Travelling to Memorial Oval to take on the Magpies, Seymour was left to rue a sluggish first half come the final siren, eventually going down 8.10 (58) to 11.9 (75) despite winning both the third and fourth quarters.
Flying high in third spot on the ladder, spirits at the Lions den have been high this season, but were even more so on Saturday, as Davey – a premiership player at Seymour and now in his seventh season as senior coach – notched his 100th game at the helm, a momentous achievement for both the individual and club as a whole.
But the Lions’ coach wouldn’t have been pleased at the quarter time address, with his Lions side returning to the huddle having failed to score a single point in the first term, and were probably lucky to be only 12 points in arrears, with the home side having squandered plenty of chances in front of goal to kick 1.6 by the break.
And while the Lions levelled up the scoring shots at least in the second term with five apiece, and even briefly levelled the scores at 12-12 after Nic Quigg and Nathan Fowler booted the opening two majors of the quarter, the Magpies had found their radar, kicking five straight to the Lions’ 2.3, as Seymour slipped even further behind to trail 15-42 entering the rooms at the main break.
The Lions have occupied third on the ladder for much of the season for a reason, though, and predictably generated a response after half-time, peppering the goals in the early sequences of the third term to register seven of the first eight scores.
While Tom Maloney and Jaron Murphy were able to slot a goal each in that period, cutting the lead to 11 points, the other five scoring shots resulted in behinds, and just as predictably, Euroa went down the other end and booting two late goals to erase much of the Lions’ good work for the term, pushing the deficit back out to an even four goals at the final change.
Murphy added a second goal to kickstart Seymour’s final quarter charge, though that was immediately countered by the Magpies, who booted the next three straight to lead by a game-high 36 points, seemingly ending any chance of a Lions fightback.
Seymour pressed on, though, and goals to Nathan Beattie, Jesse Brock and Nick Dundon saw the margin back below three goals, however it was too little, too late for the Lions, who went down by an eventual 17 points.
Huw Jones was named the Lions’ best in the loss, proving as reliable as ever down back, closely followed by Nic Quigg, who continued his stellar campaign with a 33-diposals, one goal performance.
Dylan Cook’s strong run of form continued, while Tom Maloney again left an impression in only his second game of the season, and Lachlan Giles was once again steadfast behind the ball to round out the best.
Jaron Murphy was the only goal kicker for the Lions in the loss, which should prove inconsequential to their ladder position come finals if they are able to win at least one of their remaining three games, as they currently sit two games clear of fourth-placed Euroa.
The Lions face second-placed Echuca this weekend before a bye due to the split round, with games against Shepparton Swans and Tatura over the final fortnight to follow.
