Melton went agonisingly close to making another Ballarat Football League grand final, but ultimately fell short against the Sunbury Lions in overtime on Saturday.
The preliminary final produced one of the games of the season, as the Bloods and Lions did battle to win a spot against Darley in the decider.
The game could have gone either way with both sides having moments of dominance and times in front.
When the Bloods kicked their 14th goal of the day to put themselves one point up with about a minute to go, they had hoped they’d done enough.
The Lions were able to level the scores and then run over the top of the Bloods in overtime to win, 17.12 (114)-15.10 (100).
Bloods coach Troy Scoble said he’d never been involved in a game like that before.
“In the end a final like that is hard to cope with,” he said. “We had a draw earlier in the year.
“It made it interesting and everything happened really quickly.”
Scoble said the game was an arm wrestle all day with both sides having periods of momentum.
He said Sunbury would lead for periods before they were able to peg them back on each occasion.
A Ryan Davis goal late in time on, gave the Bloods a one-point lead.
Scoble said they thought they had done enough.
“We thought we would have to only defend for 45 seconds to a minute,” he said. “We thought we did enough in that time.
“We implemented what we had trained for, but the umpire didn’t see it that way and they got a free kick.
“They got it forward and got a point.”
Scoble said after a tough finals run which included two games in Ballarat in tough wet and windy conditions they knew it would take a toll.
He said it was always a matter of when with the Lions running out the game the stronger of the two teams in overtime.
Ryan Carter kicked four goals for the Bloods, while Kyle Borg and Blake Souter finished with two goals each.
Souter was named the Bloods best along with Harrison Hanley and Davis.
Scoble said while they were proud of the season they had and they know they need to add some more pieces and work on their strength and conditioning.
He said there is a little bit of what might have been.
“We’re proud to finish in the top three with the season we’ve had with challenges,” he said.
“To see how close to the finish and being in that position, it burns pretty deep.
“We take some learnings and it lick our wounds and see if we can get back there.”
The Lions and Darley will face off in the grand final this Saturday at Eastern Oval from 2.30pm.
