Myrtleford’s premiership hopes took a bit of a blow on Saturday following an agonising one-point loss to North Albury at home.

In a tightly-contested showdown against two finalists, the Hoppers prevailed by just one point, the Saints going down 8.10 (59) to 8.11 (59).

For much of the game, there was barely a goal in it, with Myrtleford leading on the scoreboard at both quarter and half-time, before the Hoppers levelled it at the final change of ends.

The final term was an exercise in pressure, with neither team able to convert on their chances and kick a goal in the fourth quarter.

Ultimately, North Albury managed to claw their way over the line, breaking hearts of the Saints faithful in attendance.

Coach Craig Millar said it was a disappointing result so late in the season.

“I thought we started well, both teams started well, it was a good standard of footy, but they just got on top with a couple of things going their way, and we lost our way for a bit of time,” he said.

“That’s the pressure of the game, fatigue sets in, and unfortunately at the end of the day our polish and tackling weren’t at the level they needed to be when you‘re playing a side that have been strong all year, even though the ladder didn’t look like it, and they’d only just been losing games.

“We got them earlier in the year, and they got us this time – they’re always good match-ups and unfortunately we weren’t able to get the points we really needed.”

One area the Saints fell down in was conversion from forward 50 entries – Myrtleford outperformed the Hoppers in getting the ball inside their forward 50, 50-33, but only produced 18 scoring shots, a conversion rate of just 36 per cent.

“We had significantly more inside 50s yet lost the game,” Millar said.

“We’ve been working on some of our entry stuff, and by and large, getting it into that part of the ground we’ve been really good, but we’re not able to hold the ball in there for long enough, and the ball’s been coming back out too quickly and teams have been scoring.

“We’re still getting plenty of looks, some of our ball use going in the front half hasn’t been at the level, it’s been going to some ordinary spots and good teams will make you pay on turnover.

“We’ll get to work this week, clean it up and hopefully hit Wodonga running this weekend.”

Defender Brady Sharp maintained his purple patch of form, ruckman Riley Smith continued to push his case for the Morris Medal with another blinder, while the reliable Simon Curtis and Jaxon East delivered once more.

The Saints now sit a game behind the third-placed Bulldogs, needing to win both of their last two matches and Wodonga to drop at least one game to sneak into the top three and get the double chance.

They meet the Bulldogs this weekend at Martin Park.

“We know our best footy is pretty good, and we know there are some areas in our game we need to continually fine-tune,” Millar said.

“We lost to Wodonga by eight or nine points the first time at home, we had plenty of opportunities to get that game back on our terms.

“We’ll look to cash in on that this week, get back to the best version of us, and if we do that we know we can play some good footy and challenge those teams who sit above us on the ladder.”

In other matches from the weekend, Myrtleford’s reserves banked a monster 130-point win, 22.12 (144) to 2.2 (14), while the thirds went down 3.7 (25) to 5.9 (39).

OAK FM votes: Round 16

Myrtleford vs North Albury: 5 B. Rigoni (NA), 4 J. East (Myrt), 3 T. Broomhead (NA), 2 C. Gardiner (NA), 1 S. Curtis (Myrt).

Leaderboard: R. Smith (Myrt) 39, J. Gaynor (Alb) 33, W. Wheeler (Yarra) 30.