Weeroona Bay caused one of the season's biggest upsets by beating league leaders West Whyalla by one-point, in an exciting but untidy game on Saturday at Memorial Oval.
Having lost to the Dragons very easily on both occasions this season, the Bays were not expected to cause the top team much trouble and basically were to have their chances of playing finals this year end at this point.
The Weeroona Bay players, however, had other ideas.
West did jump away to an effortless quarter time lead and kept the Tigers goalless in the process.
West captain Shannon Winders kicked the first goal of the game as the ball spent little time in the Bays' forward half.
But for a period of about 10 minutes, the Tigers did control the play and this proved to be a fore runner of what was to happen later in the game.
Ben Sawford, the son of current West coach and former Weeroona Bay coach Russell Sawford, made his debut for the senior West team with both sides missing some quality players.
Manuel Gonzales, James Gruitt and especially vice captain Geoff Appleton made good starts for the Bays and forward Mick Kellett was picking up many touches for West.
The second quarter was much like the first.
West did the bare minimum to extend their lead with Brad Henderson proving a handful for the Tiger backline.
West were winning comfortably but not pulling away from the Bays who were doing enough to make the game interesting.
It got even more interesting when, in a space of about 10 minutes, classy Tiger forward and combined player Dale Gericke, kicked three goals to not only put the Bays on the scoreboard but kept them within touch going into the main break.
The third term was where the game was turned on its head.
The Bays shifted Appleton to centre half forward and Anthony Malcolm onto the ball.
These two players basically turned the game on its head and both were instrumental in the first two goals of the quarter.
It initially appeared that these early goals were just a minor fight back from the Bays and that West would eventually take control and move on with the game.
This did not happen.
Weeroona Bay kept kicking goals.
Lee Ringland, who had been unsighted in the first half, exploded on the wing and the Taylor brothers,Tyrone and Byron controlled things at half back.
In an amazing quarter, the fifth placed team kicked five goals and kept the top team completely scoreless and went into the final break with a two-point lead.
If West thought it would all come together in the final quarter, livewire Gonzalez ensured that West had a fight on their hands by kicking the first goal of the last quarter.
Some good play and goals to Scott Norman and Nathan Grzona saw West regain the lead for a short time in the final quarter.
But after Ringland kicked a fantastic snap goal from a long way out, the Bays had, what appeared to be a one goal lead, according to the scoreboard.
With two minutes left, West's Brad Smith marked well and then calmly converted under immense pressure to even the scores.
With both teams thinking the scores were level, the ball spent most of the final minutes deep in the Bays' forward half but they could not force the ball across the line.
When the siren went both teams thought they had played a draw only to find that, after the goal umpires had conferred, the scoreboard was incorrect and Weeroona Bay had in fact won by a point.
Considering how well they played the second half, Weeroona Bay were probably unlucky to only win by one point.
They were more intense around the ball, used the ball better and were far more competitive than their more fancied opponents.
West players were second to the ball and for a team that is one of the favourites for the flag, Weeroona Bay showed them that they still have a lot of work to do.
West have now lost two of their last three games.
For Weeroona Bay the win keeps their finals chances alive and even more importantly, their percentage remains somewhat intact although they are still a long way behind South Whyalla.
Email a friend