The Tigers went into this round 0-3, but the Echuca co-coach was far from writing them off on that record.
And he knew his club needed to play a side like Rochy.
“When you have a win like we did against Kyabram last week, you can sometimes be a bit overwhelmed,” Maddox said.
“Rochester are a lot better than that record would suggest.
“They're a very good side, and we knew they were going to challenge us. We knew we had to be completely on the ball and playing our best football or we could be in trouble.”
Echuca rose to the occasion, inflicting their arch rivals fourth straight loss of the season, leaving one of the pre-season flag fancies on the bottom of the ladder.
With a side missing some of its big name players and including a lot of young talent, the Murray Bombers had to play one of their best games of the season to get over the line against the old enemy.
“It was a really pleasing win,” Maddox said.
“We had a lot of young guys - maybe a dozen who are 18-19-20 - who really stepped up and performed for us and that makes a big difference.”
With another strong showing from Ben Reid and young gun Logan Prout, as well as three goals from the ever reliable Ruory Kirkby, Echuca's side is continuing to grow in confidence to start the season, with a host of experience talent to come back into the side in coming weeks.
“We're really happy with where we are sitting at this point of the season,” Maddox said.
“We've played some really good football in the past few weeks, and we've been able to do that without some of our senior players available.
“If we can continue to perform like this in the coming weeks we will be set up really well for later in the year.”
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