Gallery | Hoppers roar home with final term blitz to survive Stanhope scare

For the first time since 2023, back-to-back senior football reigning premier Murchison-Toolamba found itself in an elimination final, lining up against Stanhope in a third versus sixth encounter at Violet Town Recreation Reserve.

For much of the contest, it looked as though the Lions were going to end the Hoppers’ dynasty, leading at every change and enjoying a near game-high lead heading into the final term.

But you can’t keep a champion team down, and with the season - and premiership defence - on the line, the Hoppers kicked into gear, delivering a stunning fourth quarter to win 14.6 (90) to 11.8 (74), much to the delight of coach Brett Foley.

“Well, yeah, it's always good to get a win, it was a pretty stressful sort of day when you're 26 points down at three-quarter time,” he said.

“The ground was a bit of a slog, which played into Stanhope’s hands there a bit, we like to spread the ground and run...

“But yeah, in the last quarter, we just took the game on like we like to do, and finally played our brand.

“Momentum's just massive in footy these days and we took full advantage and in the end, got a nice win.“

It was all Stanhope early on Saturday, with the Lions booting five of the first six goals in the contest - and missing as many as they kicked - to lead 5.5 (35) to 1.1 (7) at the first break.

The Hoppers replied with five goals of their own in the second term as the momentum swung, though Stanhope was able to maintain a 10-point advantage by half time, before extending the lead yet again with a brilliant four-goal-to-one third quarter, and looked to have all the answers for the Hoppers’ challenge.

Trailing 7.5 (47) to 11.7 (73) at the final change, Foley moved the magnets around in search of some overlap off half-back, and it paid off in spades, as the Hoppers finally broke the game open in the last.

Booting seven goals in the final term - the first three coming in a three-minute burst - Murchison-Toolamba kept the Lions to one point in the process, soaring home to secure the 14-point win, with the previous finals experience of the side proving invaluable at the death.

“Being nice and successful for the last few years, the boys just had to believe in each other and believe we could do it,” Foley said.

“Everyone looks up at the scoreboard and you see a five-goal margin like that and say, ‘gee, it's going to take a fair bit to come back’.

“To their credit, the start of the fourth quarter, they just went for it and played our brand of footy...

“To be honest, we've won a game playing one quarter of footy, so it's awesome to win, we’ll take plenty of learnings out of it, but also, we move on to the next week and a home final.”

It will be next Sunday that the Hoppers play off against Avenel, after the Swans upset Shepparton East in the second elimination final on Sunday afternoon at Girgarre Recreation Reserve to keep their season alive.

In a stunning result, the Swans claimed a 12-point win over a wayward Eagles side, who kicked 2.13 to half time to trail by 22 points, and despite winning the second half, fell just short, as Avenel held on for an eventual 9.14 (68) to 6.20 (56) win.