Seymour and Echuca have taken vastly different paths in the last decade of Goulburn Valley senior football competition and the 2022 season looks like being no different.
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The Lions sit eighth after four rounds, with one win, and Echuca — with its appeal against a four premiership point penalty still pending — is fourth with three wins, despite having finished in front on the scoreboard in all of its four matches this season.
Seymour, like Echuca, has faced off against Euroa and Mansfield — both tipped to be at the pointy end of the Goulburn Valley League’s senior football competition this year — with vastly different results.
Seymour’s other defeat came against as-yet unbeaten Mooroopna, who doubled the Lions’ score last weekend at the King’s Park oval in Seymour.
Mansfield beat the Lions by just one goal, a flattering scoreline considering Mansfield had 27 scoring shots to the Lions 16, while Euroa beat the Lions by 28 points.
Echuca is yet to front up against the Goulburn Valley Cats, a showdown scheduled for round nine on June 11.
The ‘’high and low roads’’ this weekend’s round five combatants have taken since their premiership years is amplified by the fact in the last 11 seasons the teams have only once finished in the finals at the same time.
The 2019 season, when Echuca finished the home-and-away season fifth and Seymour finished second, is the only season since 2010 that they both finished in the finals.
Echuca does have a score to settle though, from the COVID-interrupted 2021 season, when Seymour was one of only two teams to inflict defeat on the Murray Bombers.
They beat Echuca by 55 points, Murray Bombers captain Kane Morris one of few shining lights with a three-goal bag — the Lions led from start to finish.
Euroa was the other team to beat Echuca, in round 11, after the season had resumed from a three-week break mid-year.
Echuca co-coach Simon Maddox said Seymour was very organised and better prepared for the round one match last season when they got the better of the Murray Bombers.
“We weren’t as prepared and they moved the ball well,” he said.
As for Seymour’s gun forward recruit Michael Hartley, Maddox said the Murray Bombers had a few options.
Hartley has kicked 14 goals in his two appearances for the Lions.
“If he plays we will have someone assigned to him. The games he has played he has been in their best.
“The likes of Tom Monaghan, Elliot Stewart or Ben Reid. We normally let our back six work out the match ups,” Maddox said.
Echuca may be missing mid-fielder Mitch Wales, who rolled his ankle and will be put through a fitness test.
Bendigo Pioneers players Jed Brereton, Billy Barnes and Sam Deola will all be available for selection this week as the Bendigo Piooners have a NAB League bye.
Angus Byrne, who was concussed while on VFL duties with Geelong last weekend, will not be available for selection, but Cameron Valentine is a rough chance to return.
Aaron Lonergan and Trent Campbell, who both played well at reserve grade level, will also come into selection contention.
Neither Echuca or Seymour has held the Hastie Cup aloft in that entire 11-season period, Seymour’s last premiership in 2007, wrapping up a trifecta of titles which included 2005 and 2006.
Echuca’s last premiership success was back to back in 2001-02
Here’s a quick breakdown of the last Decade of Division between Seymour and Echuca:
2010: Echuca finished the home-and-away season second and Seymour ninth, Echuca losing in preliminary final.
2011: Echuca second and Seymour 10th.
2012: Seymour lost the grand final by 28 points, winning three finals to reach the grand final after finishing sixth at the end of home-and-away rounds with a 9-9 record. Tatura beat them, having led the competition with a 16-2 win loss record. Echuca missed the finals.
2013: Neither team played in the finals.
2014: Seymour and Echuca won only eight games between them, with 4-14 records.
2015: Echuca finished 11th wiith three wins and a draw, Seymour lost in week two of the finals.
2016: Seymour lost in the opening round of the finals, Echuca finished seventh with an 8-10 record.
2017: Seymour was bundled out of the finals by Shepparton after finishing the home and away season third with a 13-5 record. Echuca finished outside the finals.
2018: Echuca fourth and Seymour ninth.
2019: Seymour fifth and Echuca second at end of home and away. Seymour lost in first round of finals and Echuca was beaten by Kyabram in the grand final.
2021: Seymour beat Echuca by 55 points. Kane Morris kicked three goals for Echuca as Seymour led from start to finish.
A key to any hope Seymour has of repeating last season’s victory is the Lions star AFL recruit Michael Hartley.
Hartley was one of the success stories from the Essendon Football Club’s ASADA struggles, among those brought into the club to replace the players suspended for six months during the supplement scandal which rocked the football world.
Hartley kicked 10 goals in the opening round of the season when the Lions monstered bottom-of-the-ladder Benalla by 123 points, the former Magpie, Bomber and Hawk kicking half of the Lions’ 20 goals.
An extraordinary athlete, Hartley was the third-ranked high jumper in Australia as a teenager, and the198cm defender has turned forward since arriving at Seymour.
Hartley was originally a rookie selection for Colingwood in 2012, then played 44 games for Essendon during the supplements saga from 2016-19. He made five appearances for Hawthorn in 2020-21 before being delisted.
Hartley has played in only two of the Lions’ four matches, kicking four goals when Seymour lost by 28 points to Euroa in round three. His four goals and Jack Murphy’s three accounted for seven of the Lions’ 12 goals.
Since then, however, injuries have cruelled the Lions and the loss of 2021 Morrison Medallist Jack O’Sullivan from the mid-field has taken a toll.
In recent weeks the Lions have also been without forward Kyle Winter-Irving and defender Josh Alford.
Against Mooroopna last week the 86-43 told when Seymour kicked just one goal — and had one scoring shot — in three of the four quarters.
Harley Taylor-Lloyd kicked four of the team’s seven goals in Hartley’s absence.
Seymour has Echuca this weekend and then Kyabram a week later in a horror stretch for one of the two southern-based Goulburn Valley League clubs.
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