Amid a buzz of Bulldogs ecstasy, a bystander in the Tatura Park crowd said it was the best game of local footy he’d ever seen.
It wasn’t an understatement.
A wicked Chaz Sargeant goal after the siren delivered Tatura a marauding three-point victory over Seymour at the weekend, putting an exclamation point on an 11.9 (75) to 10.12 (72) Goulburn Valley League win for the ages.
The contest had turbulence.
Hell, an A380 flight from Boston to Bermuda has less bumps and bruises.
Yet Sargeant’s sizzling sealer brought calm to Bulldogs coach Paul Barnard in the eye of the storm as he recounted the moment at the game’s end.
“I was just really hoping, obviously we wanted it to go through, but really to reward their effort because they never gave up,” he said.
“As a coach, you don’t want your team to put the cue in the rack.
“I just thought it was probably in the right person’s hands. He’s a really gifted key forward, he’s got great technique.
“He missed a couple early, but had the conviction to go again and that’s really pleasing.”
Sargeant’s clinical closing act was fitting considering the two hours of football that preceded it.
Tatura took an eight-point lead into quarter-time as Seymour proved wasteful in front of the big sticks, though returning Brad Ryan alongside Ethan Penrith solidified a wrought-iron Bulldogs’ backline.
Lions’ star on-baller Ben Rigoni slotted the first major of the second term, then along came Sargeant.
With the wind at his back, the key forward boomed one through from just outside the centre square before backing it up minutes later, albeit from slightly closer range.
William Le Deux finally pegged one back for Seymour after a slice of dominance and Riley Mason pushed his Lions ahead with two well-taken efforts before the main break.
The visitors surged and surged throughout the third quarter, matching Tatura’s three initial goals to grip a four-point advantage with one term left to play.
Bulldogs recruit Jhdara Jones got the crowd going with slick movement, connecting the defence and attack, while a Ryan sibling link-up spurred the fans further on.
Brad Ryan drilled an arrow to brother Matt up forward, who obliged to put the host two points ahead — but the Lions weren’t done.
A Schraven effort shunted Seymour back into the lead, then debutant Lewis Lubeck found himself in acres of space in the goalsquare, marking and executing the set shot.
When all hope was seemingly lost for Tatura, Sargeant cued the heartstopper.
The siren buzzed, Sargeant nailed the attempt and the crowd erupted as players spilled onto the field to orbit their opening-day hero.
That energy carried through into the rooms, where Barnard swelled with pride during his post-match address.
“You measure your victory by how mighty your opponent is and Seymour is a pretty good opponent — they’ve played perennial finals,” he said.
“We’re only (a town of) 4500 people and a lot of our people have sacrificed a lot each week to get five netball teams and four football teams up.
“We’ve got under-18s now and that gives us a reboot in that sense. Some days are going to be worse than others, but we’ve now got continuity with our club.
“If we can give them an hour or two away from their lives and they can come here to the footy club and can hold their heads up high, we’ve done our job haven’t we?”
On the opposite front, Seymour coach Ben Davey was at a loss when asked to summarise the match.
Fine margins cost the Lions in the long run, but the defeat gave Davey an inkling of where his charges need to improve moving forward.
“I just said to the boys, if that siren goes 20 seconds earlier it’s a feeling of jubilation — you’ve pulled off one of the great wins,” he said.
“And then it goes 20 seconds later and you feel like you’ve played the worst game of your life.
“When that happens it’s really easy for everyone to think about what they did wrong to make us lose, when if the siren goes 20 seconds earlier and you think ‘sh*t I played well’ because we won.
“In a way it’s good because it makes you really reflect on what you need to do to get better.”