THE South Bunbury Tigers are the 2016 South West Football League premiers after they held the Collie Eagles to a record low grand final score on Sunday.
Subscribe now for unlimited access to all our agricultural news
across the nation
or signup to continue reading
Collie won the toss and elected to kick with the breeze in the first term, a strategy that worked well in both the colts and reserves deciders.
It took 17 minutes of arm wrestling between the two sides to produce the first goal of the game, courtesy of South Bunbury's Ryan Bennell.
It was the only goal of the term with the scoreboard reading 1.2.8 - 0.1.1 in favour of South Bunbury at quarter time.
With the breeze, Anthony Tsalikis nailed the Tiger's first goal of the second term inside 30 seconds.
Leigh Kohlmann snapped two in a row before Tsalikis' second got the crowd on their feet.
Kyle Hams got into the action to give South Bunbury their sixth goal before Guy Piggott nailed the seventh, seconds before the half-time siren.
The start of the third term saw Collie score their first major with Mat Michael scooping up a loose ball in the forward pocket.
But the Tigers responded immediately with Kohlmann kicking his third.
To pile on the pain Collie's Jarrad Miller hit the post running towards an open goal.
A few minutes later Jayce Fontana took a better shot to add Collie's second.
Shaun Crane spun out of trouble to scramble South Bunbury's ninth goal before Collie's Jebb Swallow kicked the last major of the term to see the Tigers in front 9.12 (66) to 3.3 (21) at three quarter time.
Tiger Tom Harper kicked his first of the game to start the final term before Tsalikis kicked his third.
A fight broke out at the southern end of the ground which quickly escalated to include all 44 players. Extra umpires ran onto the ground to sort out the brawl with a number of players on both sides given yellow cards.
Travis Cleggett pinched a goal back for the Eagles before a 50 metre penalty bought South Bunbury captain Matt Giacci to the top of the goal square where he completed a memorable victory for the Tigers 12.14 (86) to 4.7 (31).
The win ended a streak of six consecutive grand final losses for South Bunbury and secured their first league flag since 2002.
Tiger Dylan Harper was presented the Pike Medal as best-on-ground while Hams joined a select group of players to win back-to-back flag for different clubs.
Earlier in the day, Harvey-Brunswick-Leschenault colts defended their 2015 flag in an undefeated season with a 54 point victory over the Bunbury Bulldogs 12.7(79) to 3.7 (25).
Thomas Boyle was named best-on-ground after he kicked five goals for the Lions.
HBL also captured the reserves flag with a thrilling victory over Eaton.
The Boomers took the lead for the first time late in the fourth quarter before HBL captain Matt Bicknell nailed the last two goals of the game to clinch the victory.
He was awarded best-on-ground for his efforts.
