Sometimes games don't quite live up to the hype.
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Rarely is that the case though when it comes to Moree and Narrabri.
Outside of finals the most-anticipated clashes of the season, to two produced another classic at Narrabri on Saturday, with the Bulls charging back from 31-12 down to ultimately fall just short as the Blue Boars prevailed 38-31 to really get their 60th anniversary party started.
Squaring the ledger at one-apiece this season and handing the Bulls their first loss for the season, there was a palpable sense of relief among the Blue Boars faithful at the sound of the final whistle, especially after conceding a last-minute penalty to have to settle for a draw in the corresponding game last season.
Played in front of the biggest crowd since before COVID, Saturday was a typically tough and willing contest, and certainly befitting of the occasion.
"If you want to advertise bush footy that's the sort of game you want because it was hard running, fast football," Blue Boars coach Craig Gleeson said.
He wasn't too down on their last 20. Despite what the scoreboard might suggest they were "still very good through large parts" of that last quarter.
"Our execution at some points probably let us down at some points and our decision making," he said.
"They were obviously very good as well, as we expected."
Ordinarily attracting plenty of hype, the 60th commemorations did add another layer to the build-up.
Also being winger James Alberts' 100th game, Gleeson said they tried not to dwell too much on the peripheral stuff.
"We more or less tried to focus on our football and the 15 blokes that were starting that match being as well prepared as we could be for the game that we had in front of us," he said.
"We obviously spoke about the importance of the day but we tried not to focus too much on those outside things."
"Even Berta (Albert) took the limelight off his 100th and said we're here to win a football game and we're here to do it for each other."
Prone to being a bit slow out of the blocks at times this season, one of the most pleasing aspects for Gleeson was the way they started.
"It's a thing we discuss a lot and it's a thing we work on a lot, that first 10 minutes and how that can set the tone," he said.
"I thought ours was the best it had been in a long time on Saturday."
"The intensity was right up there and our execution was really good."
Another highlight of the performance was the scrum, which they got some good pay from with several of their tries coming off the back of their scrum.
Albert wasn't the only milestone man on Saturday with Dylan Duncan becoming the 100th Blue Boars player to notch 100 games in the third grade game earlier in the day.
One of the many highlights of the day was the man they call Tooky nailing the final conversion.
"I don't know who was more excited, if it was the crowd or Tooky," Gleeson joked.
After a big night on Saturday, the celebrations continued onto Sunday with 230 people attending the 60th anniversary long lunch.
