TATURA and Shepparton, the Goulburn Valley Football League's surprise stories this season, both say the bubble has not burst despite each suffering their second loss last week. When league officials sat down to devise the fixture for 2009, few could have fathomed the Round 7 clash between Tatura, last year's winless wooden spooners, and Shepparton, second last with four wins, would have been a top-of-the-table clash.
But after losing by a point in that clash, Tatura has lost two games in a row after a 61-point drubbing from premier Rochester last weekend.
Shepparton, too, lost last week at home to Mooroopna.
Both sit in the logjam of five teams with six wins and two losses behind ladder-leader Rochester, which has dropped only one game.
And with Tatura and Shepparton not playing again until next week, the second week of the split Round 9, both face the prospect of being right back in the pack after today's matches.
Tatura coach Paul Serra said it was a shock to be undefeated after six rounds.
"Everyone outside the club probably thinks it's been an instant bit of success," he said.
"But it's been a process over the last 18 months that obviously the coaches and the board have worked really hard to get things in place that would make us successful.
"At the start of the year our aim was to just to be competitive and to win a few games but at the moment, I think with the amount of wins that we've got and the way the league is, it's probably one of our goals to try and make the finals."
It's a goal Serra said was still attainable.
"After eight rounds it's starting to get a little harder, the opposition are doing a lot of research now whereas last year when we were on the bottom it was just a matter of most teams having too much firepower to beat us quite easily," Serra said.
Both clubs recruited heavily but after what he described as a "transition year" last year, Shepparton coach Richard Warburton put his side's turnaround down to the development of the younger players.
"A lot of these young guys have really come on as senior footballers now," he said.
"They'll be good players for the club in years to come.
"And considering that we kept our list together and a lot of these young guys had been exposed to 20-30 games of senior footy, we felt as though if we recruited right we could play a part in finals."
Warburton said the club would use the break to recharge the batteries ahead of its clash against Seymour next weekend at Deakin Reserve.
By Matt Windley
Article first appeard The Herald Sun June 13, 2009
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