That’s a wrap, Goulburn Valley Suns fans — you can now exhale.
Dubbed “the great escape” by some and “GV safe” by others, regardless of the moniker, the Suns will return to the Victorian Premier League Two in 2025 after evading the jaws of relegation in a stunning final day showing.
A pulsating 4-4 draw against North Sunshine Eagles on Saturday proved enough for the Suns to secure safety by a hair-raising margin of two points.
As usual, drama was rife at the Theatre of Dreams. The scoreline says enough in itself.
But when the final whistle blew, and the Suns’ ship had moored in the proverbial port in a storm, coach Craig Carley could reflect on what his side had just achieved.
“These boys won’t get the credit that they deserve,” he said.
“When you’re in a relegation battle, people won’t look at that in years to come how important this result was for our club and the future players and current juniors at our club moving forward.
“If a team like ours goes down into the state leagues, it’s a very, very tough battle to get back into NPL football and we need that pathway for our juniors which is one of the unique things that makes our club so, so different to anywhere else.
“They were all ecstatic; we had a brilliant evening at the end of it and I’m just so proud of them for the way they’ve responded these last six or seven weeks.”
Following a 4-4 draw last time the Suns met North Sunshine, some spectators could’ve suspected what was about to happen on Saturday.
But when the Suns led 3-0 at the half, even the most ardent Orangemen faithful would’ve had pinch marks on their arms.
Callum Schorah, eyeing off the golden boot award, scored a five-minute double as he first swung the ball into the net directly from a corner before slotting Hassan Alhilfi’s cutback.
Alhilfi then got in on act as he caressed the ball into the bottom left 10 minutes from the break after Russell Currie’s superb hold up play inside the box.
Come the hour mark, though, and the Eagles ripped the cue from the rack.
Abdalla Okud crashed a header home from a corner to spark a rise from the visitors and the tides swung further when Nick Epifano raced onto a through ball and tucked away his lunch to make it 3-2.
Target man Currie restored the Suns’ two-goal buffer as he bundled away his side’s fourth after perseverant play from Sean Grant, yet North Sunshine hadn’t let its own league title hopes dissipate.
In the 92nd minute, Ndue Mujeci tapped home a parried shot and followed up with a drive on the swivel in the 94th to transform the Suns’ comfort into chaos.
But with the whistle came floods of relief.
Schorah’s two goals had landed him joint golden boot status alongside Essendon Royals’ Jordan Adeyemi, the point was secured, and most significantly, the Suns had saved their season.
“We obviously knew North Sunshine are a quality outfit, that’s why they’ve been promoted this year, but the boys got off to a flyer,” Carley said.
“They were switched on from the moment they arrived and it was fully deserved in my opinion to be three up at half-time.
“But credit to North Sunshine for the way they responded and put us under a lot of pressure in the second half — they were going for the title with an eye on the Srbija game and how that was going too.
“Two 4-4 games against them this season just proves that we’re probably not too far away with the squad that we’ve ended the season (with) in terms of challenging for those top spots.
“Hopefully we can keep the squad together and push on next year.”
And with that, dusk has fallen on another Suns’ campaign.
Carley conceded the season, in which the Orangemen finished 10th, had its fair share of peaks and troughs, but the grit shown to hang tough in the league is a testament to the Suns’ stature.
“For me personally as a coach, I’ve certainly learnt more this year than I’ve learnt in any year being a coach,” Carley said.
“But what it has shown is that we’re able to deal with that adversity and bounce back.
“We set a goal seven weeks ago to ensure that we would survive, we signed the necessary players that we thought could do that and, again, it was just tiny little tweaks.
“We’ve obviously got the depth there and if we can keep this current squad together and with the 23s winning the league in their respective division as well, the future is certainly bright for soccer in the region.”