A day at Victoria Park which began with the raising of the premiership flag ended with a reminder of grand final day when The Rock-Yerong Creek staged a thrilling comeback to avoid defeat against East Wagga-Kooringal.
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The only thing missing was a celebration when the siren sounded with scores level at 10.6 (66) – 10.6 (66).
To be fair, there was excitement moments earlier when TRYC forward Mitch Ward kicked his fourth goal of the game to bring the Pies level with just eight seconds to go, after the Hawks had looked destined for a round one win.
“It was definitely bittersweet, you didn’t really know what to do,” TRYC’s Andrew Clarke said after playing in his first ever draw, in his first game as a coach.
Co-coach Andy Carey lamented ill discipline.
“We gave away a couple of silly free kicks that resulted in two goals and I was a little bit silly getting sent off for 15 minutes, which didn’t help,” Carey said.
“You take those things out of the equation and maybe things might have been different.”
Carey was yellow carded after a melee with five minutes to go in the third quarter.
Remarkably, he left the field with TRYC 15 points down and returned with less than a goal the difference after his Pies kicked two goals to EWK’s two behinds while a man down.
“It was a credit to the boys when I was off the ground, they stuck together really well,” he said.
The Hawks led for most of the match after Marc Geppert kicked the first goal of the game in the 10th minute, but were never more than 16 points in front.
At times in the first half, they threatened to get away with Nick Hull and Joe Scott ensuring plenty of ball out of the middle, but TRYC’s Dale Hugo was instrumental across half-back in repelling EWK raids.
“When someone needed to step up, I think it was Dale who kept us in the game a couple of times,” Carey said.
New Pies signing Mitch Stephenson gave a glimpse of what he’s capable of, capitalising on Hugo’s efforts with a big second quarter.
While Mitch Ward was a constant threat at centre-half-forward with close to 10 marks before halftime, and three second-half goals.
Between the first goal of the game and the last, TRYC only led once – early in the third quarter after Dave Pieper goaled to go three points up, before Brock Argus grabbed the lead back for EWK.
For the Hawks, Brenton Roberts was a standout and fellow defender Tim Smith was solid on Carey. While star signing Chris Gordon had plenty of touches and looks set to have a big impact this season.
The Pies travel to Ardlethan to take on the Jets next week while the Hawks host CSU.
