The club will host Shepparton United as round one proper kicks off across the GVL, with Echuca looking to add its second win from as many games.
Opening the season last weekend against Mansfield, the Murray Bombers reminded everyone they are the team to beat, romping to an 82-point win.
Co-coach Simon Maddox was happy to be on the board in 2024, but said his troops worked a lot harder than the scoreboard might suggest.
“(It was) pleasing, it's good to win and we won well, but the scoreboard probably didn't paint the picture,” he said.
“Mansfield were pretty good early, and the game was pretty hot and it was a pretty good tempo.
“It was good to get back playing proper footy, and as I said against a good side, they made finals the year before, and we probably didn’t get on top of them until the second half, but then we kicked away and blew the scoreboard out a bit.”
The stats back up Maddox’s sentiment, with Echuca improving across the board following the first quarter.
Despite outscoring the Eagles 3.4 (22) to 2.3 (15) in the first term, Echuca trailed the home side in total disposals (-17), contested possessions (-1) and uncontested marks (-12).
But by half-time Echuca had begun to take things up a notch, establishing a lead of 26 points at the main break, having won the disposal count (+26), contested possession count (+7) and having taken more uncontested marks (+11) for the quarter.
The engine room also upped its output at the coalface, giving their side first use of the ball after winning 13 clearances to Mansfield’s six, which was converted into 3.0 (18) while the Eagles failed to register a score from stoppage in the term.
Echuca’s pressure also intensified as the contest wore on, having been -11 for overall pressure in the first half, before going +20 in the second half.
The Murray Bombers will take on Shepparton United on Saturday, and while confident his side will get the job done, Maddox expects the opposition to come out all guns blazing when they visit Victoria Park.
There are a few possible changes to the side to face the Demons, with Ben Reid returning from holiday to be available for the clash, while Sam Willoughby and Aiden Mills could also return if not named for their VFL sides.
After back-to-back premierships, it would be easy for Echuca to become complacent,. However, Maddox was confident the internal competition at the club has ensured there is definitely the desire to keep standards high.
"We've probably got five or six guys in the reserves, and a couple in the under-18s that are pushing for senior selection,” he said.
“We play a very team-style of game, a team defence, so if you don’t want to play that role and you don't want to do what’s best for the team, there's six, seven, eight other blokes that will happily take your spot, that's probably point number one.
“There’s guys desperate for a spot in the seniors, which creates a great environment for learning, a great environment for team orientation and probably a good environment for winning as well.
“Other than that, it’s a new season, we’ve spoken about it, we’ve got to bank enough wins just to make finals to start off.
“Once we’ve done that we can worry about the other stuff, but starting off we're on even pegging with everybody else.”
Echuca’s improvement from Q1 to Q2 vs Mansfield
Disposals: Q1 -17, Q2 + 26
Contested possessions: Q1 -1, Q2 +7
Uncontested marks: Q1 -12, Q2 +11
Clearances: Q1 +3, Q2 +7
Scores from stoppage: Q1 1.2 (8), Q2 3.0 (18)
