Yarrawonga coach Mark Whiley blamed himself for the gut-wrenching loss to Myrtleford on Saturday.
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The Pigeons were desperate to snap a four-match losing streak to start the season and held the lead for around 75 percent of the match.
However, the Saints nailed the last two goals to record a vital 10-point win.
"We just didn't take our chances and I was the biggest one to blame," Whiley said after producing a superb 23-disposal game.
The former AFL midfielder had two chances from relatively similar positions in the third term, but failed to convert.
The second was a free kick from 35m and a 45 degree angle.
If he had nailed that it would have handed the visitors a two-goal break.
Interestingly, another of the game's high-profile players in former Geelong and Richmond defender Taylor Hunt, who had been kept extremely quiet, landed a goal from 40m and a tighter angle to steal the lead with just under 10 minutes left.
The Saints never lost that lead.
Whiley had a much more difficult shot with just under five minutes left and the Pigeons trailing by four points, but the snap off his non-preferred left hit the past.
Whiley's impact on the match, however, couldn't be underestimated.
He set up the Pigeons' second goal in the opening minutes when he kicked the ball off the ground, with an unmarked Matt Casey eventually on the receiving end of Whiley's clever work.
The work of Yarrawonga's 'big four' to lift the team to an unexpected victory was exemplary.
Whiley, Lach Howe and Leigh Masters were terrific, while Harry Wheeler was inspirational, willing himself into multiple contests in the frenetic final quarter to finish with 28 touches.
The Pigeons have been dogged by injury and unavailability with at least seven automatic selections, including newcomer Harry Haley and former interleague big man Brandon Symes, missing the match.
It meant Jackson Meade, Will Wheaton and Joel O'Dwyer played their first games.
"We blooded three debutants, so that's 10 for the year, so super proud of that and they didn't look out of place, they can hold their heads high for sure," Whiley suggested.
The Pigeons have a fine prospect in livewire Zac Banch, who played thirds in 2019, while Connor Griffiths and Jack Forge also featured in their best.
In terms of finals, Yarrawonga's season is over, so the development of the younger players will be crucial in the next four months.
The Pigeons had contested 13 successive finals campaigns until falling out in 2019 and with another season outside the top five, the trick now is making sure it doesn't become a habit.
Wodonga (2009), Corowa-Rutherglen, Wangaratta Rovers (2014) and North Albury (2015) are proof the longer you are out of finals, the more difficult it is to return, although Rovers will snap that drought this year.
When Yarrawonga was consistently playing finals, it couldn't lose a match like the game against Myrtleford, particularly with five more scoring shots, while until Jake Sharp's arrival as Saints' coach in 2019 - apart from an elimination final appearance in 2016 - it was a match they would never have won.
Now, Myrtleford is finding a way to scrap out wins, even when far from its best, while the Pigeons can't find a victory.
"Bloody oath mate, last week we fought it out against Lavington (for a five-point win), the reigning premiers, and to get those two wins and grind it out with some young boys playing their second, third, fourth or fifth game is really promising," Kurt Aylett offered.
The former AFL player has never been known as a booming kick, but when it was needed late in the game, he produced a 52m bomb from near the boundary.
And that's while battling hamstring tendonitis, which forced him to play predominantly forward, instead of the midfield.
"I think I've only seen him kick 35m," co-coach Jake Sharp joked.
Myrtleford will now host its bumper 50-year (plus one) premiership reunion against Wodonga Raiders on Saturday.
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The club's eagerly anticipated plans to celebrate the 1970 flag last year were derailed by COVID.
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