The 2024 senior interleague football clash between Goulburn Valley League and Ovens and Murray League had plenty of fire in it.
For the first time in more than a decade, though, GVL had the last laugh despite a start that appeared to have the locals on the ropes at Deakin Reserve — mostly their own doing with a bevy of wasted chances.
The final three stanzas were a far more controlled display from the purple and gold, though, harnessing the ball and consistently finding more targets.
GVL breaks its hoodoo - by the numbers
Marks: 112-55
Tackles inside forward 50: 20-10
Marks inside 50: 13-4
Kicking efficiency: 61% - 50%
Intercept possessions: 76-60
Some of these numbers are, of course, far more eye-catching than others.
The differential of 16 in intercept touches hardly seems like a game-breaker on its own, though it was a greater win in that stat than any GVL side had in the previous round of league games.
It was a measure of consistency for the home side, though, winning the stat in all four quarters by nickel-and-dime margins.
As for corralling the opposition with ball in hand, the disparity in how both teams preferred to move the ball was clear.
The O&M maintained an almost 1:1 kick-to-handball ratio, while the GVL’s huge advantage by foot (233-165) emphasised a more patient, controlled style.
Of course, there were woes around goal early and this approach struggled to convert into meaningful benefits at first.
Once it found the big sticks, though, this game plan created a snowball that brought the GVL right back over the top.
What also helped was a raft of potent targets inside 50 to keep the ball locked in whenever an aerial ball presented itself.
The gigantic win in marks inside the arc was commandeered by four multiple clunkers — Anthony Depasquale (three), Daniel Johnston (three), best-on-ground Harry Mahoney (two) and Joel Brett (two).
Even when the ball came loose around the GVL goals, a couple of other usual tall targets in Riley Mason and Hugh Byrne combined for five tackles in that area of the ground, with Jed Woods contributing another five in a brilliant pressure-forward outing.
A difference of more than 10 per cent in efficiency by foot speaks to the impositions the GVL regularly made on the O&M’s more run-and-gun style of advancing the ball.
In the end, the proof of one system triumphing over another was in the pudding, with a second half where the locals added 12 scoring shots to four with 52 more disposals, a whopping 45 more marks and even a dead-level count in effective tackles, despite having more of the ball.
All up, it’s not a bad body of work when taking into account the extraordinarily close numbers in hit-outs and clearances, where no clear ascendancy came out of the middle whatsoever.
The slower, kick-based methods threatened to blow up in the Goulburn Valley’s face with 0.7 on the board early in the second term, but the side coached by Mark Lambourn and Sam Reid more than strung it together to justify the possession-based game.