Wangaratta's training simulation of closing out thrilling games potentially saved its premiership plans after a pulsating three-point home win over North Albury in the Ovens and Murray Football League on Saturday.
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Jessie Smith kicked the match-winner with two minutes and 38 seconds left after the home team trailed by 22 points with only 13 minutes left in the wet conditions at the Norm Minns Oval.
It was the sixth time in 11 rounds the Pies have been involved in a 12-point or less result, claiming the 9.13 (67) to 9.10 (64) win.
"We've obviously been on the end of so many close ones and that's the first one of those we've won, we've trained that scenario so many times, so to get it finally right is great," Smith revealed.
Collingwood has become the masters of the close finish, although it suffered a rare loss in a tight game in an 11-point thriller against Gold Coast on Saturday.
Coach Craig McRae has been lauded for his ability to prepare the players at training for a tight finish and Wangaratta coach Ben Reid is a follower after 14 seasons and 152 games at the AFL club.
Wangaratta is now just a win behind third-placed North Albury and it will take a monumental effort from the latter to keep last year's preliminary finalists out of the top three, where the last 18 premiers have finished.
North now has a three-two win-loss record in close games and the players were understandably shattered after coming within minutes of realistically wrapping up a top three finish and the prized double chance.
"Everything went wrong for us, everything went right for them," devastated North coach Tim Broomhead admitted.
Even Reid admits his team won the unwinnable.
"We certainly stole that one, North Albury played better footy for the majority of the game," he confirmed.
In the first wet game since last year, the lights were on from the start.
Pie Harry Hewitt set the tone for an inaccurate first quarter with a missed running shot from 30m, although in the rain, no shot is a certainty.
However, Waitai Tua bobbed up with two opportunistic goals to hand Wangaratta a six-point lead at quarter-time after kicking 3.7.
Michael Newton had a chance to extend the margin with a free kick from 20m in front, but missed, and 30 seconds later the Hoppers' Cayden Winter ran into an open goal.
When Keith Tallent added another at the nine-minute mark, North held the lead until Smith's match-winner.
Wangaratta hadn't kicked a goal since the 20-minute mark of the first term when youngster Charlie Ross snapped a goal after 25 minutes in the third quarter to cut the margin to 15 points heading into the final break.
Broomhead showed why he's one of the league's most skilful players when he was able to control a loose ball that next to no one had been able to in the rain and kicked long for Josh Minogue to run into goal.
At the 16-minute mark, the Hoppers looked home with that 22-point lead, but a raking 55m kick from Callum Moore handed Hewitt a chance.
Moore had moved permanently into the ruck in the final term and snapped a clever goal over his head and then Smith chipped in with his first major with six minutes left.
Two and a half minutes later, Liam McVeigh kicked the ball and it was bouncing towards the goal where Newton claimed his leg grazed it as it tumbled through.
The goal umpire and field umpire conferred and the goal was confirmed.
Smith then landed the match-winner, but North had one last chance, but could only register a point with 48 seconds left.
The match was eerily similar to Wangaratta's round three clash against Wodonga where the Pies never looked like losing until the latter banged on five goals in nine minutes in the final term for an eight-point victory.
"I thought they just out-worked us in the first half, I reckon if you took a snapshot of the TV screen, you would see more North Albury jumpers than 'Wang' jumpers," Reid suggested.
"It was just desperation, workrate and want, but I reckon our second half, even though we didn't score heavily in the third quarter, we started to get the contest right and played the conditions better.
"We tinkered with a few things with our forward set-up in the last quarter, which helped us."
As has been the case so many times in his four seasons in the league, Moore was the difference, moving permanently into the ruck in the final term and posting 10 disposals.
"He turned the game for us, we got our forwards up high and with his 60m kicks, we were able to get the ball over the back into some space and get some goals of the back of that," Reid offered.
Defender Aidan Tilley had a terrific game, his team-mates and club supporters celebrating his 26th birthday by signing happy birthday in the jubilant sheds, while the last quarters from Smith and Moore, plus the consistent efforts of McVeigh and Will O'Keefe, were pivotal.
It was cruel that the game's best player Winter (two goals), who gave a masterclass, wasn't on the winning team, while Josh Minogue doubled any other goalkicker with four.
North is trying desperately to play finals for the first time in nine years and the weight of expectation was palpable as the Wangaratta juggernaut came storming home.
