Australian Football

Some people maintain that fortunes in football even out over time. Thus, if a team unluckily loses a cliff hanger by a point, in due course it can expect to win a game in similar fashion.

Such a view is completely nonsensical, of course, arguably rooted in the widespread human need to discern moral meaning and justice in a wayward and capricious universe - but try telling that to Rochester and Shepparton supporters. In 1914, Rochester’s second season as members of the Goulburn Valley District Football Association, they played against Shepparton in a match to decide the destiny of the premiership, and won thanks to a goal kicked by full forward Jim Doyle, from a near impossible angle, after the final bell had sounded. It was to be seventy-nine years before the two sides would again contest a grand final, and on that occasion almost precisely the opposite occurred. With seconds remaining, Rochester led by 4 points, only for Shepparton to snatch victory thanks to a goal kicked from a free kick awarded almost on the final siren.

The 1914 match was actually the second premiership decider engaged in by the two sides in as many years. When Rochester entered the GVDFA in 1913 they injected fresh life into a competition that had been dominated by Shepparton for much of the preceding decade. As the season developed it became increasingly clear that the destiny of the flag was going to be fought out between ‘The Invincibles’, as Shepparton had come to be known, and the newcomers. Sure enough, the two teams duly met in the premiership decider, and after a titanic tussle described as one of the best witnessed for many years, Shepparton squeezed home by a single straight kick.

Consequently, if you happen to believe that there is such a thing as justice in football, you would do well to put some money on Rochester evening the ledger when they next face Shepparton in a grand final.

The Rochester Football Club is one of the oldest country clubs in Victoria, dating its origins as far back as 1874. One of the most intensely bitter rivalries in Victorian country sport was born that year when Rochester played Echuca, with the latter scoring the only two goals of the match to win. As a result, the good people of Rochester “resolved to practice with the purpose of playing and soon beating Echuca” - not the most salutary reason for forming a football club, perhaps, but there can be no denying its efficacy.[1]

When the Victorian Football Association was formed in 1877, Rochester was one of several clubs from outside Melbourne to apply for, and be accorded, membership. Nevertheless, it was not until the club joined the GVDFA that regular, structured, competitive football was guaranteed.

Matches in the GVDFA prior to world war one were played on Wednesday afternoons, as indeed they would be until 1939. One happy consequence of this state of affairs as far as Rochester was concerned was that it enabled Paddy Mills, a top quality defender with Carlton in the VFL at the time, to embark on a parallel career in the GVDFA. Mills served as Rochester’s captain-coach in 1913 (and 1914 for that matter, although he appears not to have played with Carlton that season), and seemingly had a pronounced and highly beneficial impact on the team’s efforts.

Rochester’s initial involvement in the Goulburn Valley competition was short-lived; after just two seasons the club crossed to the Bendigo Football League, where, except for a brief spell in the Campaspe Valley Football League after world war two, it would remain until the end of the 1971 season, enjoying a fair amount of success in the process, particularly in the post-world war two period.

A major catalyst for Rochester’s emergence as a BdFL power was the appointment of former Melbourne defender Noel McMahen as coach in 1957. Under McMahen’s guidance the senior side reached four consecutive grand finals, downing Golden Square by 7 points in 1958 and Kyneton by 22 points the following year before going under narrowly to Kyneton in both 1960 and 1961. In 1962 McMahen returned to the VFL as non-playing coach of South Melbourne but the Rochester steamroller continued under his successor, Con O’Toole, with further grand final appearances in 1962-3-4-5 which yielded two more premierships.

Rochester’s return to the GVFL was not without its problems. After playing in the BdFL in 1971 the club wanted to resume in the GVFL the following year, but the VCFL refused to sanction the move. In the end, Rochester fielded a thirds team in the GVFL in 1972, but the seniors and reserves ended up either missing a season of football, or throwing in their lot with other, nearby clubs. The switch of leagues was finally rubber-stamped by the VCFL in time for a 1973 season that saw Rochester taking to the field in unfamiliar black and yellow, Richmond-style playing jumpers, having been required by the league to dispense with their traditional black and red because these colours were already in use by Kyabram.

In contrast to the club’s first stint in the competition, success was slow in arriving. The enforced ‘gap year’ had unfortunate and perhaps unforeseen consequences in that several of the team’s better players failed to return after what was supposed to have been a just temporary sojourn playing for the likes of Lockington and Rushworth. Consequently the Tigers as they had become known following the change of colours were really only there to make up the numbers for several years - a state of affairs that was no doubt rendered doubly or even trebly galling by the highly successful arrival on the scene in 1974 of arch nemesis Echuca, who reached a grand final in only their third season, and had two premierships in the bag before the end of the decade. Rochester meanwhile did not reach the GVFL finals until 1980, and had to wait until 1990 to contest a grand final. Euroa proved to have Rochester’s measure on that occasion, winning by 17 points, but two years later the Tigers broke through for their first GVFL premiership in almost eight decades courtesy of a nail-biting 1 point grand final win over Tatura. The 1999 season brought another premiership triumph but this was a prelude to almost a decade of disappointment.

Indeed in both 2001 and 2002 the club was forced to endure almost the worst nightmare imaginable. Having comfortably downed the detested Murray Bombers of Echuca in the second semi final in both years they entered the grand final against the same opponent as firm favourites, only to produce arguably their worst football of the year at a time when losing was simply unthinkable. For Rochester supporters there is arguably only one thing worse than losing a grand final, and that is witnessing Echuca winning one. For both events to happen twice within twelve months would certainly have driven many grown men to tears, if not worse.

The 2004 season produced more, if somewhat less intense, agony for the Tigers when, as minor premiers, they somehow conspired to bow meekly out of premiership contention with successive finals losses to Mansfield and Tatura. Two years later, Rochester supporters experienced agony of a different kind when their team finished just one place off the bottom of the ladder having managed just 4 wins out of 18 matches for the season.

Those same Rochester supporters are well aware of what it feels like to go a long while between drinks, but that will not stop them feeling thirsty. Neither will it prevent at least some of them believing that the scales of justice are bound to tip in their favour some time soon - a belief which a much improved campaign by the team in 2007 (8 wins for seventh place) would have gone some way towards corroborating.

Nevertheless, the Tigers’ magnificent showing in 2008 will have taken even the most optimistic of their supporters by surprise. After qualifying for the finals in third place with a 14-4 record Rochester scored a comfortable elimination final victory over Echuca before experiencing the setback of a narrow second semi final loss to minor premier Seymour. A convincing preliminary final defeat of Mooroopna restored confidence, and in the grand final re-match with Seymour the Tigers were steadier and kicked straighter in recording a nail-biting 3 point triumph, 15.9 (99) to 13.18 (96).

In 2009 Rochester again contested the finals and managed to get as far as the preliminary final before bowing out to eventual premier Mansfield. After failing to make the finals in 2010 the Tigers managed to do so in each of the half a dozen ensuing seasons. In 2016 they got as far as the grand final, but unbeaten opponents Kyabram eked out a hard fought victory by 13 points. The 2017 season brought more finals involvement which was ended at the first semi final stage by Shepparton but a year later by contrast the side only managed 8 wins from 18 matches to slip to eighth place on the ladder.