Last Saturday, it was Seymour’s turn to host the league’s back-to-back reigning premier.
Coming into the contest with a 16-1 record and a percentage of 226, if there were betting odds, it would be safe to say Echuca would have been heavy favourite.
Since the start of 2022, the senior footballers from Echuca have won a maniacal 28 games by 10 goals or more. I repeat, out of 50 total games since the beginning of the 2022 season, the Bombers have won 56 per cent of those games by 60 points or more. They have simply dominated.
In round 16 of the GVL season, on a cold day at Kings Park in Seymour, it was the Lions’ turn to try and tame the beast. Unfortunately for the home side, it ended in a comprehensive 104-point defeat, but how exactly was Echuca able to apply so much scoreboard pressure?
On paper, the midfield battle jumps at you — the Lions were simply pumped out of the middle. Echuca was +18 in the hitouts to advantage category, leading directly to the staggering +26 clearance numbers. When the midfield is delivering the ball into the forward 50 that many times, there’s not much any backline can do.
Giving credit where credit is due, Seymour’s pressure rating for the day was a huge 145 (compared to 74 for the Bombers), and they won the tackle count 68-33. The effort was certainly there when in pursuit of the Sherrin, but Echuca’s cleanliness out of contests was superior.
Remarkably, the turnover count was a dead heat, reading 64-64 at the final siren. Maturity shone for the ladder leaders as they moved the ball with precision on the counter-attack, scoring a huge 13.2 (80) directly from Lion turnovers.
On the other side of the ball, Seymour could only conjure up 6.1 (37) from turnovers, even if it was its best avenue to goal throughout the day.
Seymour’s Jack Murphy must also be given the credit he deserves. On a day when his side was soundly beaten, statistically he was the best player on the ground, and by a fairly large margin.
Racking up 44 disposals (14 of those contested), 10 marks, five goal assists and only committing one turnover was good enough for Murphy to end the day with a game-high 185 ranking points.
Without him, the Lions would have been in for a much worse deficit than the 104 points the scoreboard read at the final siren.
The defeat is one Seymour will swiftly aim to forget as it gears up to host Benalla this week.
The ninth versus 10th clash, with only a slim margin of two premiership points separating the teams, promises to be an exciting encounter.