Seymour’s midfield was on song for large portions of Sunday’s semi-final match against Euroa, earning the first opportunity at the ball and asserting authority at stoppages.
Led by a monster outing from Jack O’Sullivan, even to his lofty standards, the Lions were getting it away from contests more frequently and finding more targets up forward.
How can it be, in that case, that Seymour not only managed to lose and see its season end, but lost all four quarters individually?
Seymour’s strategic victories
Disposals: 365-316 (79-81 in Q4)
Contested possessions: 138-131 (32-42 in Q4)
Hit-outs: 52-41 (13-14 in Q4)
Uncontested marks: 79-76 (15-16 in Q4)
Kicking efficiency: 64% - 60% (55% - 64% in Q4)
Seymour even lost the tackle count 63-52 which by no means indicates a lack of effort or pressure on its part.
Conventionally, putting in less tackles in a reasonably close count is typically an indicator of a side that’s not only getting to the ball first, but moving it with reasonable efficiency.
An opportunity presented itself when Euroa, having produced an insidiously wasteful 2.8 in the third term when the Magpies could have killed the game off, left the door open for Seymour to save its season.
However, perhaps the key to where things went wrong for the Lions, now consigned to a straight-sets finals exit, is that the Magpies gained the edge in every one of the above categories during the final quarter.
The game was summarily killed off within the first 10 minutes of that term as the Magpies seemingly could not put a foot wrong offensively, racing out to a lead that at one point was more than six goals on their way to a 6.3 quarter.
It is a notable indictment that the Lions’ decision-making crumpled to such an extent in the last period in moving the ball by foot, with nearly one in two passes failing to find their destination.
Their overall offensive output increased, too, as they tried doggedly to keep the game a slugfest despite trailing by incrementally larger margins at each change, registering 4.4 in a stanza that brought Tatura Park to life on both sides.
Following a third term best defined by a miserable wealth of squandered chances, Seymour was noble in its efforts prior to elimination, but the numbers contain the story as to how, in spite of the best efforts of juggernauts like O’Sullivan, it simply could not hang on for all 120 minutes in a cut-throat environment.