Inverell coach Dick Gleeson rates the 2021 AFL North West season as the closest he's ever seen and Saturday's result against the Tamworth Swans backs that statement up.
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The Saints and Swans battled at an unfamiliar meeting point with the game shifted to Armidale after Varley Oval was closed due to wet weather.
The teams weren't able to escape the rain, though, with the skies opening up in the second half to go with the cold conditions. The temperature got as low as 4 degrees during the match but the apparent weather - what it felt like - got down to -5 degrees.
At the main break the Swans had led by three goals but the Saints shifted gears to hold a one-point buffer at three-quarter time.
The lead changed a couple times in the last quarter and in the final moments the score read 9.9 (63) to 9.6 (60) in Inverell's favour.
A set shot on the buzzer from Tamworth's Jack Patterson near the 50-metre arc gave the Swans one final chance but the kick fell short and to the right.
Gleeson said it was "anyone's game" as Inverell claimed the Kevin Pay Memorial Round win.
"I thought [Swan] Lochie Rowling - the blokes from the south - [Saint] Hayden Chappel and them blokes just show you how to play wet weather footy," he said.
Gleeson added: "Contested well. As I said it's just luck of the draw. We're happy with the win but it was trying conditions."
The win sees the Saints sit in third position, equal on points with the second-placed New England Nomads who won via forfeit over the Moree-Narrabri joint venture.
They are one win behind the ladder-leading Tamworth Kangaroos - who beat the Gunnedah Bulldogs on Saturday - and one win in front of the Swans who sit in fourth.
The Dogs are just one win behind the Swans with two rounds to go while the joint venture sit in last with the one win to their name.
Gleeson has been involved with the league from the start and can't recall a closer competition.
"It's just one of them years, I reckon anyone in the top five can win it," he said.
"There's always a standout. Armidale was a standout for a while, we were a standout, Gunnedah's been a standout, Swans have, but not a five like this is, it's anyone's game."
Ben Jaffrey
Ben is a content curator and journalist for The Land. He has been with ACM since 2015 and first worked at The Area News and then at the Northern Daily Leader. Ben first joined ACM Agri as a digital journalist for all seven agricultural mastheads in 2022 before shifting to The Land full-time in 2023.
Ben is a content curator and journalist for The Land. He has been with ACM since 2015 and first worked at The Area News and then at the Northern Daily Leader. Ben first joined ACM Agri as a digital journalist for all seven agricultural mastheads in 2022 before shifting to The Land full-time in 2023.
