Nothing was elementary about the clash between the hosting Bombers and visiting Seymour, but an end-to-end arm wrestle resulted in a victory for Kyabram on a day that threatened to go either way.
First it was the Bombers, going blow for blow with a barraging opening quarter.
Then Seymour’s turn came, the Lions slicing and dicing their way back into the contest with a five-goal third term, flipping the game on its head.
But when marbles were on the table, Kyabram rolled the dice to leave Seymour at sixes and sevens and emerge with a 13.15 (93) to 11.11 (77) win.
Kyabram co-coach Corey Carver explained the curious nature of the game.
“It was an interesting game; we started really well and were right on top of the ground in the first quarter,” he said.
“In the second quarter we overpossessed the ball and then probably gave them a bit of a look in and they started to play better.
“And then the third quarter they smashed us — they were all over us in all aspects and we were in real trouble.
“But in the last quarter we got our act together I suppose and started to win the ball back, steadied a little bit and were able to hold on.”
Heading in, Kyabram had looked every shade of its glorious former self with three wins from its past three games — and the return of a veteran workhorse buoyed the Bombers further still.
Jason Morgan appeared for the first time since round nine and he sure picked the right time to resurface as Kyabram shot to a 35-point lead by quarter-time.
The second quarter, however, is when still waters became choppy for the host.
Seymour wrested back a degree of power with two goals to Kyabrams’ one, and when the Lions clawed the deficit back to three points at the last address, the see-saw had fully tipped back the way of the travellers.
But the Bombers were not going to be vanquished that easily.
Kyabram’s four fourth-quarter majors were enough to keep the ravenous Lions at bay, all but shoring up fifth spot with one round to play.
Though it wasn’t perfect, Carver shrewdly analysed his charges’ performance and pinpointed where his side let Seymour back into the game.
“Contested ball; we’d been really good at that early — the first quarter, even the second quarter we were winning our own ball and then they smashed us in the third quarter,” he said.
“They got rolling with the contested ball and then we were able to turn that around in the last quarter.
“We just had to get cracking, basically and stop standing on our heels and start playing a bit.
“To their credit, particularly their on-ballers, they were really good in the last quarter.”
Silky operators such as Tom Maloney and Nathan Beattie stole Seymour spectators’ hearts, while for Kyabram, Anthony Depasquale added another six goals to his season tally of 67.
He wasn’t the only Bomber to impress, either.
“I thought (Brad) Whitford was probably our best across half-back, Khoo was great in the ruck — his last month has been really good — and ‘Dipper’ is doing ‘Dipper’ things, Carver said.
“He’s kicking five or six a week, he’s pretty consistent and he’s playing a bit short at the moment, so he’s doing a really good job.”
Next up before finals for Kyabram is a date with Shepparton, which is perhaps the best chance for the Bombers to get a read on their game before crunch time arrives.
“It’s a good way to finish, really,” Carver said.
“You work to get everything right before finals start and they’re a really good side, and we’ll have to do everything right to try and beat them because they’ve been great all year.
“But it’s a good chance to hopefully get the little things sorted as well before finals.”
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