Man of the moment: Mitch Bright and partner Emma with son Vali and three-month-old daughter Ruby. Bright became a GVL life member by playing his 200th senior match against Shepparton on Saturday, walking off Moon Oval as a winner — just like he had done 13 years earlier when he kicked four goals on debut for his beloved Tigers against Seymour. Photo: Bruce Povey.
GOALS, Rochester: Joe Atley 3, Dylan Cuttriss 2, Sean Williams 2, Bailey Wileman, Seamus Henderson. Shepparton: Tyron Baden 3, Anthony Andronaco 2, Jacob Watts, Tyler Larkin, Zaydan Leocata, Ned Byrne.
BEST, Rochester: Joe Atley, Hamish Hooppell, Mitch Cricelli, Matt Kellett, Nathan McCarty. Shepparton: Tyron Baden, Jonty Wardle, Xavier Stevenson, Jacob Watts, Anthony Andronaco.
AGAINST THE ODDS
Rochester won the Round 13 match despite losing several key statistical counts.
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A Mitch Bright-inspired Rochester can end its Goulburn Valley league season as the best team outside the finals if it can reproduce the form it showed in its third win of the year, at Moon Oval on Saturday.
There is daylight at the end of what only a month ago appeared to be a long and dark tunnel for the Tigers.
Amid the now nine-month long fight to restore the wider community to something that resembles an operational township, coach Ash Watson and president Justin Cleary — along with a strong supporting cast — have held the club together.
The reward was fitting on Saturday, and there could be more success on the horizon.
In the final five weeks of the season Rochester plays two teams below it on the ladder, and another that it defeated earlier in the season.
Two final-quarter goals from Joe Atley (among three for the afternoon), along with nine disposals and four clearances, put a full stop on a 34-disposal, eight-tackle and eight-clearance game from the star.
Atley leads the competition this season for hard-ball gets and has had more centre clearances, groundball gets, handballs (second only to Euroa’s Will Hayes for total disposals) and contested possessions than any other GVL player.
His third goal came from a clearance free kick when he threw his body in harm’s way and was rewarded with a shot on goal.
He finished with 168 ranking points, his highest tally of the season and fourth 150-point-plus tally for 2023.
Saturday, however, belonged to Bright, as a fairytale result had the home-town crowd in raptures of excitement for the second successive game at home, after the Tigers beat Shepparton Swans at Moon Oval in round 11.
Bright, playing in his 200th senior GVL match 13 seasons after he debuted against Seymour with a four-goal performance as a teenager, was the man of the moment.
His 20-disposal match included seven marks (a game high), four inside 50s, four tackles and eight score involvements.
Bright was greeted by his father, and former president, Jeff, elder brothers Adam and Kane, along with his young family in partner Emma and children Vali and three-week-old Ruby.
Even the 200-gamer’s 88-year-old grandmother, Shirley, was on the sidelines to watch the game, celebrating not only the occasion but also the fact the win has given the Tigers signs of life in a season that, not so long ago, had seen them on the bottom rung of the 12-team ladder.
No longer. The Tigers now sit 10th, with 12 premiership points from 13 rounds of competition, the one-point win against seventh-ranked Shepparton providing the impetus for further improvement in the final five weeks of the season.
Another Atley master class, along with the inspiration provided by the Bright double century, saw the Tigers win the match 9.9 (63) to Shepparton’s 9.8 (62).
Setting sail: Goalsneak Dylan Cuttriss kicked two goals on Saturday and was one of three multiple goalkickers, with Joe Atley (three) and Sean Williams (two).
Photo by
Bruce Povey
Some would suggest the win was a square-up for the Tigers’ 11-point loss earlier in the season, when only inaccurate kicking in the final quarter cost them the four premiership points.
There was, however, no looking back as the theme song rang out from the Tigers’ rooms on Saturday. Three of their next five games are winnable, in particular the next fortnight against Tatura (ninth) and Benalla (bottom).
Rochester defeated Tatura (which also has three wins in 2023) by 11 points in round five and will be out for revenge against a Benalla team it lost to by two points — again on the back of inaccurate kicking, this time 1.7 in the final term.
The combative style of the Tigers was rewarded with a plus-eight return in contested possessions, despite having 10 fewer disposals than Shepparton.
Rochester had more contested marks and intercept marks, Hamish Hooppell responsible for several of those intercepts in his 18-disposal, five-tackle game that featured a season-high 14 rebound 50s.
A 14-tackle game from Grant Fuller, along with the 22-disposal, eight-tackle effort of Seamus Henderson and Bailey Wileman’s 22-disposal, four-clearance game, also contributed to the result.
Captain Nathan McCarty had 17 possessions and Mitch Cricelli earned further acclaim with his 19-disposal, six-mark game, which also included 20 hit outs.
Blake Evans (21 disposals) and the versatile Reid Gordon (21 possessions, four clearances and three tackles) also played their part, as did opportunist forward Dylan Cuttriss (two goals from five kicks) and Sean Williams (who took his season’s tally to 31 goals with another two majors).
