Marrar’s answer, when it came, was emphatic.

The defending premiers produced a sensational last-quarter comeback at Gumly Oval on Saturday to turn a 28-point deficit into a 24-point win over the Hawks, 12.16 (88) to 10.4 (64). 

The 52-point swing was as stunning as it was stirring; as deadly as it was dramatic. 

Having kicked just four goals in three quarters, Marrar kicked eight in the last term, while holding the Hawks scoreless.

The domination after three-quarter-time was devastating as they won clearance after clearance and reaped their rewards. In seven minutes, they’d kicked three goals (including two to Jake Hindmarsh) to trail by a kick, and a procession was underway. 

Tyler Cunningham’s 13^th minute goal levelled the scores and after the next centre clearance Zach Walgers kicked his second of the quarter to put them in front.

Brad Langtry, Cal Gardner and Rhys Mooney completed proceedings to maintain Marrar’s unbeaten start.

“It was a good win. That’s a credit to the group. They’ve got that belief. They train hard, they work hard and they’re confident they can run games out strong,” coach Shane Lenon said.

“They all lifted together as a group and you don’t win games like that if you don’t. But there were four or five special efforts and a couple of those were in the heat of the action in the middle.”

Those last quarter goalkickers played big roles late, along with Jackson Moye, Clint Taylor and Nick Molkentin (who bore the ruck duties after Matt Parks suffered a head knock early).

But Hindmarsh was superb for the Bombers throughout, particularly early when it was all to be done.

EWK had soaked up early pressure and then kicked all four goals of the first quarter, including three to a dominant Nick Hull, to lead by 23. 

The second quarter was an arm wrestle and Marrar was weakened by six behinds (to go to 0.9) before Rory Block kicked two goals in two minutes to send them to half-time just two goals down.

It remained tight in an even third quarter until the Hawks kicked the last three goals all after the 20-minute mark to have Bombers down at the last break, for just the third time in Lenon’s stint at the club. And this time, they turned it around.

The coach admitted concern that, once again, they didn’t have the best start.

“We’ve got to start converting our opportunities. We put ourselves under a lot of pressure because we weren’t converting and that’s three weeks in a row,” Lenon said.

But with John Hoey, Matt Hort and Josh Hagar all missing, and 16-year-old debutant Drew Beavan coming in, there was plenty of upside.

“He’s a good young footballer with a great future and to be able to give him a game today – it was a top-of-the-table clash… but I was confident in his ability and he performed well,” Lenon said. 

It was EWK’s first loss under Matt Hard. That in itself won’t be the concern, as much as the way the game got away from them so quickly, right when they needed to take control and consolidate. 

They take on Temora next week, continuing a tough start to the season in which they meet the five other top sides from last year, all in the first five weeks.