Cale had just witnessed his gutsy team go down to Wagga Brothers 26-22 in the elimination final at Greenfield Park, after the Wagga team scored a try after the full-time siren to finish his team’s charge to its first Group 9 premiership.

And to make matters worse there was nothing Cale could do to alter the result as he spent most of the match behind the fence after being sent off for an alleged high tackle on John Campbell after 29 minutes.

The Panthers were already behind the eight ball before the match started, going into it without Tommy Gemmell while Rick Hurunui was hampered by a leg injury and a couple of other players were bed-ridden with the flu during the week.

Nonetheless they nearly pulled the match our of the fire before just falling short.

Played in boggy, but perhaps surprisingly good, conditions, the match was mostly an arm-wrestle punctuated by some brilliant individual efforts.

Things looked grim for the Border team after the Brethren led 10-0 after just 11 minutes, following a converted try to Matt Ridley and a further one to John Campbell.

But the Panthers equalled the scores thanks to an opportunistic converted try to ever-alter half-back Mitch Seaton and a further one to Todd Rheinberger.

When Cale received his marching orders the expectation was the Panthers might have imploded but instead they lifted and took a 14-10 lead in at the break, thanks to a Marc Smith try in the 39th minute.

But when Brothers equalled the scores with a try to Wiremu Howe straight after the break and then took a 16-14 lead with a penalty goal to Ridley it looked like the Wagga team would run away with the match.

But the Panthers refused to buckle and when Andrew West scored a clever converted try the Border team was back in the lead and looked to have the momentum.

However a period of 15 minutes when they failed to score with plenty of possession and territory, but lots of turnovers, probably cost them the match.

With 12 minutes to go the visitors took a 22-20 lead with a converted try to Glenn Peterson before Seaton again equalled the scores with a penalty goal.

Things looked to be going the Panthers way when Brothers lost captain-coach Blake Dunn to injury and then Tim Westblade was sent from the field after also allegedly committing a high shot on a Panthers’ player.

Just when the match looked like going to extra time, Brothers decided to run the ball on the fifth tackle and 45 metres out, after the siren had sounded.

They managed to breach the Panthers defence and a series of passes, which surprisingly stuck in the difficult conditions, saw Brayden Sharrock cross for the winning try and the Panthers were left wondering what might have been.

Best for the Panthers were Rheinberger, Seaton and the hard-working Ben Ryan while Ridley, Wayne Goolagong and Blake Dunn were the pick of the victors.

Wagga Brothers 26 (Ridley, Campbell, Howe, Peterson, Sharrock tries; Ridley goal, 2 penalty goals) def Lavington Panthers 22 (Seaton, Rheinberger, Smith and West tries; Seaton 2 goals, pen. goal). Penalties: Brothers 9-7, scrums 7-7.