Just as it seemed unlikely either team would be able to score again before the final siren, the Tigers had one final surge left in them, with Marlion Pickett bursting away from a stoppage on the wing and delivering a beautiful kick to teammate Noah Cumberland inside 50.
Cumberland, a thumping long kick, marked seemingly one to two seconds before the siren but, remarkably, played on. The siren then sounded before Cumberland had got his kick away, thus the game ended in a draw.
With his head in his hands, a distraught Cumberland sank to his knees and put his head in his hands before being comforted by Tigers teammates as fans around Marvel Stadium were left bereft.
“You could see Jack Riewoldt in the back saying ‘hold, hold hold’,” St Kilda champion Nick Riewoldt told Fox Footy. “It’s hard to get a message out in that moment to say ‘there’s only 10 or 12 seconds left’, particularly when the ball’s on the other side of the ground.”
Triple premiership Lion Jonathan Brown added: “The problem is at Marvel Stadium, even if there’s 25,000 to 30,000, when the crowd gets loud you can’t hear each other out there. It feels like 70,000 or 80,000 at the MCG.
“The inexperience hurt him, but I feel sorry for that young fella.”
Tigers veteran Trent Cotchin said Cumberland and his teammates would learn a lesson from that moment.
“We didn’t know exactly how long (was left) and the clock can churn away pretty quickly,” he told Fox Footy post-game.
“We would’ve loved for Cummy to go back and have a shot, but we back our guys to make the right decision at the right time.
“We’ll learn another lesson, which is completely fine. It’s what we play footy for.”
Source: Foxsports.----------------------------------------
Jack Riewoldt pledged the club would get around young Cumberland, after he was clearly devastated after the siren, stating “footy can be a real bi**h sometimes”.
“He won’t be defined by tonight,” he told ABC Radio.
“It’s the role of the leaders to get around him and make sure the sun comes up tomorrow for him.”
Source: Foxsports.
