AS the final siren sounded on the Bandits improbable title win over Knox on Saturday night, the tears started to flow.

Caroline McCowan could hold on no longer.

Her husband Allen, who passed away suddenly in June, should have been sitting right beside her.

In his normal seat.

Right behind the corporate boxes, at the eastern end of court 2.

“It’s so incredible,” an emotional Mrs McCowan said as family, friends and complete strangers offered embraces.

“From the beginning of the year, every week Jazz (Ferguson), Momo (Ntumba) and Alex (Opacic) and Ben (Hollis) would come over for regular dinners.

“I remember Al saying to all four boys ‘you guys have got the team to do it this year, I just know it.’

“I know he was here with them tonight, riding every shot, every play, every whistle. Al would just be loving this right now.”

On Friday, Ferguson, Mrs McCowan and her daughters Aleira and Kijana, paid a visit to McCowan’s grave for “some inspiration”.

Ferguson had only known him briefly but the fellow Kentuckian had played for McCowan as if he was playing for a lost brother.

“It was big, the emotion going on throughout the year,” Ferguson said.

“No one knew this but for the past few weeks, I’ve gone out to his gravesite the day before the game and had a quick conversation with him and let him know that I’m doing my best to look after his family while I’m here.

“I mean, I’m the type of person who believes in people being with you in different ways, so I definitely feel like he had an impact on the way we got to this point.

“He was definitely watching over us.”

In the minutes after the Bandits secured the 77-69 result, several players made a bee-line for Mrs McCowan.

First was local star Jack Duck. He was followed by Ferguson and Ntumba, who were both warmly welcomed into the McCowan house upon their arrival here.

“I ran up, I said ‘this is for Al’, I was saying how much he’s done for me,” Duck said.

“This is just a reward to his life and it sort of caps it off a little bit.”

McCowan’s best mate, Andrew Moore, himself a veteran of 101 Bandits’ matches, said “you just wouldn’t read about it”.

“These things happen, don’t they?” Moore said.

“Al was playing the last time we won and we win again and you just know he was here and he wanted it to happen.

“Those little 50-50 calls — he was always on the refs — those calls were always going to go our way tonight.

“He did some great things for the club and Jazz and Momo are doing the exact same thing, they’re great for the community and that’s what you need.”

Ntumba, a measured monster of a man, referred to McCowan as a “best friend”.

“It’s kind of brought everybody together and we kept fighting for Allen,” he said.

Bandits skipper Nick Payne, who served as a pallbearer at McCowan’s funeral and won a title with the Bandits legend in 2001, touchingly presented Caroline with her own championship medallion.

It was obvious what McCowan had meant to this group.

“Al always said before he passed that we had the makings of a championship team,” Payne said.

“SEABL just wanted me to pass on a medal in recognition of all his efforts.”

Mrs McCowan was quick to pay tribute to a special group of men who continue to show their support to her and her family.

“Once again, wow, that’s those boys, look at them, they’ve just won a championship and here they are thinking of me and thinking of Allen,” Caroline said as the Bandits’ emotional title celebrations started to kick into full gear around her.

“I just think it’s an incredible show of what the boys thought of him and what he felt for these boys.”

Make no mistake, if McCowan had been here, yesterday would have been the best Father’s Day ever.