St Kilda and Hawthorn entered their Round 17 clash in 2010 with plenty at stake.
For the third-placed Saints, a win would all but wrap up a top four spot, while a tight mid-section of the ladder meant the Hawks were both two wins from fourth but also a loss away from falling out of the eight.
A Friday night blockbuster at Marvel Stadium was the perfect stage for the 2008 premiers and 2009 grand finalists to do battle.
Ross Lyon’s Saints owned the opening moments of the game with forward Justin Koschitzke on fire.
Koschitzke kicked the first two goals of the game before finding his third by just the 17-minute mark of the opening term.
But the three-pronged potency of Jarryd Roughead, Lance Franklin and Cyril Rioli all chimed in with a goal apiece to give the Hawks the most slender of advantages at the first change.
The second quarter continued in much the same style with notable Saints scorers Nick Riewoldt and Stephen Milne kicking goals, while Franklin squandered the chance to take control of the game as he converted just one of his three attempts at goal for the quarter.
At half time it was St Kilda who held the one-point lead.
The Hawks jumped out of the gates in the third, booting three of the first four goals of the second half.
But, like clockwork, the Saints answered back thanks to three third quarter goals from Adam Schneider.
Teams went into the final change with scores level – the game had already lived up to its billing.
But there was more to come.
Again, the Hawks started with a bang in the fourth term, dominating play as they generated four scoring shots in the opening six minutes.
But the Hawks inaccuracy in front of goal continued to plague them as this window that could have put the game’s result almost beyond doubt instead left the door ajar for the Saints.
The Saints pounced on the opportunity.
Milne kicked back-to-back goals in quick succession and it was back to one-point the margin.
With four and a half minutes on the clock, Roughead took a contested mark against Saints defender Jason Blake.
With all the composure in the world, a 23-year-old Roughead calmly slotted his set shot from 50 metres out.
Hawks by seven.
Two minutes later, it was Riewoldt’s turn, emerging from a pack to pull down a massive grab.
But the captain skewed his attempt at goal right.
The pressure intensified to a finals-like atmosphere with no clear possessions won for the next minute.
A controversial Koschitzke no-mark call resulted in the umpire demanding the ball.
But as the ball was thrown up, no Hawks ruckman stood anywhere near Saints ruckman Ben McEvoy.
Just 15 metres from the Saints goal, McEvoy simply grabbed the ball out of the air and slotted home a goal that squared the scores at 17 seconds left.
A game of high discipline and complexity was decided by the simplest of brain fades.
A stalemate final moments saw the siren sound on a classic, which many argued was a just result given how tight the game had been across the journey.
