THE guttural roar of the Moose when he snapped a terrific goal early in the third quarter, followed by the signature horn salute.

Jimmy Munro’s seventh-minute major was the moment that gave the Casey Demons the impetus to cap a dominant season with their first premiership in 23 years in a hard, tough and physical Smithy’s VFL Grand Final that saw a whopping 216 tackles laid at IKON Park on Sunday.

The Demons outslugged a gallant Southport by 32 points, 10.10 (70) to 5.8 (38), handing the heart-and-soul pair of vice-captain Munro and his skipper Mitch White a long-awaited first premiership medal after two near misses in 2016 and 2018.

And they were the best two players on the ground, with White winning the Norm Goss Medal after a remarkable display in which he virtually shut Southport’s co-captain and best player Jacob Dawson out of the game while still winning 29 disposals, eight clearances and eight inside-50s, plus laying 13 tackles.

Munro, who broke down with emotion after finally lifting the Cup in his 143rd VFL game, was almost as brilliant with 21 possessions and a stunning 17 tackles, capping his performance with a brilliant third-quarter goal.

Southport started the better as Kwaby Boakye provided some terrific rebound off half-back, Boyd Woodcock got down and dirty and Brayden Crossley threw his weight around in typically impressive style, while their suite of elusive forwards were causing headaches for the Demons’ defence as Jacob Townsend, Max Pescud and Mitch Johnson answered Jake Melksham’s game-opening goal.

But Taj Woewodin responded with a great goal to hold the deficit to seven points at quarter-time and the Demons lifted, shutting down the Sharks’ running game as the driving rain arrived.

Casey kicked the only two goals of the second term to lead at half-time, with White and Munro brilliant, Luke Dunstan racking them up at the coalface, Kade Chandler breaking clear of Boakye’s attention to star as a link-up man on the outside and Sam Weideman working hard to go with Crossley in his unfamiliar ruck role.

Southport was held goalless from Johnson’s set shot at the 23-minute mark of the first quarter until Townsend won a free kick and converted his second 29 minutes into the third, but despite that 90-minute drought they were still only 15 points down at the final change and right in the hunt.

But a long-range goal to Jake Melksham in the third minute of the final term saw Casey kick clear, with the final 32-point gap being the biggest of the game – with one last moment typifying their season as Cranbourne local George Grey at 184cm and 80kg took on Crossley the biggest man on the ground at 199cm and 105kg and brought him down to win a holding-the-ball decision.

White was the unanimous winner of the Norm Goss Medal, picking up a perfect 12 votes for his wonderful captain’s knock, while Munro finished second with five votes and Melksham was a match-winner up forward with 16 touches and four goals without a miss in a wet, low-scoring game.

Dunstan took his usual spot at the top of the stats sheet with 31 touches, eight clearances, eight inside-50s and nine tackles, Oskar Baker was outstanding on the wing with 25 and five inside-50s, Chandler finished with a crucial 23 possessions, eight marks and seven tackles off half-forward, Tomlinson was the defensive general with 19 and 12 rebounds and Weideman could be proud of his efforts with 18 disposals, 35 hitouts and six clearances.

Woodcock just kept on cracking in for Southport and ended up leading all comers with 32 possessions, 10 clearances and eight tackles and Crossley won the ruck battle with 16 disposals, 45 hitouts and an unbelievable 15 tackles for a big man.

Joyce (22, seven clearances, 13 tackles) provided great support in the middle while Boakye’s first half was outstanding as he compiled 20 touches and five tackles, with key defender Rhys Clark (18, eight rebounds) working hard, Dawson still battled through the tag to pick up 19 disposals and his co-captain Mike Manteit laid 10 tackles and the solid Jacob Heron eight.

CASEY DEMONS   2.2    4.5    6.8    10.10 (70)
SOUTHPORT         3.3    3.5    4.5    5.8 (38)

GOALS:
CASEY DEMONS: J. Melksham 4, M. Brown 2, T. Bedford, B. Laurie, J. Munro, T. Woewodin
SOUTHPORT: J. Townsend 2, M. Johnson, R. King, M. Pescud.

BEST
CASEY DEMONS: M. White (Norm Goss Medal), J. Munro, J. Melksham, K. Chandler, A. Tomlinson, O. Baker, L. Dunstan, S. Weideman
SOUTHPORT: B. Woodcock, B. Crossley, K. Boakye, J. Joyce, R. Clark.

NORM GOSS MEDAL

Campbell Brown (Channel 7)
3 Mitch White (Cas)
2 Kade Chandler (Cas)
1 Jimmy Munro (Cas)

Danny Ryan (Frankston coach)
3 Mitch White (Cas)
2 Boyd Woodcock (Sou)
1 Jake Melksham (Cas)

Brendan Rhodes (AFL.com.au)
3 Mitch White (Cas)
2 Jimmy Munro (Cas)
1 Jake Melksham (Cas)

Jennie Loughnan (AFL)
3 Mitch White (Cas)
2 Jimmy Munro (Cas)
1 Kade Chandler (Cas)

LEADERBOARD
12 Mitch White (Cas)
5 Jimmy Munro (Cas)
3 Kade Chandler (Cas)
2 Jake Melksham (Cas)
2 Boyd Woodcock (Sou)

Twitter: @BRhodesVFL