Mansfield v Rochester
Close calls have become something of a specialty for Rochester’s senior football team, their knockout semi-final win against Echuca on Saturday just another example of their ability to win in close contests.
The last time these two teams played ended in a 58 point-all draw, after the Tigers had handed out a belting to the Eagles in Round 4. Rochester won that game 20.14 (134) to Mansfield’s 6.12 (48), one of just 6 games (from 20 this season) that the Tigers kicked 100 points or more.
They have never lost when they have reached triple figures, but during the season had a number of close calls – beating non-finalist Mooroopna by just 7 points, overcoming Euroa by only 15, losing to the Swans by nine points, and just scraping home against another two non-finalists – Shepp United and Seymour – by 9 points in Rounds 8 and 10.
After losing to Kyabram by 42 points in the first week of the finals, their 2nd biggest loss of the season, they started the knockout semi-final against Echuca in impressive fashion – kicking four of the game’s first five goals.
They led by 18 points at quarter time, but had that lead cut to seven points at half time. Only one point separated the teams in the last quarter and Rochester earned a chance to qualify for a grand final if they can win against Mansfield.
Mansfield’s game against Kyabram was not as tight, surprising given that the Eagles beat the Bombers in Round 16 of the home-and-away season (albeit by just a point) and led at one stage in the last quarter of the teams’ Round 5 game before Kyabram surged late to win by 20 points.
On the weekend the Eagles lost by 82 points, kicking a combined total of 1.1 in the first and third quarters, in contrast to Kyabram’s 13.11.
Kyabram won the final term by just two points, but rested stars Mick Mattingly and Kaine Herbert for much of the final term. Mansfield will need to press the reset button hard if they are to overcome a Rochester team that loves a scrap as much as any team in the league.
Some interesting statistics from the weekend’s semi-finals were the lower-than-expected disposal counts of Herbert and Eagles star Callum Brown. Herbert applied the clamps on the former Collingwood player and the new Eagle had just 23 touches for the game (7 of them when Herbert went off in the final term).
Smooth-moving Eagle Matt King had Josh Dillon for company all day and held the former VFL star to just 21 touches, while Cooper Vick kept Eagles goalsneak Billy Hogan to two goals and the usually prolific Nick Gray had just 23 touches.
Compare that with Coby MacCarthy (31 touches, 8 I50s and a goal), Mattingly (36 disposals, 8 clearances and a goal), Jack Russell (34 touches and a goal) and Aidan Robinson (19 touches and four intercept marks) and the Eagles probably didn’t have any players in the top six on the ground.
The Eagles were best served by defenders Dirk Koenen and Adam Boshevski, who took 5 intercept marks between them and had plenty to do alongside Nate Buchanan in defence.
From the other game, Rochester was best served by ruckman Hamish Hooppell, defender Grant Fuller and Ryan O’Keefe, the latter who finished with an amazing 15 Rebound 50s. It was the Rochester defence which was the star of the game, with Echuca having 24 more Inside 50 entries.
Ruckman Hooppell had 23 disposals (17 contested), laid 5 tackles, had 32 hit outs and had 8 clearances. His most defining statistic, however, came in the goals column after he kicked 2 goals – having kicked only one goal in the previous 19 games of 2025.
Fuller amassed 144 ranking points on the back of 10 Rebound 50s, 19 touches, 9 tackles and 2 intercept marks, while O’Keefe had 27 touches for the game.
Echuca teenager Cody Walker led his team’s disposal count, with 32, finishing with 161 ranking points on the back of 13 clearances, 10 Inside 50s and 4 tackles. Without Sam Reid and Cam Valentine, however, it was tough going for the Murray Bombers.
Another teenager, Tom Evans, had 28 touches and 6 Inside 50s, while Cooper Barber was the leading goalkicker in the game with three majors
Prediction: Rochester by 2 points.
