Rochy makes third-quarter move to get past Demons

By Matthew Kappos and Liam Nash

Jun 2, 2025

An easy fixture on paper turned into a scramble for Rochester, the Tigers eventually pushing past the Demons in round eight. Photo: Bruce Povey.

In what turned out to be a surprisingly close contest given the sides’ relative table positions, Rochester did what was needed to get past Shepparton United in Goulburn Valley League football’s round eight.

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The Tigers took to Deakin Reserve with a record of 6-1 behind them, coming up against a hapless Demons outfit that was yet to taste victory in 2025.

Even so, there was little between the sides in the opening quarter, and in fact it was United that led at the first break, if only by a point.

After a 14-15 first period Rochy reversed the scoreline in the second, 15-14, sending the sides into the main break level at 29.

Drawn into a contest they might not have been expecting, Ash Watson’s men refocused after half-time and enjoyed their best passage of the game in the third.

Winning the period with three goals to one, and a glut of pressure yielding five minor scores to one, the Tigers put themselves in the driver's seat heading into the final half-hour.

The Demons wouldn’t go away and United would win the final period, Rochester getting away with the win by just nine points, 10.13 (73) to 9.10 (64).

“It was a really good contest; they (United) provided awesome pressure,” Watson said.

“We struggled to get through them at times and we thought the contest was hot.

“It was a close game all the way to the end and we were just fortunate to get the win.”

On the surprising tenacity of the winless Demons to push his Tigers side, full of September aspirations, Watson said his team perhaps lost sight of the game plan in the early quarters, but was able to restore its focus coming out of the break.

“It was more just getting back to the way we wanted to play (after half-time),” he said.

“There was a few things we weren’t doing early that was allowing them to score against us.

“We didn’t defend the transition very well and some of our inside-50 ball was pretty ordinary at times so we tried to sharpen that up a bit after half-time.”

Rochy will hope to be firing across four quarters next weekend in a blockbuster home encounter with Shepparton Bears (4-4).

While the former grand finalist isn’t setting the world alight in 2025, Watson’s charges will be looking to exact revenge upon a Bears side that ended their season last year in a rematch of the 2024 preliminary final.