Sometimes all you can do is stand back and say, 'what a game'.
And Saturday night was one of those occasions at Etihad Stadium as Sydney held on for a four-point victory against a fast-finishing Essendon in a match that had all the ingredients of a classic contest.
There was drama, there were plot twists and momentum swings, there were heroes and villains from both sides and in the end, Courtenay Dempsey probably fitted both those categories.
Ultimately, it was Dempsey's dash and daring that helped get Essendon back into the contest on Saturday night as they put on the afterburners in a massive final-quarter comeback that only fell narrowly short.
The Bombers trailed by 48 points late in the third quarter and had only whittled that margin to 47 at the last change, having scored a dreadfully inaccurate 2.15 to that point of the game to Sydney's 11.8.
Not even TABSportsbet's Jaimee Rogers would have liked Essendon's odds of coming back from that, but when Alwyn Davey scored Essendon's first for the quarter three minutes in, you just got the feeling something big was afoot.
It's possible the Swans simply ran out of gas after producing one of their finest performances across three quarters against the Bombers.
During that time they harassed Essendon into mistake after mistake after mistake and when the ball was coughed up, they had plenty of players around the contest to help get it out into space.
That was the cue for Sydney to take off. We've all become accustomed to the notion of the dour, defensive Swans that nabbed the 2005 premiership under Paul Roos.
But John Longmire's 2012 model is light years from that as they now use the pace of Lewis Jetta and Tony Armstrong to be one of the more under-rated spreading sides of the competition.
The Bombers simply couldn't match their pace for three quarters and were lucky to have Dustin Fletcher, Dempsey and Kyle Hardingham down in defence to rebound the ball away and set up attacks down the other end.
But under such pressure from the midfield, Essendon were pushed wide and their forward 50 entries were haphazard at best, a major factor behind their paltry return by three-quarter time even if they ultimately earned a massive 78 inside-50s for the game.
However, Sydney's effort came at a cost. With Dan Hannebery subbed off with concussion and defenders Nick Smith and Alex Johnson struggling from heavy knocks, they were ripe for an Essendon comeback, starting with Davey's goal.
Two minutes later, Davey did it again for his third for the night and within a minute Essendon had popped another one on the board as Nathan Lovett-Murray put his head down and charged bull-like through the Swans defence to cut the margin to just 28 points.
Jude Bolton steadied the ship, taking the margin back out to 34 points 10 minutes into the term, but the Swans veteran was battling an overwhelming tide as Essendon continued to win the ball from the centre, where Jobe Watson reigned supreme.
Three minutes later Brent Stanton, anonymous for much of the night as he was tagged by Hannebery and Jarrad McVeigh, kicked truly and sparked another run of Essendon majors from Heath Hocking, Watson (courtesy of a 50-metre penalty) and David Myers, who came off the subs bench for an impressive second half.
Suddenly the team that could