Gunnedah produced a stunning final quarter fightback at No.1 Oval on Saturday to pull off a miracle win over the Tamworth Swans and give their finals hopes another shot in the arm.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Up by five goals at three-quarter time after a strong third quarter, the Swans looked to have the game in their control. But the Dogs rallied, and with just over eight minutes remaining had all but erased the Swans' lead, Mitch Swain's snap behind with around seven to play putting the visitors on what they thought was level terms but actually in front for the first time in the game.
There was some confusion about the result initially with the scoreboard showing both teams on 81-points. But the umpires had the Bulldogs ahead 81-80.
READ ALSO:
A proud Dogs coach Andy Mack admitted he had a pretty good idea the score was wrong.
"We knew on the bench... Ryan Cooper took a mark on the line that they called a behind on the scoreboard," he said.
"(But) It was probably a good thing from our end that we had the guys look up and see it was level.
"We might have changed a couple of things had we known we were in front, and probably might have got a bit nervous instead of keeping playing the way we were. We were attacking the footy and that was all that mattered. We kept having forward entries."
The Dogs trailed virtually all match but never felt they were out of it.
"We've always finished games out strong so the belief was still there," Mack said.
"We had a bit of a downhill run, the scoring end towards the pool, so we just had to get a bit more clean footy going forward and we were able to do that."
He had spoken to them at the break about just taking it one goal at a time.
"I just said to the guys we'll get our first goal and then we'll get our second and let it progress from there," he said.
"It wasn't so much we had to score five or six goals, it was just a matter of lets get one, lets get two and take it in small steps. We had 25 minutes to do it."
They reeled off six while holding the Swans to just three behinds.
Skipper Ben Maher and Andrew George were both huge for them in that final quarter. Mack also noted the efforts of Ryan Smith on the wing, ruckman Nick Ferguson and Cooper at the back
As a collective he thought the backline really stood up "especially in the face of some pretty hot footy coming in in that third quarter, and kept it to a reasonable margin that we could run it down in the end."
Mark Ewington was the man up front for them booting a game-high five goals.
"I'm really proud of the boys," Mack said.
"From where we've come from at the start of the year, everyone was saying we're not the side we used to be.
"It shows there's still plenty of heart in the club."
They still sit outside the four but are now only a win away.
It was a good day for the Dogs with the women also getting up in a close one by three points.
Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content:
- Bookmark NVI
- Make sure you are signed up for our breaking and regular headlines newsletters
- Follow us on Instagram
- Follow us on Google News