Travelling to Tongala Recreation Reserve to face top-two side Echuca, having previously handed the Murray Bombers one of only two defeats they have encountered this season, Seymour showed it is more than capable of challenging the league’s best.
With dominant stretches and a dogged fightback, the Lions looked every bit Echuca’s equal on Saturday, and although they ultimately went down 12.10 (82) to 12.13 (85), the Lions will no doubt take confidence from the encounter, having again tested a clear premiership contender despite missing a host of stars.
With Riley Mason having been sidelined since round 10 and the likes of Jack Murphy, Darcy Giles and Nathan Fowler all missing from Saturday’s line-up, the Lions went in without a handful of regular senior players.
Despite initially giving up some ground as the Murray Bombers booted the first two goals of the contest, Seymour showed no signs of being hindered by the lack of personnel, rallying to record five of the final six scoring shots of the first term. However, it was unable to fully capitalise, booting 1.4 to trail 10-14 at the first break.
The tight, tense affair that played out in the first quarter looked set to continue in the second, as the Lions levelled the scores at 16-apiece with the opening major before Echuca quickly replied to once again take the lead.
But when Dylan Cook slotted his first goal of the afternoon to drag the Lions back to one point behind, something clicked and the floodgates flew open.
With the next four goals of the contest, Seymour made it five majors on the bounce, racing out to a game-high 23-point lead on the cusp of half-time. While the home side managed to steal a goal back late, it was the Lions that led heading into the rooms, up 47-31 after a stunning six-goal second term.
The main break seemed to come at exactly the right time for Echuca, though, as when the Lions ran out to get the third term under way, the strong wave of momentum they had enjoyed in the second quarter had completely deserted them.
Instead, it was the Murray Bombers that were on the attack, booting five unanswered goals of their own to start the term and reversing the half-time deficit to at one stage lead by 16 points themselves, although the Lions were able to peg one back in the dying stages, cutting the deficit to nine points at three-quarter time, trailing 56-65.
Seymour opened the scoring in the final term and twice got within three points of the lead early, but Echuca responded with a major on both occasions as the contest descended into a genuine arm wrestle.
The Murray Bombers were the first to find consecutive goals and pushed the margin back out to 15 points beyond the halfway point of the final term. But the Lions weren’t done with yet, finding a pair of majors of their own to storm back to just two points behind as the seconds ticked down.
Ultimately, though, the Lions fell just short of a stirring win, going down by three points, but looking at the silver lining, confirmed they will be there or thereabouts against the best come finals.
Tom Stapleton was named the Lions’ best in defeat, closely followed by Dylan Cook, whose purple patch of form continued with 36 disposals, 11 clearances, 12 tackles and a goal as the highest ranked player on the ground with 194 ranking points.
Nic Quigg (36 disposals, one goal) and Huw Jones (32 disposals, 12 intercept possessions, 10 marks) were also prolific, while Xavier Dimasi played arguably his best game since returning to the Lions to round out the best.
Lewis Lubeck (three goals), Jackson Mansfield and Jaron Murphy (both two goals) were the multiple goal-kickers for Seymour, while Cameron Osmond and Jack Radford each booted one, the latter on his senior debut for the club.
The Lions will enjoy a week off as the second part of the GVL’s split round plays out this weekend, before taking to the field against Shepparton Swans at Kings Park on August 15.
