CAVENDISH has risen from the outhouse to the penthouse with an emphatic victory over Dartmoor in the South West District Football Netball League Grand Final at Heywood Recreation Reserve on Saturday, winning 15.9 (99) to 3.6 (24).

In front of a huge crowd, the two best teams in the competition faced off looking to claim the premiership cup for the first time since 2019 due to COVID-19 lockdowns, and it was the Bloods who ended a 29-year drought to claim the senior premiership.

The Heywood Recreation Reserve was in surprisingly good state after the amount of rain that fell on the venue over the week leading into the match.

While there were no puddles on the ground, the field was soft in places, but the ball ran well across the ground.

Cavendish won the coin toss and kicked to the eastern end in the first term, but there was trouble in the Bloods camp before the game started, as James Huf injured his back in the warm-up and Steve Cameron was called into the team with no notice.

Cameron started on the bench, as the Bloods looked to Kyle Hendy to win the opening ball up against Dartmoor’s Mark Cowland and despite a clean tap the umpires were forced to throw the ball up several times before it cleared the centre square.

The first five minutes of the game were a real arm wrestle with the ball travelling between the two half-forward lines, as neither team was prepared to hand the opposition any advantage.

Cavendish was first on the board after five minutes with the first major as Sam Gibson booted the first of his eight goals for the game.

That first goal was soon followed by two more, as the Bloods took a 17-point lead into the first change of ends after the Giants failed to goal during the first term.

The second term followed the first, as the Bloods started to run the ball with clean possessions by hand and foot, allowing them to post another three majors to open their lead to 38 points by half time.

Cameron had been brought onto the ground and he slotted into the forward line, giving the Bloods two targets up front with Gibson winning the battle with Tyler Britten in the goal square.

Despite the score line, the game was much closer than it appeared, as the Dartmoor players refused to be beaten and threw their bodies repeatedly into the contest to win the ball and deposit it into their forward 50, only to see it rebound back up field time and again.

The Giants didn’t record a goal in the first half, and it took until the two-minute mark of the third term for that first major to be registered, as Dartmoor coach, Jayden Polaski, took it upon his shoulders to lift his team.

The goal had the required effect on the Giants, who came out in the third term looking for a way to regain the lead from the Bloods, as the players lifted their intensity to a higher level.

That was to be the only goal for the quarter, as the Giants saw the Bloods also lift their game to another gear.

Gibson continued to win the ball both in the air and on the ground to have kicked six goals by the end of the quarter.

Grand final niggling tactics started to get the better of the players, as tensions boiled over with a clash of heads seeing both Britten and Gibson leave the field under the blood rule, while Brad Thomas had his left eyebrow opened in a close contest that required the midfielder to be bandaged up.

The Bloods continued to play their running style of football to go on and record a 75-point victory when the final siren sounded.

When asked how he felt after the game, Cavendish coach Clinton Thomas was a relieved man.

“To be honest it’s a relief, I’d like to say joy and I’m sure it will kick in soon but right now it’s relief” Thomas said.

“It’s been a big four years building up to it, but with COVID throwing spanners in the works it’s been worth it.”

To lose James Huf in the warm up through a back injury was the first of the problems that the Bloods coach had to contend with on the day.

“We had to pull in one of the boys that missed out earlier in the week when James went down, but we had to find Camo some gear, as he didn’t have his own with him, including a set of footy boots and he played and played well,” Thomas said.

“To be honest our game plan, I felt was great.”

“While they have some very good on ballers, O’Brien plays really well across the half-back line, and we didn’t have an answer for him today as he had a bit of a run of his own.

“ We had some brilliant intercepts through Tim Huf and Will Luhrs that turned the ball back up field where we were a bit more strategic with our forward entry this year.

“Will (Luhrs) was sensational down back and has been all year, and we have to ensure we have the match ups that allow him to play with freedom.

“When he’s there he has a freedom to play his instinctive game which is critical in intercepts.”

Thomas was keen to downplay his final game as coach of the side (Gibson takes over next season) as he looked to his future.

“To be honest I love junior development and I will be heavily investing myself in the junior development space,” Thomas said.

“I feel like I can step away from the senior coaching role at Cavendish knowing that it is going to be in good hands, as Sam Gibson is a fantastic leader who will put his own brand to it.

“I love the Cavendish Football Club and I’m just going to be a Dad and coach a bit of junior footy and spend some time with the Kids.”

Cavendish defender, Will Luhrs, was a popular choice when he was named best on ground, finishing with at least 15 defensive marks.

Luhrs was quick to deflect the attention away from himself to his teammates after the game.

“It was good to see the boys get up in a good team effort,” Luhrs said

“All year we have been a really tight group that back six.

“Coming into today I was shocked with the final score, and it just goes to show how good we are as a team.

“The boys were able to rain here last Saturday but I wasn’t able to train that day, as I live in Melbourne, and it was good to have that time on the ground before the game.”

“I study in Melbourne and to be honest I haven’t thought about next year yet.”

Cavendish looked to Luhrs, Gibson, Thomas, Jonathon Coghlan, Timothy Huf and Peter Coghlan as its best afield while Dartmoor had supreme efforts from Jarrod O’Brien, William Watson, Mark Cowland, Jayden Polaski, Lachlan Polaski and Alex O’Connell.