Euroa responded from its poor loss to Seymour in style on Saturday as it handed Mooroopna a deflating 37-point defeat.
On a slippery and muddy Memorial Oval, the Magpies got back to some of their best football in the Goulburn Valley League round 17 encounter.
There was hardly any faults in Euroa’s line-up across the ground, with the midfield, forward line and backline all showing glimpses of class.
Midfielder Ben Giobbi was instrumental and found a stack of the ball, silky forward Lachie Hill booted a couple of goals and swingman Jack McKernan played a shutdown role on Cats star Jackson Trengove.
Max Gleeson was prolific in the midfield and he celebrated his 100th senior appearance in style as Euroa pencilled in a 10.9 (69) to 4.8 (32) win.
Euroa coach Scott Rowan said he was proud to see his outfit getting back to some of its best footy.
“It was more the way we went about it, I think. We got our defensive structure back up and going and we moved the ball a bit better,” he said.
“Those were the things that we were focusing on so it was pleasing to see it get done.
“We’d gone away from it (game style) without meaning to ... so to have a four-quarter performance like that was really pleasing.”
The opening quarter saw Euroa use a swirly breeze to its advantage and the host led by 14 points at the first break.
The visitors did have their chances going forward, however the Magpies always seemed to have the answers.
“They came out strong and I thought we handled that pretty well and we were up for the challenge early,” Rowan said.
An emphatic second quarter effort, one where the Pies kicked 4.2 to 2.1, came to a close when Nathan Stewart booted his second goal of the match after the siren to push the hosts’ lead out to a commanding 27 points.
Only four goals were booted in the second half as Euroa nullified the Cats’ attack.
Chris Nield finished with two majors for Mooroopna, while Trengove struggled to work his way into the match.
Isaac Dowling and Ben Hicks both tried their hardest and were the two standouts for the visitors.
Mooroopna, chasing its first finals berth in eight years, now faces a nervous final round of the Goulburn Valley League season.
The Cats only need a win to secure a spot in September action, or else it must rely on defeats to Kyabram and Seymour to advance.
Making matters worse for the Cats, emerging talent Dom Gugliotti suffered a shoulder injury late in the match.
Rowan was full of praise for Giobbi, Gleeson and McKernan after the match.
“Benny has really stood up well (in Jacob Gleeson’s absence) and Maxy went back into the midfield for the first time since round three and these conditions really suited him,” he said.
“He’s a bit of a bull himself, his hands are exceptional and we were pleased to have him in there.
“Jacko is one of those ones who is so good for us at centre-half forward, but we all had full confidence that he could go back and do the job,”
“He’s such a beautiful user of the ball and if he can run off and create, which he did, he can use it really well. He’s a very underrated player but certainly not in our team.”