The Bears’ round 16 Goulburn Valley League clash with Euroa on Saturday appeared to be teetering on the edge of a boilover at multiple junctures, especially a couple of minutes into the final term.
Jack McKernan’s early salvo in the last galvanised the Magpies, who brought a margin that had pushed out to about five goals more than once back within single digits.
However Shepparton was having none of the fairytale and before too long made that clear.
Bears bust it open - Q4 v Euroa
Disposals: 97-81
Contested possessions: 36-29
Rebound 50s: 12-7
Disposal efficiency: 77%-67%
Clearances from throw ins: 5-2
These highlighted stats don’t look like massive differences, but one thing connects all these pivotal numbers.
In all five of these handy statistical final-quarter wins, the Bears were behind in — and lost in the overall numbers across the day.
The visitors’ engine room was missing Adam De Cicco and Luke Smith, two of the league’s more prominent in-and-under movers, and Euroa made it every bit a contest across the first three terms.
Who, then, stepped up and steered the scintillating 25-minute display we witnessed as Shepparton closed the door so emphatically?
Jonty Wardle, seldom shouted out for his consistently efficient ball use — he sits in the league’s top 25 for average marks and efficiency by foot — sure picked a good time to notch eight disposals at 100 per cent.
While a swathe of players registered perfect efficiency in the final term, none were as directly impactful as Wardle, who channelled his target-finding and five marks into two goal involvements, including an assist.
Speaking of the goals, since it started to rain majors at one end, it would obviously be remiss not to mention Lewis McShane.
Clunking three grabs (two contested) in a dominant spell, McShane was the ultimate beneficiary of the dramatically sharpened connections between midfield and forward operators, with his pair of goals an apt reward.
A huge part of that effective transition up the ground, despite Shepparton utilising 74 kicks to 23 handballs in the term, was Liam Duguid’s tireless ability to pop up in the right spots.
Duguid did the job wherever needed, notching three inside 50s and two rebound 50s alongside his three clearances and four contested possessions in an effort that could be described no better in a word than “ubiquitous”.
With neither of the Bears’ prime midfield bulls certain to return if they had a game this weekend, the bye week couldn’t come at a better time to try and bolster the squad with two games remaining.
As for the Magpies, they can surely take some solace in beating Shepparton across a number of categories it’s proven hard to do that in, but close enough has repeatedly shown not to be good enough for the black and white.
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