Shannon escapes the Bintangs, who fly in V-formation

The Dragons then started to get a bit of ball movement going and kicked two goals for the rest of the quarter to take a lead of about 7 points at quarter time.

Coach Wines was not too happy with the Dragons at quarter time, pointing out that the Bintangs were using the corridor, but we kept going wide.

The second quarter was much of the same, with just a couple of goals for each side, and the Dragons taking a similar lead into the main break. Ageing back-pocket specialist Craig 'Bogan' Francis was showing his teammates what to do in the backline with some quality pinching, spoiling, jumper pulling and toe-treading. Chris 'Nico' Nicolay was also repelling wave after wave of Bintang batteries.

Just to add a bit of confusion, the second half quarters were extended to 20 minutes, meaning half-time was not really half-time.

The Dragons started the third quarter strongly with midfield players Dwight 'Junior Burger' Stuchbury, Matty Baron, Shannon Morgan and Col'n Mitchell all getting their hands on the ball, and former Bonnie Doon pin-up Graeme Rigg doing well wherever he was playing. New CHB Jono and CHF Besty were taking more marks than a tandem of German bankrobbers. About half way through the quarter the Dragons had a 22 point lead, and it was looking like a blowout.

However, Jakarta were able to dig deep and dominated the last 10 minutes to take a one point lead into the final break.

Besty reels one in

Coach Wines was clearly upset with the way the Dragons dropped the intensity, and let the squad know. The side was well aware that going against the wind in the last quarter, there was every chance that the crowd could be witnessing the biggest boil-over since Polly left the kettle on. Not since 1996 when a Will Hamilton-led Thailand Tigers toured Hong Kong had the Dragons lost a game at home.

The prospect got even worse at the start of the last quarter when the Bintangs kicked a goal to go seven points up about two minutes into the last quarter.

However, that was the turning point for the Dragons, who proceeded to produce their best football for the rest of the game. After getting back the goal quickly, the Dragons kept the ball in the forward line for most of the quarter, and only 4 points in succession from set shots kept the Bintangs in with a chance. Then, with about 3 minutes to go, Riggsy moved forward to take a mark on the boundary about 40 metres out.