Euroa came into its round 17 Goulbourn Valley League contest fighting to keep its season alive.
The Magpies jumped the Saints out of the blocks, and Benalla was never able to recover.
Benalla fared well in the midfield all day, actually winning the total clearance battle and the hit-outs to go with it. But it was the way the home side butchered the ball going forward that gave Euroa all of the momentum from the first bounce.
“It’s a pretty disappointing day from a club perspective,” senior coach Jarrad Waite said.
“We signed a couple of the local boys and were expecting a really good response. We were up and about, we had a really good warm-up, but that first quarter we played poorly.”
The second quarter is one that hopefully will be wiped from the memory banks in Benalla, as the Saints kicked 0.5 (5) to Euroa’s 7.6 (48). Again, in a quarter marred by Benalla’s inefficiencies going forward, Euroa was able to score well on the counter-attack, resulting in its well-deserved 65-point lead at the main break.
“We’d have a really good passage of play, and our skills would let us down,” Waite said disappointedly.
“We haven’t played that way since the start of the year. We’ve been building and playing a really good brand of football for probably a month and a half, just disappointing to come out in the last home game of the year and produce that. We didn’t come with the right attitude, and it really showed.”
In the second half, the away side established further authority, winning both quarters soundly. Euroa managed 21.21 (147) to Benalla’s 1.8 (14) for the day, showing the difference between a finals-ready team, and one in the making.
Mark Marriott once again starred for Benalla with 21 disposals (17 contested), 46 hit-outs and eight clearances. Colby Mathieson, Chris Welsh, James Martiniello and Patrick Warner closed out Benalla’s best for the day.
“Especially at three-quarter time, it was more about a bit of pride, a bit of want and work for each other,” Waite said.
“Yeah, the day’s not going great for you, but there’s things you can do to go out and help a teammate. You can always put on a block, some extra tackling and just try and help a teammate out.”
With one game left in the season, Benalla gets its last chance to taste victory against a bottom-of-the-ladder Tatura. Although Benalla won their last encounter by an impressive 55 points, Waite knows this one has to be earned.
“We’re not a good enough team at the moment to not come in fully switched on,” Waite said.
“If you don’t come in with the right attitude you can lose by a hundred very quickly in the GV. We’ll move on very quickly from this game, but if we bring that attitude this week it’ll be the same story.
“In the scheme of things there’s nothing on the line, but for a club, and going into next year, we need to start preparing well and finishing off games that we should win and we need to win.”