HISTORY repeated itself on Sunday afternoon at Princes Park, Maryborough when Navarre Grasshoppers accomplished back-to-back premiership titles.
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Navarre went into the game as favourites against Carisbrook, and rightfully so, after they went through the regular season undefeated.
The final siren sounded after the result had been locked in for a period of time and although the Navarre supporters and players were excited it was a little anti-climactic.
A hot and exhausted playing group quietly met in the middle of the ground - They had done it once again.
Coach Daniel Parkin expressed his disappointment with the opening term, but could not have been happier with Navarre's second half of football.
"We had to work pretty hard after that first quarter," Parkin said.
"It was always going to be an arm wrestle, but for the boys to come back like they did was a credit to them."
Navarre found the first goal of the match thanks largely to some handy stoppage work from young gun Cody Driscoll.
In his first senior grand final Driscoll split the congested pack open with his speed and found himself 20 metres out directly in front.
Driscoll was on the run and under pressure, but converted all the same.
Before too long Carisbrook had hit back with four unanswered goals of their own.
There appeared to be little wind on the day, but the trend was that the Southern end of the ground had been the scoring end.
Navarre got a stern talking to at quarter time and Parkin encouraged his players to play with more emotion.
"Honestly in that first quarter we didn't look like we wanted it," Parkin said.
"We were all just going through the motions with no emotion. That was what we spoke about at quarter time."
In the second quarter Navarre were down the scoring end and turned a 20 point deficit into a one goal advantage.
"Our one-on-one football was lacking in the first quarter and that proved costly," Parkin said.
"We improved on that in the second quarter and that's probably what won us the game."
While still not playing their best football Navarre kicked five goals to one in the second quarter.
In the third premiership quarter Navarre's big time players started to find the football and fire up.
The crowd found some voice and the emotion that had been missing was present for the first time.
Ash Driscoll, the leading goal kicker inthe league came to life in the second half as did fellow big forward Kris Brennan.
Driscoll and Brennan finished with four goals each with most of them coming in the third quarter.
The cup was always going to be won from the middle of the ground and in his 100th game Daniel Reading was outstanding.
With a five goal quarter Navarre had produced a 37 point lead at the final change.
"The boys were prepared to work hard for one another in the third quarter," Parkin said.
"We turned it on and really pulled away from them. In that last quarter we just said let's work for each other and finish it off."
Early last quarter goals from Sam Robertson and Kris Brennan sealed the premiership win.
"With ten minutes to go we probably knew we had it wrapped up," Parkin said.
"We started winking at players and enjoying it that bit more."
The final score was Navarre 16.21.117 defeating Carisbrook 9.8.62.
In a surprise decision the best on ground went to Carisbrook's Liam Cunningham for his six goals with three of them coming in the final quarter.
The AFL Victoria Country Medal was won by Navarre's Ben Scott, who was also a best-on-ground medallist in last year's 101-point grand final win over Lexton.
Others in the best for Navarre were Daniel Reading, Kris Brennan, Louis Hannett, Bryce Tickner and Josh Driscoll.
"Its probably more special this year than last," Parkin said.
"Undefeated and back-to-back, that's not going to sink in for a while."
At this stage Parkin is not interested in coaching another year, but has assured the club he is not going anywhere.