It was 50 minutes of chaos that has landed Super Netball in the headlines for all the wrong reasons, again.
In the dying seconds of play on Saturday night, the Sunshine Coast Lightning protected what they believed to be a one-point buffer over the winless Giants and when the buzzer sounded the Ken Rosewall Arena scoreboard indicated a 71-70 result.
But as the visitors left the court, the Giants remained at their bench, coach Julie Fitzgerald and her club adamant an error had been made by officials and that scores were in-fact tied therefore extra time was required, as per new rules introduced in 2024.
What Giant Sophie Dwyer labelled a shambles and NSW Swift Helen Housby, watching from home, called a disgrace on social media could easily have had a Benny Hill track playing in the background.
The Lightning would spend the next 35 minutes in the visitors change rooms, the umpires too had departed while the Giants remained on the sidelines with some players keeping warm and completing run throughs in the hope of an extra period.
All this played out on Fox Netball with the in-venue commentary team, led by the uber-professional Matt Russell, in the dark about what had happened, what would happen next, scrambling for clarification and speculating over live shots with no official communication to relay to their audience.
Twenty minutes later, officials deemed the game was a draw, the scoreboard was updated, and extra time would be played, a 10-minute warm up followed before the Giants went on to capture their first win of the season in ultimately diabolical circumstances.
Netball Australia later confirming to the broadcaster "in the fourth quarter bench officials made two errors in the sequencing of the recording of the goals and upon review of the score post-match and of the footage it was sighted that it was 71-71."
These were scenes which could be forgiven in a Saturday afternoon country league with a manual scoreboard but not in the world's premier netball competition.
Both Fitzgerald and Lightning counterpart Belinda Reynolds were aggrieved about what unfolded and shared concerns about the potential for injury with a warmup occurring about 40 minutes after the game ended.
"We have some injuries, some people returning from ACLs so they were really concerned about the warmup time," Reynolds said.
In what turned out to be a masterstroke, Fitzgerald opted for Matisse Letherbarrow, who didn't play in regular time, over co-captain Jo Harten and the 22-year-old shooter sunk nine goals, including three super shots.
But Fitzgerald later revealed that while Letherbarrow embraced the challenge there was concern around veteran Hartan who has experienced serious knee issues.
"Jo had been off the court for 40-45 minutes and it was a big thing to ask her to warm that knee up and come back on, but we also knew this is the kind of moment Matisse likes and enjoys and we knew she could do it for us."
Emotions ran high and while the Giants celebrated a most unlikely, and needed victory, Sunshine Coast Lightning captain Steph Fretwell was visibly upset when she fronted a post-game press conference.
"You play to the scoreboard so when we were at 30 seconds (to go) our biggest thing was keep possession. If we knew it was a draw we probably would've gone for a goal but when you play to the scoreboard and the scoreboard is wrong.....," she said.
"We would've played that final 30 seconds differently. We go back and hopefully there's no scoreboard error in weeks to come."
Last night's fiasco was not a first. There were shades of 2023 when controversy marred the opening round of the season where the league admitted that late in the game Melbourne Vixens were awarded consecutive centre passes against Collingwood and that a 62-61 result would stand.
On the same weekend, a game between the Adelaide Thunderbirds and NSW Swifts was delayed by an hour, because of the application of on-court decals, and ended at half time because of a power failure.
Fitzgerald, who admitted she hadn't seen anything quite like Saturday night's events in her 27-year-career, said it best.
"I feel sorry for the people on the bench, mistakes happen and they're not immune to making mistakes like any other person."
The Giants mentor is right, mistakes do happen but it's what happens next that counts.
And, sadly, it's often the same old story for Super Netball. The standard of the competition is elite, the athletes are world class and fabulous ambassadors for their sport, Fox Netball forge the way in women's sport coverage and as opening-round crowds indicate, loyal, engaged fans show up but the governing body continues to slip up.
It must strive to do better, for better is what everyone deserves.