Another chapter was added to the Group 21 rivalry between the Singleton Greyhounds and the Aberdeen Tigers at Pirtek Park this afternoon.
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The absence of Frank Paul Nu'uausala (unavailable) would see Singleton's first grade side fall short of securing a 2-1 start to the season after suffering a nail-biting 32-30 defeat.
However all eyes were cast toward the dugout in the final seconds of the heated encounter as Singleton head coach Jye Bayley stormed toward the opposition's bench.
Onlookers gathered as Bayley, who is also the Greyhounds' club president, voiced his disappointment after Aberdeen players and officials vandalised their bench.
"I take nothing away from Aberdeen's win today, they were the better football side by far and they deserved to win," Bayley told the Singleton Argus.
"But I was really disappointed in the lack of respect that they showed at our ground.
"They didn't come to me or apologise or anything so I approached them by the end of the game.
"I found that disrespectful, all they had to do was say that 'one of the boys had done this in the heat of the moment'.
"They also told me it was quite petty of me to want them to fix it but I find that hard to believe."
Opposing coach Ben Baker labelled the encounter as awkward.
"It's part of footy, everyone wants to win I suppose," Baker said.
"It was poor of them to come on over because it's just a game of footy and we play them again this week.
"So they'll just have to focus on reloading at training and then trying to come and get us again."