It was a huge day out for Seymour's Nathan Fowler, among plenty of others. Photo: Wayne Herring
You just don’t see numbers like this all that often in the Goulburn Valley League.
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Seymour has broken through for the first 200-plus score in senior competition through season 2024 in a ruthless blitz at the expense of Tatura at Kings Park on Saturday.
The muddy conditions seemed no problem whatsoever to the oft-unlucky Lions, although their arguably much unluckier opposition simply never got out of first gear on the day.
Andrew Ciavarella fired one of a limited quantity of salvos for the visiting Bulldogs to keep things from getting out of hand in the game’s infancy.
It was rapidly made academic after that, though, with a lead pushing 50 by the first change of ends on a gloomy afternoon in Mitchell Shire.
There was no comparison to be made between these two teams and the squads which took the field in a classic round one game that saw Chaz Sergeant nab Tatura’s lone victory of the season after the siren, with both bitten hard by the injury curse.
As miserable as the scoreboard looked, the second term at first delivered a lot of promise and little substance as the Lions, in full control around the ground, blew a swathe of opportunities to go well into triple-figure territory before the main break.
The signs were there that a big day was in the offing for Seymour twin threats Riley Mason and Nathan Fowler as the game chugged along on their terms.
With three goals in the first half of the third term, Mason pushed the margin beyond the century mark in what appeared to be every chance of a 10-goal day.
The rampaging Lions saved their best efforts for last, courtesy of an almighty 11-goal final term that set a new league benchmark for single-quarter scoring in 2024.
Even reliable backman Lachlan Waite got up the forward end and on the score sheet as Seymour wrapped up an eye-watering 195-point win, 32.18 (210) to 2.3 (15).
Seymour’s Lewis Lubeck and Tatura’s Matt Rennie go up for the mark. Photo: Wayne Herring
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Seymour’s Lachlan Waite got a rare chance to impact the scoreboard. Photo: Wayne Herring
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Seymour’s Max Lawrence finds himself engulfed in the contest. Photo: Wayne Herring
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Tatura’s Matt Rennie gets around his man. Photo: Wayne Herring
Mason crashed and bashed his way to 10 goals as Fowler ran riot in the final half-hour to finish with eight, head and shoulders above all comers on the ground.
Seymour coach Ben Davey, while obviously jubilant at the manner of victory, did express his empathy for an injury-riddled Tatura.
“It was one of those days where everything went right for us and everything went wrong for them,” Davey said.
“They’ve obviously got a lot of people out, but it was really good for us to get some reward for effort in what’s been a pretty tough year.
“It was especially good to see reward with Riley Mason and Nathan Fowler kicking those goals.
“Tatura is in a lot of trouble, but I remember them beating us at the start of the year. I know what it’s like and it’s very tough.”
Davey made note of the astonishing scoreline, noting that while we see occurrences like these in other district leagues, you seldom see such a sight at the top level in the region.
“Not many teams kick 200 points these days,” Davey said.
“It might happen in the KDL given the gap between their top three or four teams and their bottom three or four teams, but not in the Goulburn Valley very often.
“You’re always proud of your team’s performance, but you don’t want to be going silly and rubbing teams’ noses in it when you know how hard they’re hurting.
“You have to play well and not drop off. The game was played in really good spirits, but you certainly feel for them.”
It was certainly one way to rebound from being ultimately overrun by Echuca a week earlier, with 12 Lions finding the big sticks.
However, the difficulty climbs heading towards season’s end, with a trip to Deakin Reserve to meet a red-hot Shepparton next on Davey’s plate.
“Playing Echuca last week gave us a bit of a rev-up that we’re not too far off if we were five goals off them,” Davey said.
“There aren’t many teams getting around at full strength. We’ve still got four out of our best team and we’ve had 13 out earlier in the year.
“We know (Shepparton) will be getting ready for a finals campaign and we look like we aren’t going to make it, so it’s two teams looking at separate goals.
“Our main goal is to show that wasn’t the real us after they demolished us on our home ground last time, just showing we’re a better team than that.”
