Hot footy: Echuca’s Gus Byrne and Mooroopna’s Jack Johnston battle. Photo: Aydin Payne
Mooroopna lifted when it needed to most in a miraculous upset of Echuca on Saturday, and GVL Data confirms the Cats’ work at the coalface helped seal a dramatic finals berth.
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Echuca’s trademark third-quarter blitz, a trump card in the club’s 16-game unbeaten run this season, never came against the Cats, with the Murray Bombers instead conceding in the clearances despite Kane Morris’s ruck ascendancy.
Mooroopna won the clearance count 10-4 in both the second and third terms, but a superior contested possession count in the third, 34-26 Mooroopna’s way, proved decisive in an area Echuca dominated in the first quarter (40-23).
But with a seven-point lead at three-quarter time and the game there to be won, the Cats were scintillating.
Mooroopna won the disposal count (75-55), uncontested possession (44-26), marks (23-9) and tackles (18-9) in the fourth quarter to seal victory.
Key for the Cats was none other than 20-year-old Ethan Hunt, who gathered a game-high 10 clearances and 15 contested possessions from his 28 disposals, a timely performance.
Jack McHale lodged a typically strong contested football game with a game-high 18 possessions coming contested from his 25 disposals, while Andrew Walker and Riley Smith were also prominent.
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