While the town continues to recover from the razing and ruinous floods of 2022, on the football field, the Tigers have completed a master rebuild postage stamped by another crackerjack day on the park at the weekend.
This time, one year ago, Rochester’s Goulburn Valley League season had ended.
But now, it’s only really begun.
The Tigers sealed their home and away campaign with a 15.8 (98) to 11.11 (77) victory over Shepparton United at Deakin Reserve, scanning a pass to the promised land of finals with a third-placed finish in stark comparison to last year’s 10th-ranking.
Undoubtedly, United stuck it to the travellers and initially it did not appear as though seven ladder placings separated the sides, but Rochester rose to the top on a red-letter day for the Tigers.
Victorious coach Ash Watson demanded a response after last week’s at-the-death loss to Mooroopna, and that’s precisely what he got against United.
“Last week we got a bit panicky at times and turned the ball over in bad spots,” Watson said.
“I thought we had a real focus today to tidy that up so I was really happy with the way they did that.
“We knew United were going to come out hard; they had a good side in today with quality on-ballers and some good key forwards.
“We knew we had to come to play, we had to win this game to finish third, so I wanted the mindset and intensity to be up which they were.”
As Watson indicated, United had quality in spades and Ed Adams proved it true with a booming effort from 50 to kick off proceedings.
The pressure reading from both sides was through the roof, and it was only a matter of time until Rochester fired back as Dillon Williams opened his account with an easy set shot.
Kaedyn Napier pushed the home side ahead once more, following an extremely end-to-end opening 10 minutes, but Wil Hamilton’s spectacular contested mark and goal brought it back to 12-12.
Dominant Rochester tall Mitch Cricelli blasted one through in front of the travelling supporters to have the Tigers up 20-14 at quarter-time.
From there, Watson’s boys skipped gears three, four and five and went straight into sixth.
“We lost the clearance battle in the first quarter with the centre breaks and around the ground stoppages, so we had to get back to work inside,” Watson said.
“We knew they spread really well, so just to cover that outside run of theirs and just play our brand of footy and it just opened up in that second quarter for us a little bit.”
The Tigers converted six goals to United’s one in the second term and rolled on with their dominant rule in the third, contributing four majors between goals from Sheldon Bogdan and Napier to lift both sets of fans sporadically off their seats.
It wasn’t just the on-ball action drawing rises from the crowd, either.
Plenty of spice meant off-the-ball scuffles were dotted throughout the game, but two savoury United efforts from Liam Serra and Adams deep into the third term meant by no means was this comeback impossible.
But when Napier’s effort pinged off the post 10 seconds into the fourth quarter, it somewhat foreshadowed what was to come.
Spurned chances at either end made for a hum-drum period, and Rochester was coasting thanks to its lead - and thank god the Tigers held such a buffer.
Napier pulled off a pair of handy inside 50 marks, both of which led to goals; however, the bullocking young forward’s additions were in vain when the siren sounded, and United’s season came to an end.
He finished with four for the day while Aaron Britten and Declan Newbound were judged as the Demons’ best.
For Rochester, an even spread of goal-kickers pointed to a true team display, while Ryan O’Keeffe, Mitch Trewhella, Bailey Wileman and Adam McPhee (three goals) received plaudits from Watson.
To make the win sweeter still, Nathan McCarty brought up game 200 for the club in style as he racked up 28 disposals, four tackles and four clearances.
But now things get real for Rochester.
There’s no time to wax lyrical about past wins or losses as the Tigers ready themselves for battle against Euroa in the first round of finals.
“We know that Echuca and Shepp have been the two best sides all year, so we’ve just got to bring our pressure game,” Watson said.
“We’ve finished third, so it looks like we’ll play Euroa, so if we can bring our heat, that’s what we’ll aim to do next week.”
