AT the start of the AFL Central West senior men's tier one season Bathurst Giants' Sam Sloan might have had 'produce a match-winning four-goal final term to secure the club's maiden premiership' on his wishlist, though he may have considered it a bit unrealistic.
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Turns out it was something well within his capabilities.
Sloan and the Giants hoisted the trophy for the first time on Saturday afternoon on their home turf at George Park 1, celebrating a premiership that's been nearly a decade in the making for the Bathurst club since its founding in 2014.
With the Giants up by 19 points at three-quarter time it was a margin that was reasonable but far from comfortable for the team.
It was a time for the Giants to step up and show that they could deliver with the pressure at it's greatest, especially having lost their previous two grand final contests with their Bathurst rivals.
But the Giants didn't just hang on until the last siren, they thrived under the conditions, pushing the final score out to 16-17-113 to 11-9-75.
It's a final quarter of footy that's going to stay with Sloan for a very long time.
"Just having the Giants crowd in the background of those goals was something special," he said.
"We've been together for a long time as a team and it means so much to win this. Many of us worked so hard over the last nine years to get here. We're so excited to see this happen."
The game got back within a two-goal margin for the Bushrangers shortly after half-time, and that became a decisive moment for Giants to prove their premiership mettle.
Sloan said it was thrill to see his side do exactly that.
"It was a huge team effort, as it has been all year," he said.
"Bushies were really great in that game. They stuck it to us but we lifted in that last quarter. We said at three-quarter time that we weren't going to just lay down.
"We'd worked too hard to get to where we were. We'd had two previous grand final losses. The boys lifted and we ended up getting there."
Bushrangers captain Andrew James said a tough start left his side ultimately with too much work to do, but was proud of the way the group kept applying pressure.
"That's something that's happened to us all year - those patches where they'd put on a run of goals - and today it happened right at the start," he said.
"We got it back to be quite close there at one point but by that stage we'd spent all our tokens. We were just climbing a mountain from that first 10 minutes onwards.
"All 22 of the boys had a really good go today, so I'm really proud of them even after losing this one.
"Our resilience was great after that tough start to the game. We never stopped today. There's been times through the season where we've put our heads down in games but that didn't happen today."
Giants got off to a dream start through quick goals to Mitch Taylor and Cooper Traves, before a strong tackle from Bushrangers' Ben Horn earned him the right to a shot from close range, making to 13 to 8.
But the joy was short lived for the Bushrangers as their opponents ended the first quarter with a flurry of goals.
Nic Broes put away a shot from distance before Cooper Brien added a pair of goals - one from open play and another from a mark - to push the score out to 33-8 at the first break.
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Bushrangers started the better of the sides over the opening stages of the second quarter, opening the scoring through an Alex Sparks goal.
Sloan bagged the first of his goals before Bushrangers' Tim Hunter delivered a quick reply.
The behinds began to pile up for the Giants in the run towards half-time but they were fortunate that the Bushrangers were only able to find two more goals in that time.
The last of those, to James, came right on the siren to make it a 52-32 game in favour of the Giants at the main break.
Broes and Sparks traded quick goals at the resumption of play and from there the quarter developed into an entertaining back-and-forth affair, where the defensive lines for both sides thwarted several scoring opportunities.
Things got interesting when two Bushrangers goals brought things back within 11 points at one stage, but a goal just before the siren to Jack Goodsell gave the Giants some extra breathing room at 75-56.
Long balls, tired bodies and great runs into space all contributed towards a high scoring final quarter of football for the season.
Giants pieced together the best team goal of the day through a series of handballs and short kicks to give Sloan another goal.
He and Kolby McMahon traded goals early in the term before Giants began to put the game out of the Bushrangers' reach with a run of majors.
Sloan capped off his superb quarter with a successful shot from a testing angle and distance to put the result completely beyond doubt.
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