If it wasn't the 43 disposals that typified Josh Kelly's importance to this GWS Giants team in Saturday's 21-point win over West Coast, it was a moment of sheer courage midway through the fourth quarter.
The million-dollar man who has courted significant interest from Melbourne clubs this season bravely ran backwards with the flight of the ball, not knowing West Coast spearhead Josh Kennedy was coming the other way to mark the football.
Kelly's head collided with Kennedy's pointy hip and he ended up dazed and bleeding on the Spotless Stadium turf as the Eagles forward went back and squeezed through a goal to keep his side in the game.
As it turned out, Kennedy's efforts were in vain and Kelly's side, who were unimpressive for most of the evening, managed to hold on.
This was a career-high for Kelly in terms of possessions gathered, and he remains the man the Giants would love to build a club around over the next decade.
His late goal with 39 seconds left on the clock, his 42nd touch of the game, came complete with a taped head and a stack of tissues stuffed up his nose to stem the bleeding caused from the Kennedy collision.
When most of his teammates were quieter than normal in a low-quality game in Sydney's chilly west, Kelly still managed to find a heap of the football and his silky skills shone throughout.
The Giants are now just two points behind Adelaide and very much in the minor premiership race with a round to play, although they will need the Eagles to do them a favour in Perth next weekend and down the Crows.
GWS must also beat Geelong away from home if they are to finish on top of the ladder, but they will need to improve significantly on what they produced against Eagles before laying claim to being the best side in the AFL.
It was a cold evening at Spotless Stadium, and this contest was a drab affair throughout, an arm wrestle neither side was able to break for the most part interspersed with some individual patches of brilliance.
Kennedy was the most damaging on the scoreboard as he inched closer to the Coleman Medal. The first of his four goals marked 500 as an Eagle, and he joined Peter Sumich as only the second West Coast played to have achieved the feat.
He opened the scoring before veteran Brett Deledio marked strongly and nailed his set shot from close range to draw the Giants back on level terms.
When Jonathon Patton did the same soon after the home side looked on their way but the Eagles were plucky and weren't about to let GWS power to a typically powerful opening quarter.
Elliot Yeo and firebrand Toby Greene played on each other throughout in an engaging battle while Adam Tomlinson wore Jack Darling like a glove in the first half to help nullify the Eagles big man.
Jamie Cripps and then Drew Petrie goaled to give the Eagles a quarter-time lead before the Giants slowly but surely started to take control of the arm wrestle.
Deledio ran into an open goal to nail a second, delivering exactly on the expectation the club had of his offensive potential when he was traded in over the summer.
Greene managed two majors in the second term as he narrowly started to edge Yeo in their running battle while Lachie Whitfield and Nathan Wilson also kicked long-range goals to propel GWS further in front.
But West Coast refused to lie down, and their three-goal burst late in the term set things up for the second half.
The Eagles stayed with GWS for most of the contest before the home side finally broke away in the dying stages.
Improvement will be required come September should the Giants wish to challenge Adelaide and Sydney for this year's flag, but with Kelly on the books anything is possible.
GWS 2.1 7.4 8.6 12.9 (81)
WEST COAST 3.1 6.3 8.5 9.6 (60)
GOALS: GWS - Toby Greene 3, Deledio 2, Patton, Whitfield, Wilson, Shiel, Scully, Mumford, Kelly West Coast - Kennedy 4, Priddis 2, Petrie, Cripps, Partington
BEST: GWS - Kelly, Ward, Mumford, Wilson, Whitfield, Tomlinson, Greene West Coast - Priddis, Yeo, Kennedy, Redden, Mitchell, Sheed
VOTES
Josh Kelly (GWS) 9
Matt Priddis (West Coast) 8
Callan Ward (GWS) 8
Josh Kennedy (West Coast) 8
Shane Mumford (GWS) 7
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