It may not have been perfect, but Seymour prevailed over Mansfield in what turned out to be a game of two halves at Kings Park on Saturday.
The Lions were matched large in part by its guest for the opening quarter, but broke away in the second to a 33-point lead at the half, a buffer which seemed to be too far out of reach for Mansfield.
However, Seymour went a man down in the following quarter and the Eagles were able to capitalise, wresting a degree of dominance from the home side, but could not sustain it as it fell 13.11 (89) to 9.8 (62).
After the game, a stoic Ben Davey conceded his Seymour outfit was far from its best, but gave credit where it was due to grind out another win against a tough opponent.
“We still didn’t go hard all the way to the end which was a bit disappointing,” he said.
“I thought we played pretty good footy in the first half to get a bit of a break on them which was good.
“It just felt a bit like we got a break on them and (were happy) just to hold them at bay, which isn’t really good because there’s always a chance that things won’t go your way and they’ll come back and bite you.
“Sometimes you’ve got to win ugly and not play your best and that’s pretty much what happened.”
A tense opening few minutes was broken by Seymour’s Jack O’Sullivan as he hooked one from deep, the lovely left-bending effort splitting the sticks before the Lions added another not long after.
Classy Mansfield on-baller Brett Mahoney pegged one back 12 minutes in and a rise from the crowd came late in the first quarter as Eagle Cody George sold some candy inside the forward pocket and booted a goal on the angle to draw the margin back to within two points.
Seymour’s pressure inside Mansfield’s back half made it tricky for the Eagles to land the ball in the palms of its skilled midfield brigade during the second term and with Thomas Davey warming up the laces, Seymour’s advantage soon blew out.
But when Will Brock exited the field in the aftermath of a sling tackle, Mansfield began to take charge.
The Eagles kicked 2.1 to Seymour’s two behinds during the third quarter and looked the goods when the likes of Mahoney and Lachlan Murphy-Dale were charging through the middle.
Though once the Lions were restored to 18 men on the field, the side went where no other has gone this season and outscored Mansfield in the final quarter to come away with a hard fought 37-point victory.
Chasing excellence, Davey was somewhat amused as to how his side didn’t kick on from its strong first half effort and kill the game dead.
“The first half you could see blokes building into good games, but probably just dropped off in the third quarter having to work so hard because we were a man down,” he said.
“It still wasn’t great footy in the first half, but there were some really good passages of play from the back half into the forward half.
“We went into the three-quarter time break only 20 points up and after that it was a bit of a sh*tfight.
“We lost that third quarter because we were a man down, it was more about getting back on top and work hard to finish the game strong.
“They like to chip the ball short and we let them do it and by that time the game was fizzling out a bit.”
While Seymour’s second half effort left a bit to be desired, Davey couldn’t fault his side for getting another important win on the board early in the season.
“It’s five games in and there’s a long way to go,” he said.
“Getting those wins in early is so important, because it allows you from the middle to end of the year to tinker with things how you want to end up playing at the end of the year.
“Then you can get all the boys focused and polished on what those things are.”