Big-marking Lion: Seymour captain Lachlan Waite marks in front of Rochester high flyer Mitch Cricelli. Photo: Bruce Povey
Rochester faces the strongest marking team in the Goulburn Valley league this weekend after Seymour’s tall timber dominated its aerial battle with Benalla in the opening round of the Goulburn Valley league.
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The Tigers were dominated in the air by Kyabram, which took 108 marks to Rochester’s 88 as the Tigers struggled for forward 50 marks (taking just seven, to Kyabram’s 18).
Former Essendon key defender Michael Hartley took 12 marks for Seymour in its opening-round victory (eight of those intercept marks and four contested), while Riley Mason matched that effort with 12 grabs of his own.
Hartley also had the most spoils in the competition, with seven, moving to defence for the first game after kicking 33 goals from nine games with the Lions last year.
In attack the Lions captain Lachlan Waite took five inside 50 marks as the Lions notched only one less than Kyabram.
Kyabram’s Anthony De Pasquale took the most inside 50 marks for the round against the Tigers, having eight scoring sots from his seven marks inside the attacking arc.
His teammate Toby Wooller matched the competition leaders by pulling in 12 marks against the Tigers.
Kyabram also finished the round as the highest disposal team in the competition for round one, an unusual statistic for the Bombers compared to 2022.
Rochester will tackle Seymour at King’s Park on Saturday after being extremely competitive with Kyabram in the first half of the match at Moon Oval at the weekend.
Rochester struggled to match Kyabram’s marking game, however, surrendering the most intercept marks for the round and watching on as the Bombers also took the second-most inside-50 marks
Seymour took 113 marks in its 21-point win, five more than the Tigers’ first-round opponent Kyabram. They were the only two teams to take more than 100 marks for the round.
The Lions were ranked second for the round in contested marks (six behind Echuca) and was third for inside 50 marks (behind Echuca and Kyabram).
Seymour took 52 more marks than Benalla, but was dominated in the ruck and in clearances, losing the hit-out count 15-52 and the clearances 19-39.
They had eight less inside 50 entries than Seymour, which was outscored in the final three quarters of the match by Benalla.
Seymour led by 32 points at quarter time, but after the first break kicked 6.8 to Benalla’s 8.3.
