Rochester Junior Football Club reports

By Contributed

Aug 5, 2024

Under-12 girls

Friday night saw the under-12 girls take on the top team, St Therese’s. The girls did themselves proud with a 40-point better outcome than the last time we played them.

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The awards this week went to Zahli and Mila for outstanding efforts all night and their attack on the ball. The one-percenter award went to Jordi for her rock solid performance in defence.

It was great to see so many other players have great games as well, showing just how far they have come as a team.

Under-12 mixed

Rochester headed up the highway to Jack Eddy Oval in Moama to take on Moama Black for the last game of the home-and-away season before the Lightning Premiership between Rochester, Moama Black, Moama White and Runnymede.

Rochester came out with great momentum from the first bounce against a very strong Moama Black, who took home the win in their first meeting of the season.

Archie Watson scored the first goal of the game, after Moama had been unable to score. Watson and Cooper Rasmussen were combining well with quick handballs to move the ball down the field. Walt James continued his great form with many touches around the ground.

Rochester had great pressure around the ball to lock it down. Harrison Wilkins scored the second goal for the game, with a fantastic set-up pass from Maddox Parker.

Moama was quick to reply with two goals to even the game back up. Jackson Wolfe had terrific tackling pressure and Max Lea was punching the ball in defence as the backline worked hard to keep Moama from scoring.

Wilkins scored the first goal of the second quarter with an amazing snap from the pack as Rochester continued to work hard in every position across the ground in an evenly matched contest.

Rasmussen laid a fantastic tackle in Rochester’s goal square to be awarded with a free kick to goal.

Rochester and Moama were both working hard all over the ground to move the ball into their forward lines, putting the Rochester backline under a lot of pressure. The backline was able to restrict Moama to two goals for the quarter, consistently moving the ball out of the Moama forward line.

Rasmussen scored another goal for Rochester, after a beautiful passage of play by the Rochester players, moving the ball from the backline.

Moama was able to lift its momentum, restricting Rochester to one goal for the quarter by Archie Watson. Rochester’s backline was under constant pressure from Moama, as it was able to lock the ball in its forward line and take the lead for the first time in the game.

Nash Riordan and Max Lea were getting plenty of touches in the backline, which was working hard to restrict Moama from scoring. Rochester’s backline was terrific and was getting plenty of the ball. Rochester was working hard to move the ball forward, however Moama always seemed to have a spare player back.

Rochester was able to take a five-point lead into the final quarter, after being challenged constantly from Moama. Harrison Pangrazio was holding strong on the half-back line, with all the backline players lifting their momentum to stop Moama’s advancements towards goals.

All Rochester players were applying pressure all over the ground, creating contests and locking the ball down. Seth Hunter was great in the ruck on a tough opponent, winning the taps to the Rochester middles. After many contests, Moama was able to score with five minutes to go to level the scores.

Rochester was terrific all over the ground with constant pressure at every ball. Harry Hodson was in terrific touch at half-back to stop the ball moving into Moama’s forward line. Rochester was able to move the ball forward to score a point to win the game after a great contest from both teams.

It was a whole team effort from the Rochester players, with every player working hard for the win. The awards went to the whole team for a great game.

Under-14 mixed

On Sunday it was Rochester vs Castlemaine at Marist College Bendigo and the Tigers were off to a slow start. Castlemaine was mostly dominating the first quarter, but there was some solid Rochy defence by Jag Tarrant, Ella Treacy and Asher Lehmann holding their tackles. At the first break, Castlemaine was ahead by a point.

The Tigers seemed to find some momentum through the middle in the second quarter, with some great play from Harvey Keating, Asher Rasmussen and Hugh Acocks on ball. Rochy outscored Castlemaine in the second and went to half-time just one goal ahead.

It was pretty even in the third quarter with the score hitting 25-all at one point, so the players dug deep to try to get themselves back in the game. Keating remained solid, directing the play, however Rochy was only able to kick a minor score, and Castlemaine got ahead, leading by nine points at the break.

Coming out in the final quarter, Rochy worked hard to keep the pressure on Castlemaine. Nate Macfarlane played a great game off the wing, showing great attack on the football.

However, the Tigers fell short with a final score of 35-45. It was a great game to watch with a terrific effort from our Tigers.

Rochester 4.11 (35) lost to Castlemaine 5.15 (45)

Best: Mason Mundie, Asher Rasmussen, Corey Pangrazio, Harvey Keating, Mac Dickinson, Louis Frawley

Mayreef Pty Ltd one-percenter award: Louis Frawley

Canteen awards: Mason Mundie, Corey Pangrazio, Asher Rasmussen

Under-16 boys

The under-16s won what was certainly the closest game they have played all year, claiming a two-point win over Maiden Gully.

Kyne’s bus trip took the boys to Marist for what was a tight contest all day, with neither team leading by more than five points at any break.

Rochester under-12s player Seth Hunter. Photo by Contributed

Both teams only managed to kick two goals each in the first quarter, in what was tight and scrappy footy. This sort of footy certainly suited ball magnet Sam Seabrook, who was in and under early. He worked very well in combination with the clean Tom Drust, who used the ball well early when moving forward. Rochester took a one point advantage into the quarter-time break.

The defenders were under pressure throughout the second quarter, with Maiden Gully kicking three goals. Jake Munro was Mr Consistent once again this week, as well as fellow defenders Cal Giffen, Cyril Thomas-Tuaiti and Lachie Smith, who continued to put their heads over the ball and use their bodies well.

It didn’t come easy for key forwards Kade Pearse and Morgan Boyack, however they continued to be a presence up forward, providing targets throughout the second and third term.

Despite being goalless for the first time this year, Jimmy Otto started to break the game open in small bursts, along with Mitch Munro, who patrolled the wings up and down.

Rochester went into the three-quarter time break four points down and needed to shift momentum. This called for the class of Cale James to step up, showing his skills in traffic to give Rochy seven scoring opportunities in the last term.

Big moments from Blake Kyne and Amon Riordan putting their heads over the ball allowed the majority of the play to occur inside Rochy’s forward 50. Despite Maiden Gully kicking the first goal of the last quarter, it was Tom McFadzean who took a big mark inside forward 50 and went back and put Rochester in front in the final stages of the last.

In what was a scrappy game, Rochy was able to hold on by two points, a well fought out effort from everyone.