ISAAC Smith had kicked seven goals from 12 set shots from a similar position to where he lined up Friday night's post-siren misfire.
His mark with three seconds remaining in the epic qualifying final put him inside the corridor, 35 metres out from goal, a position the Hawk had converted from 68 per cent of the time in 2016.
When the siren went, the Hawks trailed Geelong by three points and the 27-year-old had a chance to win the game.
Match report: Cats down Hawks in a thriller
The triple-premiership Hawk had put himself there by hard running.
Smith was behind the centre square when Shaun Burgoyne marked Jordan Lewis' wobbly torpedo with 27 seconds remaining.
He ran past Burgoyne, Taylor Duryea and then Luke Breust as the Hawks ran the football up the ground with four kicks that were marked uncontested (Hawthorn had 60 more uncontested marks than Geelong for the game) after the kick-in.
With a career record of 2.4 and two kicks out on the full from beyond 50 metres, Breust, who had marked Duryea's kick, made the smart decision to look for Jack Gunston in the pocket only for Corey Enright to smother his kick.
Breust doubled back, won the ball and then found Smith, who had burnt off Scott Selwood who was trying to hand him over to a teammate as he couldn't keep up with the speedster, despite willing himself back into defence.
But it was too late, and Smith marked, set himself over the ball, smiled at a comment that distracted him, then lined up with the hope of kicking straight.
WATCH: The top five plays of the game
The ball hit his boot exactly 32 seconds after it landed in his hands.
Watching from in front of Smith, Cats' skipper Joel Selwood thought the Hawk had kicked straight.
"I had that moment where I thought we're coming back next week to play the Bulldogs," Selwood said.
Tom Hawkins told ABC Grandstand he was so concerned about entering the protected area (and potentially conceding a 50-metre penalty) that his view wasn't ideal.
But he sensed the Cats had lost when he saw the football hit Smith's boot.
"I thought he had struck it really well and I thought it was going through," Hawkins said.
But it wasn't and Smith had added his name to the 82 others whose kick has decided a game one way or the other.
The game may have been lost but the hard-running Smith, who has played in 106 wins in 134 games, had lost no admirers.
His coach Alastair Clarkson had told him to keep his chin up and his teammates had reminded him the Hawks had another chance.
And he had played a central role in one of the best finals in modern times.
The Range
Set shots 30-40 metres within corridor
Hawthorn in 2016: 25.13
Isaac Smith in career: 7.6
Set shots outside 50
Luke Breust in career: 2.4 (two out of bounds on the full)
Stats supplied by Champion Data
