The Courier |
In the critical moments of a tight game, class almost always proves the decisive factor.
That adage remained true of Waubra's thrilling seven-point victory over Bungaree on the first, and only, Sunday game of the home-and-away season.
Almost the entire contest was an arm-wrestle, a result of not only the torrential rain but also the clash of two top-four sides desperate to assert themselves as they near the finals.
Momentum flipped back and forth between the two sides constantly, with neither team able to control the game for more than five or 10 minutes at a time.
With the final siren approaching, Waubra led by a solitary point and appeared on the verge of being overrun.
Yet, rather than submit itself to Bungaree's mounting pressure, the class of the Kangaroos rose to the occasion and got the game back on their terms.
An instinctive snap from Kangaroos' star Shaun Mullane soon sealed the victory and dashed the Demons' hopes of an important scalp.
Waubra coach Jason Allen said it was a hard-earned win that could have gone either way.
"They (the Demons) are a good side and it's hard to take too much out of wet weather football," he said.
"Towards the end we started to get on top, with stoppages and our contested ball. I was rapt with how the boys managed to play four quarters of pretty honest football, which helped get us the win in the end."
The victory keeps the Kangaroos at second place on the ladder, with a home clash against Carngham-Linton next weekend.
Having come up against Buninyong and Waubra in consecutive weeks, Bungaree has had the opportunity to gauge how it compares against the competition's best.
The result could easily have gone the Demons' way, but coach Greg Middleton said there were no prizes for the runner-up.
"I thought we nearly had it, but we went napping a bit in those last few minutes," he said.
"Like the good side they (the Kangaroos) are, they rallied and ran away with it.
"You're never happy with a loss. If we get close to sides, we expect to win and we let ourselves down late in the game."
Bungaree remains in third place, but will need to secure victory against Dunnstown next weekend if it is to stave off an approaching Hepburn.
