Little has said all along it would take a lot of heart and fight from his Shepparton players to overcome the obvious skill gap between themselves and their opponents to at least be competitive.

‘‘It’s something we spoke about at the start of the year,’’ Little said.

‘‘Coming up against a side that is as young as what we are, there is no reason why we couldn’t at least match them in effort.

‘‘Instead, we’ve thrown up our worst performance of the season.’’

Little reserved praise for Nikolaus Rokahr, whose superb mark in the third quarter provided perhaps the day’s most enjoyable moment for the home fans, at half-back who provided his struggling side some drive out of the back.

Sam Bowmaker and Taylor Young were two other silver linings for the Bears on a day of few positives for a set of players who Little believes need to pull themselves out of this rut.

‘‘There’s nothing that we can really do, as coaches, about an effort thing,’’ Little said.

‘‘It’s up to the individuals themselves to make sure that they’re putting in the work.’’

The mood in the Echuca rooms was almost the polar opposite.

No-one was getting too far ahead of themselves, a point coach Cameron Stewart was keen to address, but this was a significant day for the club.

Echuca ran harder, swamped the opposition with tackles, got first hands on the footy and kicked straighter.

Simon Buckley was superb around the contest and was the architect of many of Echuca’s best passages of play, while Thomas Stevens was rewarded for his tireless effort with four goals.

‘‘We had an even contribution across the board,’’ Stewart said.

‘‘Our average age down back was 19 and Tom Monahan was outstanding, he’d be in our best three.

‘‘Everyone just did their role.’’

Stewart said the win wasn’t a turning point, saying his side was still a “work in progress”, but was proud of his side’s performance.

‘‘They’ve been a little bit disappointed with where they’re at,’’ Stewart said.

‘‘They set some goals about winning each quarter, out-tackling them and hitting the scoreboard and we achieved those goals.

‘‘I thought we covered the ground quite well, besides the second quarter, reset our goals every quarter and achieved them all, so that was really pleasing.’’

The Murray Bombers kept the Bears to three goals, which were kicked by Daryl Webb, Mitchell Brett and Braden Pullen.

Rhys Archard kicked three of his own for the Murray Bombers, while the impressive Matt Pollock was one of four other players to register one goal.