When Rochester hosts its traditional rival Echuca on Saturday at Moon Oval in the opening round of the 2022 Goulburn Valley Football Netball League the Tigers will be aiming to extend its overall winning record over the Murray Bombers since World War II.
Currently, the overall results since the war, in both the Bendigo Football League and the GVL, stands at Rochester 85 wins to Echuca’s 82.
It is in keeping with the mission adopted by Rochester Football Club when it was formed in 1874 when it was “resolved to practice with the purpose of playing and soon beating Echuca” (Riverine Herald June 3, 1874).
However, the first-ever matches between Rochester and Echuca were not played until 1876. In the first match Echuca defeated Rochester by two goals to none while the second match resulted in a draw (two goals each) in what was described as “fast and furious fun” by the Riverine Herald (August 8, 1876).
The Rochester and Echuca football clubs have continued to play each other ever since. In the early years they played in various district competitions, and then both have switched between the Goulburn Valley and Bendigo competitions before settling in the GVL in the early 1970s.
The tabulation of the results post-1945 have been undertaken by Dr Rod Gillett, a lecturer in History at Macquarie University in Sydney, who is doing research into the history of rivalry between the two clubs for an article in a sports history journal.
GVL historian Don Kilgour searched the match day programs to compile the results since 1974 when Echuca resumed its rivalry with Rochester (1973) in the GVL.
The scores in the Bendigo Football League have been put together by former AFP investigator Trevor McNaught, now living in Bendigo. Leading Bendigo football historian Darren Lewis also assisted with the finals scores.
Dr Gillett and McNaught began their schooling together at the Echuca East primary school, and — after their families moved to the Rochester district — attended the high school and played together for the Rochester Football Club.
They both remain avowed Rochester supporters and are members of the Past Players’ Association.
The research to date shows the following:
Bendigo Football League 1948-71: Rochester 40 Echuca 32;
Goulburn Valley League 1974-2019: Echuca 50 Rochester 45.
Rochester enjoyed the greatest period of dominance from 1957-1963 when under dual Melbourne premiership captain Noel McMahen (1957-61) and dual premiership captain-coach Con O’Toole (1962-63), it never lost a game to Echuca by winning a stunning 22 games in a row.
The preliminary final loss in 1963 under former Collingwood star Bill Serong to Rochester prompted the Echuca Excerpts columnist in the BFL Guide to write “… we just cannot seem to get over the hurdle of beating Rochy” (October 5, 1963).
Echuca’s best run in the Bendigo league was under two-time Carlton premiership player and local legend Jim Clark who led the Murray Bombers to 10 wins out of 12 in his coaching stint from 1952-55. Clark would later coach Rochester in the GVL in 1973-74.
The Murray Bombers also enjoyed a good run over Rochester when they came back into the GVL in 1974 and won six games in a row but then lost by a point in round 2, 1977. And then won 12 games in succession from 1982 to 1987.
More recently, Rochester had a long period of dominance from 2007 until 2017 when it won 19 matches to Echuca’s 3. However, Echuca, under another former Carlton star, Andrew Walker, has won the last four matches played between the two clubs prior to last season’s cancelled season due to the COVID pandemic.
Gillett and McNaught have already begun the task of collating scores from 1876 until 1945 which Gillett says will be a “monumental task given the lack of reliability in the publication of scores in newspapers in the early years” but that the National Library’s collection of historical newspapers on Trove “will help us to unravel further insights into the most intense rivalry in country footy”.