Season over for Lions

But the Lions — playing a man down after a sickening collision with an umpire saw Hamish Winter-Irving knocked out — turned the game on its head with three unanswered goals either side of quarter-time, highlighted by a miraculous, impossible angle snap from Anderson.

Having trailed 26-7, the Lions reeled off a 30-0 scoring spree fuelled by the run-and-gun nature of Jason Cole and Zac Keogh, with Anderson, Kyle Winter-Irving and other Lion forwards getting busy.

The Lions won the battle in every way imaginable — outside of scoreboard pressure — and went to half-time just two points ahead where a four-goal margin might have been more appropriate.

But leaving opportunities on the table in a final is criminal and, to say it was a different Rochester side after the half-time break puts it lightly; this new iteration hunted the football and opposition players with genuine hunger.

It found the first two goals of the third, Wil Hamilton the beneficiary of a 100 m penalty against Kier Bol for the half’s opener, but Kyle Winter-Irving goaled late in the quarter to steady his side and set up a grandstand finish, the Lions down just five points at the final break.

They threw a quick jab to start the last with Keogh slotting a lead-changing goal, but the Tigers countered with the biggest hay-makers of the match, Free and Liam Bartels both punishing sloppy Seymour ball use to kick their side a winning score.

A deflated Seymour coach Ben Clifton was left ruing his side’s missed opportunities, a 7.11 return — in particular the 2.7 kicked in the second quarter when it won the inside 50 count 12-6 — killing its chance of finding a match-winning lead.

‘‘It’s disappointing because we had our chances, similar to the last time we played them,’’ Clifton told Shepparton News.

‘‘We had more scoring shots, last time it was 11.6 to 6.11, this time at one stage we’d kicked 10 behinds to their two.

‘‘The opportunity was there, and we didn’t take it, and I reckon they were harder at it for a little longer.

"We had glimpses where we were great, but they were good for a lot longer.’’

In full acknowledgement of the game’s ugly nature, Rochester coach James Flaherty was ecstatic his Tigers had dug deep.

‘‘We probably scrapped pretty hard, we were under the pump there in the second quarter and to stick within a few points was the main thing that got us going,’’ he said.

‘‘It was pretty tight, contested ball all over the ground, but at the end of the day it’s a finals win.

‘‘The message didn’t change too much (at half-time), we were happy we were still in the ball game with the entries they’d had.

"We felt they had a fair bit of run so a bit more accountability was the main thing we needed.’’

Final score: Rochester 10.5 (65) def Seymour 7.11 (53)

Seymour goal kickers: J. Anderson 2, K. Winter-Irving 2, S. Feery, Z. Keogh, J. Wooster

Seymour best players: J. Wooster, Z. Keogh, T. Freeman, K. Winter-Irving, J. Cole, K. Bol

• Seymour’s reserves won its Qualifying Final by nine points against Rochester.

Trailing by three goals ahead of the final quarter, Seymour kicked five goals to one to claim the win.

Phillip Soloman was named best on ground with his three goals, while Harley Taylor-Lloyd (three) and Daniel McLarty were also influential.

Seymour will play Echuca in a semi final at Euroa Memorial Oval on Saturday.

• The Lions’ under-18 squad failed to hold off fast finishing Echuca Murray Bombers on the weekend, going down by 13 points in a qualifying final.

Seymour led by 25 points ahead of the final quarter, but the Murray Bombers, who went through the home and away season undefeated, kicked eight goals to two in the last term to win the match.

Seymour’s Alick Nai was in hot form with five goals, Hudson Kaak added another three to the scoreboard, while Dylan Cook was judged best afield.

Seymour will now face Kyabram in the semi finals at Benalla Showgrounds on Sunday.