but we were well up against Seymour as well so it was about bringing four quarters today and matching the intensity in our second half to our first.

“Our defence has been good each week and that hasn’t been an issue for us; I felt this was a continuation of what we’ve been doing defensively.

“Dayna Williams and Caitlin McLachlan were brilliant, but so was the pressure from everyone.”

This week brings arguably just about as big a test as one could have after knocking off Euroa, with Shepparton looming across the Midland Hwy at Deakin Reserve.

Understandably, Hanslow asserted that there had been no advance planning ahead of a meeting with the Bears given the opposition in front of them on Saturday.

“This week, it was about what Euroa would bring and what we needed to counteract that, so we’ll think about what the Bears are doing this week,” Hanslow said.

“We’re going one week at a time and you can’t really do much more than that.

“We’ve been falling down in the second half of games this season, so rather than defensive work, we had to think about what our attackers were doing.”

With the Cats moving to 8-1 and sitting four points behind the Magpies, there was plenty else to settle in the rungs beneath.

Tatura and Echuca went about putting some space in between themselves and the remaining chasers by shoring up third and fourth with wins of their own.

The Bulldogs overcame Shepparton Swans 55-51 at Princess Park, while Echuca prevailed in its own heavyweight battle at Victoria Park in an identical scoreline against Shepparton.

Elsewhere, Seymour notched its sixth win with a 49-32 victory over Shepparton United at Deakin Reserve, moving up to fifth on the table.

Rochester picked up some momentum by knocking over Mansfield 50-38 and Kyabram experienced the sweet relief of a first victory by beating Benalla 50-40.