THE runaway favourites for their third Gippsland League premiership in-a-row Leongatha have lowered their colours to Traralgon, after beating them both times during the year.
One of the powerhouse clubs in the Gippsland League throughout its history, Traralgon returned to the top position with a mixture of pace, youth, sensational defence and a super-strong performance at the stoppages.
For all that though, there was only seven points in it at the last change, anyone's game at that point.
And Leongatha cut that slender lead to just one point when Kim Drew snapped a goal out of the pack right after the restart.
But Traralgon had the answers with Dylan Loprese also snapping a goal out of the pack at the other end.
The Traralgon captain Ty Hourigan did what he had done all day and marked the next Leongatha attacking thrust and the Maroons raced the ball up the other end through 16-year-old Marlon Neocolous and Sam Halleyburton to where big Dan McKenna marked alone and unattended 25 metres out. His goal gave Traralgon the control they were looking for and with the ball switching back and forth, Traralgon leading by 17 points halfway through, the next goal by wonderkind Marlon Neocolous from the angle was effectively the sealer.
A final goal by Traralgon onballer Luis D'Angelo was the coup de grace and likely won him the Stan Aitken Medal although Ty Hourigan must have taken more than a dozen marks across the backline to almost completely nullify the Parrots' scoring power in an equally impressive performance.
The jury is out on the impact of finishing on top and winning the Second Semi-final and effectively playing three games in five weeks but Leongatha was not at their sparkling best on the day, or not allowed to be.
The loss of pressure forward Jackson Harry and pacey onballer Jake van der Pligt were counted as significant losses for Leongatha before they started and an early injury to potential match-winner Cam Olden was a blow on the day but Traralgon was too good; troubling Leongatha on the run and blanketting Leongatha's attack, especially with the likes of Ty Hourigan, Tristen Waack and co in charge.
The Parrots had earlier won the Under 13s and Under 17s netball and completed a threepeat in the Reserves under master coach Rhett Kelly but the big one slipped through their grasp against a highly-motivated Traralgon side.
Final scores: Traralgon 11.12.78 def Leongatha 7.11.53.