When players were forced to leave the ground just six minutes into the second term, the Tigers had the opportunity to halt the Murray Bombers’ momentum after they had jumped out to a 19-point lead.
But the 30 minute delay only made the home side more hungry and Rochester simply couldn’t keep up as they fell to a 41-point defeat.
‘‘Echuca wanted it more than us,’’ coach James Flaherty said.
‘‘It was a difficult situation to deal with because you don’t see it happen very often. The conditions certainly tested our mentality but I was pleased in parts with what we showed.
‘‘But we’re going to be moving on pretty quickly because we can’t afford to dwell on a loss.’’
If Rochester were going to come away with an unlikely four points, they needed to make the most of their forward 50 entries.
Throughout the day, Echuca’s defenders repelled attacks at will — making the difficult look easy in torrential conditions.
While at the other end, the Murray Bombers continued to put the ball through the big sticks as they registered 19 scoring shots to eight.
‘‘We always knew scoring was going to be difficult,’’ Flaherty said.
‘‘But we didn’t give our forwards as many opportunities as we would have liked. Echuca were able to make the most of even the most scrappy opportunities, which is probably where we fell down.
‘‘I’m not too concerned because our forwards have been performing strongly in the last month.’’
Despite the loss, the Tigers remain in the Goulburn Valley top six ahead of Benalla by just three per cent and will be hoping to strengthen their position when they welcome Euroa this weekend.
Rochester will be well aware of the challenge Euroa present after the Magpies defeated them by eight points earlier in the season.
‘‘The team has come a long way since we last played them,’’ Flaherty said.
‘‘There is no doubt they’ve performed what everyone expected of them, but they still have plenty of quality.
‘‘We’re hoping to keep pushing on with the momentum we’ve built up since the first four games of the year.’’
19°C