There was no shortage of brilliant goalsneaks on the MCG on Saturday, but Jack Higgins outdid them all with a miraculous effort in the third quarter that is sure, at the very least, to give the Goal of the Year a serious shake.
Round 19: Higgins' GOTY contender
Gathering the ball just before the goal-line, Higgins kept it alive by tapping it forward, then somehow weaved his way around the right-hand goalpost just in time to soccer the ball with a flying scissor-kick that flew over his head and through the big sticks.
Any player at soccer's recent World Cup would have been proud to claim it as his own, while it was also reminiscent of a star cricketer thwarting a six by throwing the ball back over the boundary rope to complete a catch.
When asked in a post-match interview on 3AW how he’d describe the goal, Higgins replied: “To be honest, I’ve actually got no idea . . . it was an in the moment thing. I didn’t know it was even that good . . .
“The funny thing, when I did it, I thought of like a cricket catch over the boundary line and then putting it back in. That’s what I thought at the moment . . . like Glenn Maxwell sort of thing.
“When I was running, the ball was going out and I had no other options. So I tried to bring it back in play, and soccered it over my head . . . It was pretty sick.”
Here is how leading veteran commentator Tim Lane’s reacted to the Higgins goal during his call on 3AW . . .
“That is one of the greatest, most creative goals ever kicked in 120 years of this game,” Lane said.