A dismal one goal to seven opening term set the tone for the day in Ovens and Murray’s loss in their senior football interleague clash with Bendigo Football Netball League.

Played on the picturesque Queen Elizabeth Oval in Bendigo on Saturday, O&M fought back well after a shocking first quarter, but the match ended in a 20-point loss, 11.11 (77) to Bendigo’s 14.13 (97).

It was high energy early, with Bendigo’s Michael Hartley kicking the opening goal of the game in the first four minutes.

The O&M struggled to find clean passages of play and had a tough time getting the ball out of their defensive 50, as Bendigo were all over the scoreboard in the opening quarter through repeat forward 50 entries.

It would take more than 15 minutes for the O&M to hit the scoreboard, with Jack Mapleson getting on the end of a kick-in from Ashton McPherson in the middle of the ground, before finding Tim Oosterhoff unattended inside the forward 50, who would stroll into the open goal and thump it through.

O&M were on the board, but they were already 17 points down, and when Bendigo found the next two goals, the black and gold were on the back foot early.

Bendigo would continue their dominance of the opening term, kicking away to a 40-point lead at the first break, O&M trailing 1.1 (7) to 7.5 (47) at quarter time.

O&M looked a different outfit after the break, becoming much more competitive at the contest, with Myrtleford’s Riley Smith slotting their second goal of the day from a mark on the goal line, while Oosterhoff found his second at the 15-minute mark of the second quarter.

Corowa Rutherglen’s Kaelan Bradtke found space inside the forward 50 and brought the margin back to 32 points at the half-time siren.

Momentum kept swinging O&M’s way but was not sustained enough – every time O&M would find a goal and start to bring the margin back, Bendigo would hold them off and answer in kind.

Bendigo would take a 28-point margin into the final break, with O&M able to whittle away at the deficit in parts, but it would need an almighty effort in the final quarter to taste success.

The fourth quarter would get off to a rough start for O&M, conceding their 12th goal within two minutes of play recommencing.

While they won the final term, the deficit was too great for the O&M to overcome.

Wodonga Bulldogs’ Charlie Morrison had an outstanding day, named best on ground for O&M and awarded the Norm Minns Medal, while big men Will Christie and Riley Smith dominated in the ruck.

O&M senior coach Jake Sharp said their woeful first term ended up costing them the game.

“You never like losing,” he said.

“We’ve got a lot of competitors in the group, and you can just see a few of the boys are hurting with individual performances and just knowing collectively, once we got going after quarter time, how much of the contest was even.

“We just left ourselves too much to do, that was the reality across the day.

“There were just moments throughout the game where I felt we were probably one goal off really tilting some momentum, but when you leave yourself to a start like that, you leave too much to chance, and that was just the course of the day and how it played out.

“Credit to the boys, they were always positive enough to stay in the hunt, but as I said, we just left too much to chance, and unfortunately those little ones didn’t go our way.”

It was better news from the other games, with O&M saluting 9.4 (58) to 5.11 (41) in the under 18s football, with Wodonga Raiders’ Callum Moffat named best on ground.

Over on the netball court, there was more to celebrate for the O&M, with the 15 and under squad coming away with a thriller 36-35, and the 17 and under winning in another close contest, 47-46, with Wangaratta Magpies Izzy McMahon best on court.

The open netball side were outplayed by Bendigo, going down 49-83.