Rochester Tigers’ Under-16 team is through to the Bendigo Junior Football League preliminary final after a hard-fought win against Eaglehawk.
Hold tight - we’re checking permissions before loading more content
The boys played in beautiful sunshine on Sunday afternoon at Kangaroo Flat in what was a physical and often fiery clash.
Eaglehawk kicked with the wind in the first quarter, but thanks to some brilliant defensive work from the Tigers’ back six, Eaglehawk was forced to take shots from difficult spots on the ground, registering just five points for the quarter.
On the counter-attack, a clever chip kick from Harrison Keating found a leading Lachie Joyce.
He kicked truly from 35m out and the Tigers were able to take a crucial lead into the quarter-time break.
The backline, lead by Jordy Rasmussen, had a fantastic first quarter.
He was well supported by Matt Harrington, Curtis Howard and Paddy Eeles, as the group continuously won their one-on-one battles.
The second quarter saw the Tigers produce some of their best football for the season.
They switched the footy, attacked through the middle of the ground and used the footy effectively all over the ground.
In a brilliant burst of football, the boys were able to pile on five goals to two goals for the quarter.
Cooper Harbour was taking control in the middle with some great tap work and Keating and Joyce were swooping on the loose ball.
Trey White provided a terrific target across half forward and gave the team some real speed around the footy when he went into the ruck.
Oakley Tarrant, in his first game back for months, sent the crowd into a frenzy at the start of the second quarter when he was able to grab the ball from a pack, bustle his way through and snapped truly.
Joyce was able to mark strongly for his second and a beautiful goal on the run from Joyce gave him three goals for the first half.
White marked strongly at the 50m arc and found an open Jimmy Otto who played on and kicked his first goal.
White was then able to kick one for himself when he snapped a great goal to cap off a dominant quarter for the Tigers.
By half-time, the Tigers had opened up a very handy 23-point lead.
The third quarter saw Eaglehawk dominate possession of the ball and continually pepper the goals.
A combination of good defence and bad goalkicking from the Hawks meant that the quarter was much more even than it could have been.
Oli Williams was finding space and his tackling and run were pivotal to the Tigers victory.
Sam Seabrook’s ability to find a target with his short kicking opened up the ground for his teammates.
Eaglehawk kicked one goal and five points for the quarter and the Tigers, through a brilliant run down tackle from Tarrant, were able to respond with a goal of their own.
The boys had a 19 point lead and were kicking to the scoring end in the last quarter.
The Tigers weren’t able to run out the game as they would have liked, but did enough to secure the win that they were desperately chasing.
White capped off a great game when he was able to take advantage of a high tackle and slotted an important goal in the last quarter.
Eaglehawk had many scoring shots, but the players were unable to make the most of their opportunities.
They managed two goals from six scoring shots as the Tigers ran out winners by 10 points and will now meet Sandhurst on Sunday in the preliminary final.
Rochester’s midfield were combative all day and were able to produced many scoring opportunities for the forward line.
Williams, Keating and Joyce were the standouts of a group that had a very good day.
The backline worked together brilliantly all game.
Rasmussen, Harrington and Howard were able to take countless intercept marks and set the game up from the back half.
It was brilliant to see Tarrant out on the field again for the Tigers and his hardness and physicality has been something the Tigers have been sorely missing.
White was the Tigers best forward for the day.
He worked hard up the ground, his hands were clean and he was able to use the ball efficiently.
Final score: Rochester 8.7 (55) to Eaglehawk 5.15 (45).
Best players: Oli Williams, Lachie Joyce, Jordy Rasmussen, Curtis Howard, Harrison Keating and Matt Harrington. Goalkickers: Lachie Joyce 3, Oakley Tarrant, Trey White 2, Jimmy Otto 1.
A finals win was a great reward for the boys who have played some terrific footy for the season.
We wish the boys and the coaching staff all the best for their game on Sunday.
Campaspe News