Tasked with launching the day’s action under Wangaratta’s pale morning light, these were teenagers only by birth certificate.
On court? It was grown-up stuff.
But despite the GVL keeping pace for the first 10 minutes, the O&M was too strong - in both senses of the word - as they snared a physically dominant 69-38 win in the second iteration of the 15-and-under bout.
“It was a tough game; they were a really strong, physical, skilful side, and I think our girls were a little bit overawed by that,” coach Kelly Hill said.
“But having said that, as I said in the speech after the game, it's a great learning opportunity for our girls.
“You learn so much off your opposition when they're putting physical pressure on you, the efforts that it takes to, you know, make one effort, make a second effort, make a third effort, which at this level is what you need to do.
“It's a really good lesson for our girls and I'm sure they'll take a lot out of being able to play against such a skilful team.”
It was O&M who settled the quicker on the day.
With passes that were occasionally errant but increasingly assertive, the girls in black and yellow found their rhythm early.
The first few exchanges had the chaotic pulse of nerves and anticipation, but O&M’s ability to clean up the mess and turn chaos into control gave them the early ascendancy.
A tense first quarter saw turnovers aplenty on both sides, the O&M just edging ahead off the back of some mid court pressure finished off by star shooter Lucy Tinkler.
Down but not out, the GVL rallied to restore parity through their own attacking threat, Shepparton United’s Ellie Robinson, but her service was starved throughout the next two terms.
Meanwhile, Tinkler’s ruthless rule on the circle remained as Mooroopna’s Layla Ratcliffe and Echuca’s Lexie Howard tried to contain the evasive O&M goaler as the hosts broke the buffer out past 10, then 20, then 30.
Howard wasn’t the only Echuca product on show against O&M with Sarah Head also active throughout the contest.
The final margin stood at 31, and though a heavily rotated GVL side was down and out, Hill knew there was plenty to takeaway from the loss.
“We probably just had a five minute lapse in each of the quarters, which is why the margin ended up blowing out like it did,” she said.
“Once we settled in each quarter, we were able to stick with them, but they were just really polished from top to bottom; they were really physical and really hard at it, which was a little bit of a shock to some of our girls.
“But as I said, nonetheless a really important learning curve.”
Finally, Hill singled out Robinson for a great game in the goal shooter bib where she “ripped the ball in strongly and shot really nicely.”
