Albury forward Rhys King produced one of the most frenetic tackling performances in years to spearhead a 49-point win over Wangaratta on Saturday, July 22.
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The top three clash will always be remembered after Wangaratta was forced to play most of the second half with only 17 players as five players were forced out through injury.
For the first time in their three years together, not one of the star-studded forward trio of Callum Moore, Michael Newton and Ben Reid were on the field after the latter limped off with a hamstring injury at the 10-minute mark of the third quarter.
However, nothing can take away from Albury's frantic pressure, led by King, as the Tigers played the match with a finals-like intensity, which is extremely rare in the regular season, to post a 15.15 (105) to 8.8 (56) triumph.
"When he came back (from overseas) we knew he would bring that, in the weeks leading up to this game, he's had 10 or 15 touches, but it's not his touches we necessarily rate his game on, it's his pressure and he went to another level," co-coach Anthony Miles praised.
With the result decided early in the second half, King still played like a man possessed.
He hammered Morris Medal fancy Daniel Sharrock in the middle of the ground with a brutal hit at the 18-minute mark of the third quarter, which led to a Miles goal.
The exhausted Pies would have been sick of the sight of King hunting them down, even in the final minutes.
"I've been playing that role as a pressure forward probably since I was 17 or 18 here at the Tigers," he offered after his best on ground showing.
"I need to catch up still, doing that (snow) season in Canada, I wasn't able to do too much running in minus 30 (degrees), but I'm doing what I can with the extras, so I can get back to really where I want to be."
Miles was quick to point out the impact of the home team's injury toll, praising the Pies' fight in such extraordinary circumstances.
The Tigers went into the match as slight outsiders, with most tipsters predicting a Wangaratta-Yarrawonga grand final re-match, albeit with Albury rated only just below the star-studded pair.
However, if the second-placed outfit can replicate pressure-packed performances like that, they deserve, at the very least, to be joint premiership favourites.
The opening minutes gave an early indication of the injury carnage to follow with Wangaratta's Murray Waite (ankle) forced off.
The Pies kicked the first two goals, before Albury rattled on the next five to take a 13-point lead to quarter-time.
Albury dominated long periods of the second quarter, but struggled to pierce the Pies' defence, with the latter showing its class when Sharrock took a strong mark to kick-start a rare attacking raid, with Michael Newton kicking a clever left foot snap, despite limping with a knee injury suffered earlier in the term, to cut the margin to three points.
But they didn't kick the next until the 18-minute mark of the final term as Albury's pressure, exquistite ball movement and the Pies' injuries took their toll.
At one stage, Albury looked like blasting past the Pies' second heaviest defeat since returning as a power in 2017, a 66-point loss to Albury in 2017, but the Tigers only outscored them by two points in the final term.
Wangaratta's biggest loss in that time was 97 points in round 12, 2018, against Albury.
"I couldn't be prouder of the way the guys dug in for that last half hour, they could have blown us out of the water," Reid praised.
Along with King, ruck Isaac Muller was outstanding, while Jessy Wilson led the backline superbly as it also never gave the Pies' forwards a moment's rest.
Jacob Conlan kicked four goals, with second-gamer Ryan Battin battling bravely on the star forward in the second half, while Jeff Garlett nailed three.
Sharrock and Liam McVeigh were terrific for the wounded Pies.
