WITH his side under pressure in the third quarter, Bathurst Giants young gun Cooper Brien launched himself at a marking contest, took the specky and then backed that up by booting a major.
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It was a moment which inspired his team-mates and they went on to post their first win of the 2020 AFL Central West men's top tier competition, beating Orange Tigers 12-12-84 to 9-5-59.
"It was a fantastic mark - it was awesome," Giants coach Mark Kennedy said of the grab.
"It just really inspired the team and we thought that we had a bit of sniff after that. He kicked the goal too, it's one thing to take a specky like that, it's even better when you kick the goal.
"It was when we really needed something because they'd kicked seven goals. He launched himself at the contest a couple of times and just didn't come down with the lollies, but this time it just stuck for him, which was good."
Having gone through the first three rounds of the competition without a win, the Giants were desperate to open their account against a Tigers outfit which has struggled this season.
While ultimately the Giants were able to get that win and 25-points separated the two sides at the final siren, Kennedy's men had to fight hard at George Park 1.
After restricting the Tigers to just a pair of behinds in the opening quarter, the visitors came hard in the second term as they booted seven majors.
While Jack Goodsell was winning the taps in the ruck for the Giants, the Tigers managed to get their hands on the ball as it came to ground and get on top in the battle for clearances.
The Giants also lost James Kennedy to a calf injury and Lachlan Weal to a broke collarbone
It meant there was just two points in it at the long break with the Giants up 7-5-47 to 7-3-45.
Then in the third quarter the Giants lost another man as Damian Cuff broke his toe. It meant Brien's specky and goal which followed provided some much needed inspiration.
"It was good, we needed it. To go four losses down in a competition with four teams, it's hard to come back from that, so we really had to get the W on the board," Kennedy said.
"I don't know what happened there in that second quarter, I think our guys just thought they were going to roll through, but they really did come out and put it to us and played some good, physical football.
"We had a chat half-time and said it's reset now. We got a bit of a break in front and they've come back at us, so let's reset the clock, adjust things out of the centre.
"We threw Nic Broes back into the back line as an extra man in that last quarter and he just sort of settled us down and controlled the ball."
The Giants booted three majors to one in the third term to lead by 17 points at the final change and from there they went on with the job.
"Jacob Molkentin was excellent, we had to throw him around the park a couple of times to patch gaps because of the injuries and he had a great game," Kennedy said.
"Dylan Furnell had a great game and Shaun Noyen, we put him on the ball in the third quarter just to give us a bit more run out of the middle and he took control."
