GVL | Euroa’s youngsters steal the show in Benalla bloodbath

By Liam Nash

Apr 16, 2023

Making his mark: Youngster Lachie Hill shone for Euroa against Benalla. Photo by Aydin Payne

In stark contrast to its 0-2 start to the 2022 Goulburn Valley League season, Euroa now boasts an unbeaten record after two games with Saturday’s 89-point wrecking of Benalla sending a warning shot to the rest of the competition.

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With both sides missing a catalogue or stars, it was the Magpies’ young brigade which earned praise from coach Scott Rowan following the 17.12 (114) to 3.7 (25) romp.

“To be honest, I thought the young kids in Ryan Hill, Lachie Hill, Keily Jaiger, Nic Burke; we’ve got four or five kids who are in their first season of senior football and they’re really standing up and doing their job really well,” he said.

“I think we were flattered by the scoreboard a little bit, especially in the first half.

“It was a pretty tight contest, but towards the middle and end of the quarters we got a bit of reward for the effort we put in and started to kick away and get that scoreboard pressure.”

Euroa capitalised on yet another slow start from Benalla, with the Magpies slotting 3.1 to the Saints’ sole behind to lead by 18 points at quarter-time.

Will Hayes’ running ability allowed the likes of Jett Trotter to break free and pile on the hurt, and with Benalla missing midfield gun Will Martiniello and spearhead Jarrad Waite, Euroa knew exactly where to target the visitors.

Rowan’s address at half-time on the subject paid dividends in the third quarter as Euroa outscored Benalla by five goals to wrap up the contest early.

Trotter finished the day with four majors, while Jack McKernan also chimed in with three of his own, while Josh Mellington (two goals) was the Saints’ most prolific on the day.

“We knew who would be their major on-ball winners and who would be their targets up forward, so we could focus a bit more on that, but also focus on what we wanted to do in the conditions to help us the most,” Rowan said.

“Our pressure was really good, we’re trying to focus on our tackling pressure and locking the ball in our forward half – if we can control the ball that way, we’re going to win a lot more games than we’re going to lose, that’s for sure.

“I think we started 0-2 last year, we weren’t playing the greatest style of football early on, so to have those couple of wins under our belt when we do have some unavailable players; to start to bank the wins now, it’s certainly going to take the pressure off down the track.”