~ Football Previews ~
Rochester v Mooroopna
Rochester is poised to reclaim second spot on the ladder after registering its best win of the year, against traditional rival Echuca, and notching a 10th win for the season. If it can overcome Mooroopna and injury-riddled Echuca is unable to win by any sort of margin against Euroa, then the Tigers will be second again. The Tigers lost to unbeaten Kyabram a week before the Echuca game, after close calls against 7th ranked Seymour (winning by nine points), against an improved Shepp Bears (20-point win), and against lowly Shepp United (when they managed to win by just nine points). They confront a Mooroopna team that sits at 9th with just three wins, and just two goals in the first half of its 51-point loss to Mansfield last weekend. Mooroopna was again reliant on Logan Campbell in attack, adding three goals to his tally (28 for the year), but only teenager William Emanuelli managed to impress of the other Cats forwards. The Cats face up against what is the best-performed defensive unit in the competition, winger Adam McPhee, Andrew Henderson and on-baller Cooper Hamilton all supporting key defender Dylan Gordon with 3 intercept marks last weekend. Kai Madgwick, fresh off the league’s only 50+ disposal game of the season, was forced to do most of his work in attack and had support from Rory Huggard. They were the only players to pass the 100 ranking point total for the game.
Game time: 2pm Saturday, at Moon Oval, Rochester
Prediction: Rochester by 43 points
Shepparton Bears v Benalla
After five straight defeats, the Bears have emerged after the bye with two successive wins, registering 100+ points for the first time since Round 3 with a 104-point win against Tatura on Saturday. They face a Benalla team which has shown signs of improvement this season but remains 10th on the ladder after losing to Shepp Swans by 119 points last weekend. Only inaccurate kicking – the Bears kicked 27 behinds – stopped them from further enhancing their percentage. They are now a game clear and 62 per cent in front of 7th ranked Seymour. While they sit on the edge of the top six, the Bears should win their next four games (all against teams outside the top six). Luke Smith’s nine-goal display, which featured 12 scoring shots and 7 marks Inside 50, has the potential to spark a Bears outfit that has the manpower to challenge most of the top six sides. Benalla, on the other hand, had only two multiple goalkickers against the Swans. Nathan Wright kicked his 3rd bag of 5+ goals and now has 40 for the year, while coach Jarrad Waite was forced to go into defence at different stages in the game. When the teams met in Round 1 this year, the Bears won by 87 points and the Lewis McShane/Luke Smith partnership kicked 11 goals. Nick Warnock had no impact on the game last week, after being the dominant intercept marking player in the competition for the last two months. Only three of the Saints – regular ball magnet Chris Welsh, Tyler McGregor and ruckman Mark Marriott – managed triple-figure ranking point totals.
Game time: 2pm Saturday, at Deakin Reserve, Shepparton
Prediction: Shepparton Bears by 91 points
Echuca v Euroa
A five-game Echuca winning streak came to an end on Saturday against Rochester, who is now breathing heavily down the neck of the three-time reigning premier. Both teams are sitting on 10 wins, but the Murray Bombers will start their next three games as favourites – against Euroa, Tatura and Benalla – before back-to-back games against fellow top-six teams Shepp Bears and Kyabram. Euroa kicked seven opening-quarter goals against United and never looked back, adding another six majors in the third term to eventually win by 31 points. Star on-baller Lachlan Hill had kicked just five goals in his first five games of the year, but finished with five goals in the game to match his entire season output. Hill’s previous best was two majors at senior GVL level. Euroa captain Jett Trotter kicked four majors to make it 26 for the season, while the Magpies’ main defender Cohen Paul was forced to spend extended time in the ruck alongside another makeshift ruckman in Jake Penman. Euroa’s combative game will match up well with the Murray Bombers, who beat them by 40 points in Round One after the Magpies were kept to two goals in the final half. It has Max, Jacob and Jayden Gleeson all in good form, the trio combining for a total of 75 disposals and 17 clearances. Another of the on-ball brigade, Will Creevey, pushed forward to kick two goals from his 20 disposals.
Game time: 2pm Saturday, at Victoria Park, Echuca
Prediction: Echuca by 26 points
Tatura v Mansfield
Will Hogan’s seven-goal game against Mooroopna was a season-best and was his best return for the season after kicking 45 goals in 2024. He created a new benchmark for Inside 50 marks, pulling in 12 for the game and scoring with 10 of his 15 kicks. Midfield star Callum Brown and Cody George were the other multiple goalkickers for the Eagles. Mansfield needs to win its next two games as it faces significant challenges in the three weeks to follow when it confronts a Seymour team which will be desperate to stay in the hunt for finals, along with three teams that sit inside the top six (Rochester, Kyabram and Shepp Bears). After a week on the sidelines, star inside mid Nick Gray announced his return with a statistical feast. He had 43 touches, 6 tackles and won the ball from clearance on 16 occasions. He even kicked a goal and finished just seven points shy of a 200 ranking point performance. These teams have not played this year, but the winless Tatura also has to face up to losing its coach after suffering an 11th straight loss on the weekend. The club’s three assistant coaches will guide the Bulldogs into this weekend’s game. They pushed defenders Michael Archer and Curtis Ryan up the ground on the weekend, kicking six goals for only the fourth time this season.
Game time: 2pm Saturday, at Tatura Park
Prediction: Mansfield by 123 points
~ Netball Previews ~
Rochester v Mooroopna
Mooroopna is the form team of the GVL A-grade netball competition, producing the biggest score of the season (94 goals) on the back of an astonishing 80-goal display from Ash Lancaster. The Cats shot 50 goals to Benalla’s 14 in the second half of the game, with Lancaster now having 389 goals for the season, just behind Shepparton star Kim Borger (406) and well behind the 585-goal total of Euroa goaling genius Olivia Morris. Mooroopna sits 4th on the ladder and has two of its biggest games ahead of it, facing Shepparton Bears and Euroa in successive weeks in Rounds 15 and 16. That will be a true test of the team which has scored 60-plus goals for four successive weeks. Rochester now faces an extremely difficult assignment to win an unlikely spot in the finals. They sit 9th with four wins, eight premiership points outside the top six, but have winnable games against Mansfield and Benalla in the next three weeks.
Shepparton Bears v Benalla
Benalla was highly competitive against Shepp Bears when the teams did battle in Round 2 this year, in fact the Saints scored 42 goals and despite losing by 20 showed enough to suggest an improved season. That hasn’t quite eventuated and they sit bottom of the ladder with just the one win. Last week against Shepp Swans they managed just 23 goals and are now the lowest-performing attack in the competition (four goals behind 11th ranked Kyabram). On a positive, the Saints will be hoping to catch the Bears with one eye on the future as they face up to the other unbeaten team in the league (Euroa) the following week.
Echuca v Euroa
Echuca is only outside the top six by percentage, one of three teams to have won six games this season. The team was led to a strong win against Rochester last week by Bianca Willis, who shot 42 goals with usual goal-shooting star Rose Byrne out of the team. Echuca also had Jacquelyn James playing her first A-grade game for the season, with Jorja Oliver in her second game. They won the second half 33–19 to shake off the determined Rochester. Meanwhile, Euroa returned from the bye a little rusty and was outscored by Shepp United in the last half 16–9. Euroa remains unbeaten and will be hoping to regain top form in the lead-up to the blockbuster game of the season on July 12. That is when the two most likely unbeaten teams in the competition will do battle at Deakin Reserve.
Tatura v Mansfield
Mansfield is coming off its most disappointing result of the season, having given up a massive 94 goals in the loss to Mooroopna last weekend. And it faces a Tatura team that has lost successive games after a Round 10 bye. The Bulldogs have lost to the rampant Mooroopna and unbeaten Shepp and will be plotting a return to the winner’s list this weekend. They have challenging games against two teams which have been extremely competitive against some of the best-performed teams in the competition in the two weeks to follow – 7th placed Echuca and 6th ranked Shepp Swans. Tatura has dropped from third on the ladder to fifth as a result of the improved performances of Seymour and Mooroopna, with the latter now boasting a 150+ percentile and the second-best performed attack in the competition.
