Richmond captain Trent Cotchin described it as “like a knife going through my heart”.
Down by 16-points with just four minutes remaining in the final change, Gold Coast looked dead and buried in the 2012, round 16 encounter with the Tigers in Cairns, with any hope of snaring a miraculous victory vanishing by the second.
But after a monstrous 70m spiral from now former SUN, Josh Caddy, sensationally found its way through the sticks, the ‘away’ team entertained the possibility that the game was still in reach.
With just 30 seconds left to play, speedster Jarrod Harbrow managed to conjure something from nothing, blistering his way into the Tigers’ defence as only the former Western Bulldog knows how, before sending it through for a game-changing six-pointer.
Time for one final centre bounce. Zac Smith leapt to the heavens, doing his best to feed a roving Gary Ablett, only for the ball to settle in a pack at ground level.
Somehow, combative midfielder David Swallow surfaced with the Sherrin, passing it off immediately to Trent McKenzie and the ‘Cannon’ instinctively unloaded the ball forward.
With 10 seconds remaining and the SUNS in need of a heroic effort, Brandon Matera managed to save the ball from crossing over the boundary line, hooking it back goal-side to hit the chest of Karmichael Hunt as the final siren sounded at Cazaly’s Stadium.
The rest is football history.
With ice running through his veins, the high-profile code convert put to bed any suggestions his switch to Australian Rules football was a publicity stunt, slotting the clutch kick to launchd Gold Coast’s first victory celebration for 2013, whilst eliminating any finals aspirations Damien Hardwick and the Tigers had that season.
For many Gold Coast members and fans, it remains their proudest SUNS moment in the club’s short existence.
On replay, the skipper can be seen offering some last-minute advice to the former rugby league star, but Ablett said he had little doubt Hunt would slot the match-winning goal.
“I was actually pretty confident he would go back and kick the goal,” Ablett recalled.
“He’s a pretty good kick at that distance, and I remember going up to him and saying ‘Mate, it doesn’t matter if you kick it or miss, just go through your normal routine’”.
Since Carlton’s Billy Schmidt became the first player in 1919 to boot a winning score after the final whistle, only 32 players in the history of the game had ever done the same.
Despite the magnitude of the kick, Hunt said his previous world-class rugby experience in high pressure moments had prepared him adequately for what has been his finest AFL moment to date.
“Nothing was going through my mind to be honest,” Hunt said.
“I just had to get to the top of my run and kick it as a true as I could.
“Harley was near me as well and he said just take your time.”
“Pressure situations in the past, it was always about trying to calm the mind, make sure there wasn’t too many thoughts going through my head and just keeping it simple.”
Despite long being branded the hero of the North Queensland clash, Hunt says his effort on that exciting afternoon fell second-best to Matera’s magical brilliance in keeping the ball in play.
“Brandon Matera crumbing the ball and finding me on a tight angle I think deserves more credit than me kicking the footy,” Hunt said.
“If it wasn’t for his leg and vision, I dare say it would have been a scrap on the boundary for the footy and we would have lost the game.”
