Instead, spectators were treated to a great contest full of great effort, hard slog and determination from both sides and to a match with a tight nail biting finish.

As has been the case in recent weeks, the Cats again got off to a good start in a tight first quarter which both sides used to adapt to the sloppy conditions and try and gain some sort of advantage.

The Cats were able to gain an ascendancy in the ruck and through the midfield, ensuring again that the defence was not placed under constant pressure, giving the forwards opportunity to score.

However, in the heavy conditions it was always going to be difficult to get clean shots and the quarter time score of Cats 2-2-14 to the Eagles 1-1-7 indicated this.

The second quarter continued very much in the same vein as the first, as both sides worked incredibly hard to establish some sort of break on the other.

The Cats had winners all over the ground as Ben Howarth and Quinton Foxcroft in the midfield, Clinton Blenman in the ruck and Steve Mullane in defence all outplayed their opponents.

But equally the Eagles had their winners too and this evenness was reflected in the Cats 4-6-30 to Eagles 3- 5-23 scoreline.

The Cats came out blazing after the long break and kicked the first three goals of the third term.

Stu McAdam had his third of the match sandwiched between two Ken Garland goals and suddenly the Cats were out to a 27 point lead.

Here, their troubles began. Whether it was the vertigo of being in front so late in the game or just that the side had forgotten how to win or whether the Eagles suddenly woke up to the fact that they could easily lose this one, slowly the tide of the match began to change.

The Eagles started to work a bit harder on getting the ball forward while the Cats got caught with it too often prevented the type of forward entries that they were getting earlier in the match.