The third time was indeed the charm for the former Fremantle hero as David Mundy, making his tertiary appearance for the season, saluted alongside his Seymour teammates at Kings Park against Mansfield on Saturday.
A primarily tense tussle between two evenly matched sides resulted in a Goulburn Valley League win for the Lions via order of a marauding five-goal final quarter, leaving the hosts on cloud nine following a 13.16 (94) to 11.8 (74) victory.
It wasn’t strictly surgical up forward — the 16 behinds details that.
But at the siren, you could hardly wipe the smile off the face of Seymour coach Ben Davey, largely due to the jubilation in securing Mundy his first win for Seymour in two decades.
“It’s great; much better than losing. It’s terrific, the boys have done really well,” he said.
“I’m just rapt for Dave getting a win in the Lions’ colours again.
“It’s been about 21 years in between wins, so it’s great. He’s such a good guy; people just don’t understand.”
According to Davey, Mundy flew in on a red-eye flight and arrived in Seymour in the early hours of Saturday morning.
After a quick sleep at his mum’s house, he was ready for the mania to begin.
Seymour endured waves of Eagles pressure from the jump as Billy Hogan took a stunning pluck and dispatched for the first goal of the game.
Not long after, a Nathan Buchanan arrow bounced through for two.
The previously tamed Lions began to break the shackles as Riley Mason took a towering mark and fed Ricky Schraven who couldn’t miss from close and, just as Seymour started to threaten, Hogan struck again.
Seymour looked the stronger of the sides, but couldn’t carve clear scoring opportunities, and a further goal to Hogan had the host trailing by 10 points at quarter-time.
A cagey second exchange began in Mansfield’s favour.
But when key on-baller Patrick Marks exited the contest with a suspected finger injury, Seymour pounced.
Seamus Feery’s dribbled kick rolled through the big sticks late on to get Seymour within a point and an even later Mason dime pushed the Lions ahead for the first time.
The might of Nic Quigg, back from GWS camp for his first game in Seymour colours in 2024, Nathan Fowler and Mason up forward as well as Mundy knocked the hosts into a clear momentum-swing as time ticked by during the third quarter.
But things tightened further when Dylan Lowry bounced one through for Mansfield’s first goal in what seemed like an age.
Yet the Eagles still had 10 points to make up as the fourth quarter began.
Buchanan’s goal on the run two minutes into the term kept a close game closer still, but as they’d done since quarter-time, Seymour found a way.
A pair of goals each to Lewis Lubeck and Mason as well as one to Schraven killed the last of Mansfield’s hope while simultaneously sealing Seymour’s solace, capping what was a consummate win in Mundy Mania: edition three.
“We knew the way they’re going to play; they use the short marks, handball receives, and we talked about that a lot,” Davey said.
“But also on the flipside, they’re red-hot with their pressure — they’re a really good pressure team.
“They’ve got big Jack (Hutchins) down there directing traffic in the back half and you’ve got to work around that a bit.
“We got around it in the end, but at one stage we were 11 points up, but it was 11 scoring shots, 11 points.
“So we’re getting plenty of the ball in there, but they made it really hard for us to score.
“The start of the year we’ve had has been really tough with injuries and things, so today was a snippet — we got a couple of players back which helps a lot.”
Davey voiced his elation at the performances of Mason (six goals) and Fowler in the forward line as well as Mundy and Quigg’s output.
He also applauded the “dangerous” Hogan (three goals), while some of Mansfield’s others to star were Brett Mahoney, Dirk Koenen and Buchanan.
