As long as he lives, Seymour’s Mitch McLean will not have a better 10-second window than during the final quarter of yesterday’s Goulburn Valley League reserves grand final.
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Time seemed to stand still late in the quarter when McLean desperately smothered an Echuca kick, kept his feet and gathered the footy and beautifully snapped home the game’s winning goal from 40m.
A low-scoring scrap, the game was always going to come down to magical moments - and McLean produced something that belonged at Hogwarts.
It was the Lions’ third consecutive goal after they had been 15 points down in the final quarter, with swingman Seamus Feery and Nick Clydesdale able to capitalise on a Seymour surge that seemingly came from nowhere, with the game ending on a 21-1 run.
It earned Seymour its first reserves premiership since 2008, and capped off a table-topping season where it ended with a 19-2 record.
“It’s been really good because we’ve fought hard for this and left no stone unturned,” Lions coach Paul Cox said.
“They’ve just done a brilliant job all year and it’s great to get up in the end there, it was close, but we were able to fight back and credit to the boys, they were able to push until the end and get the result.”
Seymour nicked the first goal of the day through a big Harley Taylor-Lloyd clunk, before ruck Michael Bradbury, whose class was evident from the opening bounce, made it 12-0 from a free kick.
The Murray Bombers found little going inside 50 for the entire first half, outside of a two-minute window where forward Riley Clarke kicked two goals.
The Lions were back in front before the half as McLean found his first of the day, and seemingly broke the game open with the second half's opener, with league leading goal-kicker Max Jones beautifully judging the Deakin Reserve wind tunnel and bending a sublime set shot home from 50.
But Echuca parked the ball in its front half and good things would eventually come, with ruckman Riley Rickard slotting two goals to earn it an eight-point three-quarter-time break.
Clarke found his third with a sensational checkside from the pocket for a 15-point advantage that felt match-winning, but the Lions got up off the canvas to deliver three hay-makers and pinch the crown.
Seymour's tackling pressure stood out all game, with repeat efforts denying Echuca much time to think clearly for most of the game.
“Our pressure was really strong all day, our attack on the ball was fantastic,” Cox said.
“We were a little bit loose at times and they were taking a lot of uncontested marks, but we soon cleaned that up and in the end we were running over the top of them.”
Bradbury's heroic game stood out along with stellar defensive work from Tom Martin, with Dylan Hockley and McLean both creating plenty.
For Echuca, Clarke's three goals were necessary as the side's other forwards misfired, with Will Murnane producing a strong game in defence.
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