Seymour will be able to take confidence into the Goulburn Valley finals series after a brave performance against league-leader Mooroopna.
It was a battle of the felines at Kings Park on Saturday as the Cats made the trip down the highway to take on the Lions, who roared to life with a 25-goal demolition of Kyabram the previous week.
The crunch clash marked Rosie O’Sullivan’s 200th game and Olivia Barry’s 100th game for the Lions.
Despite the Cats having dominated the competition this season, it had been the Lions who dealt them one of only two losses this year when they went down to Seymour 36-39 at Mooroopna Recreation Reserve in round eight.
While only sitting sixth on the table, the Lions were right to consider themselves in with a chance for the win on home turf.
The Cats showed why they are the team to beat heading into September as they dominated the first quarter to take a four-goal lead into the first break.
The margin doubled by the end of the second term as the visitors took an eight-goal lead into the main break.
Led by coach Elle Furhmeister, the Lions slowly but surely began to claw their way back into the clash throughout the second half.
An eight-goal half-time margin became six by three-quarter time and with two minutes to go it looked like a grandstand finish was on the cards as the Lions brought the margin to within three.
But it was too little, too late, as the Cats weathered the storm to emerge with the win by six goals.
Furhmeister said there was about a five-minute patch where Mooroopna was able to pile on a few goals.
“From then on we were chasing the game,” Furhmeister said.
“To go down to the top side by six is not too bad. We just have to tidy up a few things heading into finals.”
Standout performers in the near-miss for the Lions were defenders Ruby Martin and Bridie Cantwell.
Martin proved useful in attack as well as in defence, chipping in 11 goals.
The Lions’ next match is against Echuca in a loser-goes-home elimination final at Tatura, while the Cats will take on Euroa in the qualifying final on home turf in Mooroopna.
In B-grade, it was another tight loss for the Lions, who went down 46-49.
Like their A-grade teammates, they will look to rebound with a win in an elimination final, this time against Shepparton in Echuca.
It was better news in B-reserve, as the Lions finished the regular season undefeated with a 43-23 win.
They will look to continue their streak against Rochester in the qualifying final at Tatura.
In the juniors, the Cats took home 47–30 and 20–64 wins in under-15s and under-17s respectively.