Belconnen Magpies schoolboy Tom Simpson kicks last minute goal to break Queanbeyan hearts

In just his third senior game, the St Francis Xavier College 17-year-old was paid a free kick for high contact and steered the ball truly from 40m out just seconds from the final siren, handing the Magpies a three-point away win.

Queanbeyan led the majority of the contest and had looked set to prevail over their bitter rivals before Simpson had the last laugh.

"When I went down I thought he'd paid it against me," Simpson said.

"I heard it was my ball, I just went back had to settle down and kick it. I knew off the boot it was going it, it wasn't my best kick but it went straight through it was the best feeling.

"I'll get to show off a bit [at school].

"Queanbeyan's always a tough place to come especially with their tough contested brand of footy. They're a really strong, big-bodied side, for us to come out here and get a win it's really impressive.

Simpson's inclusion in the side typifies the Magpies of 2020. The club has been ravaged by injury, and forced to blood several youngsters but it hasn't stopped them marching to an unbeaten lead atop the AFL Canberra standings.

"We've got quite a few guys out injured at the moment and we've brought a lot of young guys in, probably had seven or eight guys debut the first three or four weeks of the year," captain James Bennett said.

"He [Simpson] was shaking a bit but he went back and banged it, there's no better way to finish a game than a young fella kicking a winning goal.

"It's always a tough game out here and after the first quarter we were down five goals to one, and it felt windy out there and it felt like there was a scoring end. We embraced it today which was awesome for a young group."

Bennett was quick to pay tribute to Bryce in his milestone match.

MORE CANBERRA SPORT

He's one of the toughest players that have played footy here in Canberra," Bennett said.

"I always enjoy it when I play in the midfield and he's down one end of the ground away from me. Every now and then he comes inside and you know it's going to be a hard game.

"He's got heaps of respect around the league."

It was the kind of game Bryce thrives in - brutally contested under a pregnant, grey sky which finally opened in the final term.

Andrew Swan's cool finish from 50m late on looked to have sealed it for the Tigers but Belconnen kept coming to spoil Bryce's centenary.

"The first quarter was fantastic, we blew them out of the water and then let them back in going into half-time," Bryce said.

"I thought we had the ascendancy in that last quarter, I thought we were going to keep chipping away but wet weather footy, the ball skids through wrong or something like that and it means a lot.

"Anyone could've won that game, we were just on the wrong end of it. We were coming off a pretty big win last week against Gungahlin so it was good to have a really good hard hitout.

"We were obviously on the wrong end of it, pretty gutted about it.

"Belconnen are an absolutely quality outfit, they've got really good depth."

Bryce's 100^th match for the Tigers was more than eight years in the making, after he joined the club in its 2012 NEAFL premiership winning season.

"It's taken a while," Bryce said.

"It's pretty much a whole different crop, there's not too many left from that time but I've loved my time here and will keep loving it."