By RUSSELL BENNETT
IT’S every young footy player’s dream – kicking a goal after the siren to win it for his team. He’ll practice time and time again, simulating the moment from all sorts of ridiculous angles and distances – imagining how good that feeling would be if he ever got the chance on the field one fateful day.
Well on Saturday at Denhams Road in Kooweerup, diminutive Buln Buln youngster Tyson Bale got that chance.
The prodigiously talented midfield hard nut has long been his own harshest critic, but perhaps his goal after the siren to defeat Nar Nar Goon by four points – 11.10 (76) to 10.12 (72) – will be the moment that sets him on the path to true self-belief.
The Lyrebirds looked down and out early in the second term – trailing by six goals, and with Josh O’Brien and Leigh Borland sent off after being controversially yellow-carded.
For much of the second term leading into half-time, it was 18 men on to 16 as the Lyrebirds trailed by 34 points. From an outsider’s perspective, the mission for Brent Eastwell’s men seemed almost impossible.
The inspirational coach was livid in the change rooms at half-time, but he still had the belief that his side could win the contest. His last words prior to running back out on to the ground for the third were simply: “We’re not going to die wondering, boys”.
O’Brien and Borland returned to the contest 90 seconds into the third term, and from that point on, the Lyrebirds started to claw their way back. James Davidson, Carlton Helliwell, Cam Nugent, Bale, and – particularly – Mitch Nobelius all loomed as difference-makers. Mitch Brown, Ash Adams, Brent Hughes, Jacob Sweeney and Nick Henwood shone for the Goon in the first half, but the side’s trademark run disappeared at key stages in the last quarter. The Lyrebirds didn’t care how they got back in the game, just as long as they gave themselves a chance when it mattered most.
Yet it seemed they were going to fall agonisingly short in their comeback when Sweeney slotted a goal from a tight angle in the pocket – putting the Goon nine points up 20 minutes into the last.
But two pieces of truly special football; the first a goal from 45 metres from Helliwell at the 24:00 mark, and the second – Bale’s shot after the siren – proved that this was the day of the Lyrebirds.
There was a perception that last year’s EDFL East division premiers hadn’t yet made their mark on this year’s competition and perhaps couldn’t match it with the West’s stronger sides, but in beating the Goon, the still undefeated Lyrebirds have shown they mean business.
“We tend to over-complicate footy at times,” Eastwell told the Gazette in the rooms straight after the game.
“You can have all the structures you want in place, but if you’re not winning the footy first and not controlling it, you can’t do anything.
“All we wanted to get out of that second half was respect – we just needed to actually have a crack.
“We just had to be able to look each other in the eye at the end and say this is what we’re about, and be proud of it.”
Eastwell said Saturday was Bale’s time to take some responsibility on to his young shoulders when it mattered most, “and he bloody delivered”.
With just seconds remaining, a free kick was awarded to Bale after he was held on to fractionally too long after disposing of the ball. Harley Nobelius played on and goaled, but the umpire ordered the ball back and for Bale, who was cramping, to take his kick – 56 metres out, and after the siren.
“Plenty of players have played a lot more senior games than him and have never got the chance to do what he did today.
“He’ll never forget it, and we’ll never forget it as a group.
“Whether or not it’s season defining – time will tell – but there’s real belief in this group.”
Check out three videos below from the game: Brent Eastwell’s simple three-quarter-time message to his men; Tyson Bale’s sensational goal; and the Buln Buln team song.
NOTE: Videos may contain coarse language.
