The plans were put in place about 90 minutes before the first bounce in the biggest under-18 game of the year.

As dozens of AFL club recruiters and hundreds of fans gathered outside the gates of Marvel Stadium on a chilly Sunday morning in mid-July, Vic Metro defender Luke Trainor was already down in the changerooms about to be strapped up.

It was then that Vic Metro coach Rob Harding made a somewhat surprising approach.

“I said to him (Trainor), ‘Mate, if it’s close, I’m going to try you forward, just be ready for it’,” Harding said.

“We had a laugh about it and he goes, ‘I can’t wait’ and he joked about practising his set-shot goalkicking and all that.”

The forward line wasn’t exactly unfamiliar territory for Trainor, who is the grandson of AFL goal kicking great Doug Wade.

But the Sandringham Dragons product had spent the majority of the previous 18 months playing as an intercept defender, where he had drawn comparisons to Geelong’s Tom Stewart.

At three-quarter-time, Vic Metro and Vic Country could not be split on the scoreboard in what was the match that would decide the winner of this year’s under-18 national championships.

Trainor wondered if it was time he swung forward and went over to Harding at the huddle to ask the question.

“He tapped me on the shoulder at three-quarter-time and said, ‘Forward?’” Harding said.

“I said, ‘I’ll let you know, I’ll call it’.”

Trainor resumed his position in defence to start the fourth quarter, lining up against dangerous Vic Country tall Jack Whitlock.

THE LATE MAGNET MOVE

Vic Metro was clinging on to a one-point lead with less than two minutes to go, when Vic Country star Sam Lalor lined up for a set-shot from 45m on a tight angle.

Lalor’s kick faded across goal and fell just short of registering a behind as teammate Archer Day-Wicks flew for mark which he ultimately fumbled.

The ball spilled to ground in the goalsquare, Day-Wicks gathered the loose ball and snapped a left-foot goal.

Trainor was at the top of the goalsquare, nursing a sore left knee from a contest moments earlier.

Believing he was little use to the team on one leg for the final 90 seconds of the match, he hobbled towards the bench.

“They kicked a goal and I was injured and I was calling to go off because I just couldn’t walk,” Trainor said.

Harding had called it.

“Our bench coach was Trent Dennis-Lane and I was talking to him down the line, just after that goal, I was yelling at him, ‘We need to get Trainor forward’,” Harding said.

“He was able to – with a nice loud voice – get it done.”

THE CRITICAL CLEARANCE

Back in the middle of the ground, the equation was pretty clear to Vic Metro’s onballers.

Now trailing by five points with 45 seconds left, Vic Metro’s only hope of winning the championships was to win the centre clearance.

“It was me, Levi Ashcroft and Josh Smillie in the middle,” Vic Metro captain Jagga Smith said. “We came together and the plan was to tap it down to the bigger body in Smillie.”

There was no clean tap from either ruckman, but Smillie pounced on the ball and handballed to Smith, who was the sweeper at the back of the contest.

Smith had a split-second to sum up the situation and boot the ball forward, narrowly avoiding a smother attempt from opponent Joe Berry.

“I just kicked it as far as I could forward to give us an opportunity to kick to a contest because I saw that Luke Trainor was sprinting down from the backline and swinging forward,” Smith said. “I just thought I would kick it forward and kick it his way as high as I could, because he’s pretty good in the air.”

The ball sailed high to Vic Metro’s attacking 50m arc, but Trainor did not have a chance to contest it in the air.

He was on the ground when the ball arrived.

THE DOUBLE FREES

Vic Country defender Tobie Travaglia is a competitive beast and had no intention of losing a one-on-one contest against Trainor.

But Travaglia was a little overzealous in a wrestle with Trainor as the ball came towards the pair, slinging his opponent to ground and conceding a free kick.

Just outside the 50m arc, Trainor had the footy with 30 seconds to go and quickly got boot to ball.

“I went to pass it off to Harry Oliver and he heard the whistle and he put his hands up and didn’t touch the ball,” Trainor said.

The whistle had sounded because Travaglia had been penalised by the umpire again, this time for abuse.

“I said, ‘Are you serious? That’s an absolute joke’. That was it,” Travaglia recalled.

“It’s something that you wish you had your time again. You wish you spoiled in front instead of taking the intercept mark. But it is what it is.”

The 50m penalty took Trainor to the goal line and he converted from the top of the goalsquare as the siren rang out around Marvel Stadium.

“I still don’t know what the 50 was for, but I’ll take it,” Trainor said. “It was a fairytale ending.”

Smith was similarly over the moon as the winning side’s skipper.

“It was one of the great feelings I’ve ever felt on a footy field so far,” he said.

THE STINGING WORDS

As Trainor was walked to the goalsquare by the umpire, a minor scuffle broke out between players around where Travaglia had given away the 50m penalty.

Vic Metro midfielder Murphy Reid was at the centre of it.

Moments after the 50m penalty was paid, a heartbroken Travaglia was confronted by Reid, who exchanged some choice words he now wishes he could take back.

Vision shows Vic Country duo Sam Lalor and Finn O’Sullivan venting their frustrations in the direction of Reid before Trainor kicked the game-winner.

“I just said, ‘Thanks for the game’, or something like that and shouldn’t have said it,” Reid said.

“I think just in general the game was just so intense and such a competitive game and I was just around there at the time.

“Looking back on it I wouldn’t do it again, but it is what it is now and I guess just got to live with that.”

Geelong Falcons co-captain Lachie Jaques said the free kicks were “shattering” but his mind immediately went to getting over to Travaglia.

“I’ve known Tobie for a while now and we continued to bond over the carnival, so I gave him a bit of a hug and said, ‘It’s not your fault mate’,” Jaques said.

“He was a super player, he played well on the day and many other things happened throughout the game.”

THE WASH UP

Travaglia had plenty of people reach out and offer support in the wake of the incident.

There was an apology from Reid, too.

“After the game I sent him a message straight away and he was really good,” Reid said.

“He was very appreciative of that and sort of looked after me in that sense because I knew he was hurting.

“We have stayed in contact since then. So now we are pretty friendly and mates, considering he is living on the other side of Victoria to me.”

Geelong champion Joel Selwood – who came through the Bendigo Pioneers program like Travaglia – also got in touch to lend support.

For Travaglia, the moment was soon in the rear-view mirror and he remains a top-10 draft prospect this year.

“The Vic Country boys were a great support. I had so many people reaching out to me as well,” Travaglia said. “I feel like the main reason why I didn’t dwell on it that much is because of the people I was around helping me with my support.

“You slowly fade it out of the memory and go to the next chapter.”