Out of the ashes, Daniel Johnston carries Mooroopna to after-the-siren Goulburn Valley League win

The inconsistent conditions proved as wild and variable as the football for most of the early going, with the opening term defined by two starkly distinct periods of dominance.

In this clash where the Cats sought to affirm top-four status with a round to play, Kobie Issell could hardly have gotten them off to a better start with a flashy no-look snap around the corner in the opening minute.

In seemingly the blink of an eye, Rochester was in the hole after Daniel Johnston and Kai Madgwick quickly saluted to give Mooroopna a running start — a series of blows compounded by the loss of key defender Hamish Hooppell to a most unpleasant finger injury.

Of course, time was more than on the side of Ash Watson’s men, and the Tigers lifted as necessary, getting on top at the centre stoppages and gradually converting chance after chance to assume a shock quarter-time lead after trailing by 25.

A soaked morning had by then turned to a gradually clearing afternoon, but the precipitation again proved prominent through much of the second, creating a scrappy atmosphere for some time.

Logan Campbell eventually stuck Mooroopna’s neck back in front and Bayden Fallon joined the party shortly thereafter before Andy Henderson fired back more than 15 minutes into the term.

In fact, it wasn’t until Tigers barometer Mitch Cricelli lined up his second of the day moments before the long break that either side had found the same goal-kicker twice.

Coming out of the break, though, that changed with the seasons — that is, in quite a hurry as the turf again started to dry.

Hugh Hamilton got on the end of the second half’s first blow landed, before one became two for Wil Hamilton and two became three for Cricelli; John Lamont’s side appeared to be wilting under the reinvigorated sun.

A blitz-like 25-point buffer just over midway through the first term had become a 22-point hole to dig out of by three-quarter time, and an irate Lamont made sure his side was more than aware at the final huddle.

Contrary to the galvanising message from above, however, the Cats were still living in enemy territory for large chunks of the final term with most everything on the line as the ball remained bunkered firmly inside the Tigers’ end for the most part.

Heading into time-on of a goalless final stanza with the margin holding firm at 22, Mooroopna had seven majors on the board, all from different sources, and desperately needed an impact player to fire up.

Luckily, the Cats remembered they had one all along.

Daniel Johnston might not have taken the chocolates in his positional duel for more than three-and-a-half quarters with just the single goal to his name despite the absence of Hooppell, but slotting a long finish on a decent angle for his second at least provided a heartbeat.

With just a hint of spirit about Mooroopna suddenly, you would hardly have processed that by the time Johnston was going back to sink his third, reducing the margin to single-digit territory.

Wouldn’t you know it, he had a fourth just a handful of moments down the line after a big solid grab, putting hearts in mouths all over the Mooroopna complex as Rochester faithful pondered the once unthinkable.

Though the Cats proceeded to dominate at every centre clearance, they looked to be left one shy of the ultimate smash-and-grab with the Tigers forcing repeat stoppages inside their defensive 50.

That was, until a sudden call on infringement as the ball came in — and you’d never guess whose hands the ball was in as the siren blew.

Johnston, seeking his fourth in about six minutes with the chance to seal a famous victory, sent his right-footed attempt up from about 25m, initially just off-line but curling just enough the right side of the goalpost to secure a scintillating 11.12 (78) to 11.8 (75) win.

Raucous scenes ensued on and off the park post-game, but once the euphoria and visiting heartbreak subsided, coach Lamont was left wondering: “What the hell just happened?”

“My head’s spinning a bit,” Lamont said.

“We didn’t kick a goal for an hour and then kicked four in just those few minutes.

“Daniel had a bit of ice in his veins, cool as a cucumber to kick that goal after the siren.

“I’m a bloke who prefers not to look; I shrunk and retreated to the back of the coaches box and watched the other players, not the kicker himself.

“It was just an incredible result — an absolute Houdini act.”

Of course, though, it took others doing their job up the ground to facilitate Johnston’s late feeding frenzy, and Lamont singled out Jed Woods, Coby James, Coby McCarthy and Oli Hanrahan for getting their hands on it in the middle when needed.

With the top-four finish now secured in spite of Kyabram’s victory over Seymour, there’s an element of luxury ahead of Mooroopna’s own meeting with the Lions to close out the regular season.

“We’ll check in with our playing group after a hard slog today and have a freshening up week,” Lamont said.

“We’ll see where everyone’s at and have a pretty light week.

“We had to defend for large parts of the game and we’re a bit knackered.

“It looked like the game was going to peter out and as we started playing well at the end, I said we’d just run out of time.

“I wasn’t expecting it, but there was some great composure shown late to get the ball forward. We hadn’t done enough of that to give our forwards a look, but all of a sudden we did late.”

Ryan O’Keefe, Wil Hamilton, Mitch Trewhella, Shaun Atley and Mitch Cricelli were singled out as Rochester’s best in defeat as the Tigers wrap up finals preparations this week against Shepparton United.