ONLY a strong second quarter from the South West Football League stood between the Peel Football League and victory in the 2016 Landmark Country Football Championship Division 1 final at Leederville Oval on Sunday afternoon.
Peel posted its first goal within moments of the first centre bounce and kicked four unanswered goals in the opening term.
South West kicked its first goal early in the second quarter before backing it up with three more and at the same time shutting down Peel's forward movement completely.
South West led 4.7 to 4.4 at the major break but could only manage another three goals for the match as Peel piled on the forward pressure, ending any hopes of collecting a sixth successive Landmark trophy.
Joel Houghton was the main focus up forward for Peel, booting an impressive six goals, with plenty of support from Brad Holmes with four.
The only multiple scorers for South West were Anthony Tsalikis and Mathew Michael with two each.
Houghton was one of Peel's better players but the standout was former WAFL player Brendan Jones who used all his experience to gather possessions all over the ground.
Peel progressed to the final after solid wins over Lower South West and the Southern leagues on Saturday.
South West qualified for the main event after good wins over Great Northern and Avon.
Peel's Jesse Gribble capped off a good carnival by winning the Jock Coleman trophy for the best Division 1 player overall.
Mortlock held off several attacks from Eastern Districts in the second half of the Division 2 final before claiming the 14.6 (90) to 11.10 (76) victory.
The Mortlock boys had plenty of options up forward with Arron Russell kicking five while Gavin Carter, Reyner Wells, Tyson Bird and Michael Burgess all chipped in with two each.
Despite having eight different scorers Eastern Districts could not close the game in the latter stages.
On Saturday Mortlock had a big win over North Midlands and scraped over the line by seven points in the low-scoring match against Central Wheatbelt, while Eastern Districts lost its first match to Great Southern and then took a nine-point win over Ongerup in another low-scoring affair.
Arron Russell and Central Midlands' Lewis Harvey were joint winners of the Bud Byfield trophy for the best overall Division 2 player.
South West defeated Great Southern Storm by 16 points to win the CBH Colts final.
This was after a loss to Great Southern and a win over Peel in lead up games.
Great Southern also suffered a loss to Regional Districts in the qualifying round but still had enough percentage to play in the final.
Peel's Chad Wrigley won the Ken Baxter medal for best overall in the colts while Great Southern's Thomas Baldwin won the Clem Bray medal as the best developing player.
