It was a dour return to Shepparton for Murray Bushrangers at the weekend, falling to eleventh-placed Calder Cannons in a scrappy encounter at Deakin Reserve.
Having undergone a brutal two-month travel schedule, it appeared to have finally caught up with the Bushrangers boys on Saturday afternoon, with a second fade-out resulting in the 10.10 (70) to 9.5 (59) defeat.
A result that sees the Bushies fall to ninth on the NAB League ladder with just one home-and-away season game remaining, coach Mark Brown said it was a bitterly disappointing day for his team.
“I thought it was close to our worst performance of the year to be honest,” Brown said.
“We were ordinary in our round one game against Gippsland being caught on the hop a bit, but since then we have been really solid in and around our effort and execution and as a result came into the game confident.
“But on the weekend I just thought we got out-hustled, outworked at ground level, beaten around the contest and Calder got the result as they should have.”
With rain sprinkling down and the ground soft under foot, the Bushies still managed to get the jump on a Calder team that came into the match on the back of five straight defeats.
Taking its opportunities, Murray registered 3.2 to the Cannons’ 1.3 to take an 11-point lead into quarter time, but according to Brown the contest was a lot closer than the scoreboard suggested.
“I didn’t think the first quarter was as one-sided as it appeared on the scoreboard, it was five scoring shots to four and quite even — in saying that though we were the better side early on the back of a bit of control around stoppage,” he said.
“But after quarter time they took real control of the game at ground level and dominated us to be honest.
“Even though we did take the lead in the last quarter, if we won that game we would have stolen it, they were the better team.”
As Calder dominated general play and field position, the Bushies did manage to stay in the contest through efficiency up forward, with the Cannons’ lead never venturing far beyond two goals.
But as is often the case, weight of numbers prevailed, with two late goals to the visitors propelling them to a memorable 11-point win.
Left with plenty to ponder ahead of the final round and a potential finals appearance, Brown outlined what might have triggered what he described as his team’s “worst performance of the year”.
“It is always interesting when you’re coaching teenagers, you often get ebbs and flows in around effort, especially for these kids who deal with such a large travel load,” he said.
“It doesn’t often emerge when you think it will, sometimes you’ll do a bit of travel and it’ll be fine and then come to a home game and fall off a cliff.
“That is not an excuse (for the weekend’s game), but often those factors can contribute to these poor performances, the challenge for our group now is to reset really quick and get back to playing a brand of footy we had been playing for the past 10 weeks.”
The Bushrangers will now enjoy another weekend off before completing their home-and-away campaign on the road against Bendigo Pioneers.