Rochester leaves no doubt in thumping Goulburn Valley League triumph

With a breakaway pack forming within the top placings, Rochester did more than its share in a gigantic 20.21 (141) to 11.4 (70) win, ensuring the Tigers maintain a grip on outright third place.

The home side, sporting its heritage-honouring red and yellow sashes on the guernsey, garnered the early ascendancy without completely taking the game away in the opening term despite notching eight scoring shots to two.

Andy Henderson’s late double before quarter-time heralded what was to come, though, as he and the other Rochester forwards got firmly down to business in the second stanza.

Wil Hamilton and Mitch Cricelli both found the middle twice in the term, while Henderson added his third just before the long break in a barnstorming half-hour of football that pushed the margin up towards 10 goals.

What followed both sides out of the sheds was an indication that neither coach was happy to leave it there — in particular, United’s Duane Hueston, judging by how his Demons responded early in the third.

United went about saving face in aggressive fashion early in the second half, accumulating four of the third term’s first five goals before Rochester, whose advantage was never truly under threat, eventually steadied and unleashed its own flurry.

All told, both sides slugged it out in a crazy 30 minutes of football that yielded six goals apiece, leaving the contest largely where it had been at the half.

As had been the trend in the first two quarters, Henderson again got the last word in the contest with the quarter’s final major.

Opening the final term with his seventh and final goal of the day, Henderson and his Tigers cohort could have had plenty more, were it not for a luckless string of six consecutive behinds in the dying stages.

All in all, though, who’s going to complain about notching 41 scoring shots and running rampant on an already celebratory weekend for Rochester?

Not Tigers coach Ash Watson, that’s for sure.

“We were happy with the way we played,” Watson said.

“Our pressure was really high, particularly in the first half, and we were able to get a hold of the clearances.

“We let them back in the game a bit in the third, but it turned out pretty well in the end.”

Of course, Henderson earned his share of plaudits, as well as Dillon Williams, who brought up his 150th game in sync with the club’s 150th anniversary celebration.

“Andy had a real breakout game and stood out for us,” Watson said.

“He played a bit more up forward with Sean Williams out of the side this weekend.

“He’s one of our local kids who’s finding his feet after he missed all of last year with an ACL; I love the way he goes about it with his attack on the footy.

“Dillon’s a local fella who’s come through all the ranks, and we were happy to celebrate his 150th. He’s another who comes from one of our powerful families.”

Up next for the rampaging Tigers is a long trip to Mansfield for a clash between two sides which have heated up in the middle portion of season 2024.

“Mansfield is always tough to beat, particularly down there,” Watson said.

“They’ve been going well and scoring heavily in a lot of their wins, so we’ll have to take our pressure from this week over there to have a real chance.”