South Warrnambool claims first female football premiership in close win

Fast-forward 15 weeks to grand final night and the Roosters had conquered all before them to be crowned champions and premiers in a 2.4 (16) to 0.3 (3) victory over Horsham Demons.

Chris Meade's side, which lost to Hamilton Kangaroos in the 2018 decider, held off a spirited Demons outfit at Melville Oval, running away in the final term to complete a perfect season.

Co-captain Matilda Ryan, who led the team solo in the absence of Madison Heyden, said the early season numbers were "dodgy" but she was proud of her teammates.

Meade was also proud of his side, which delivered the first premiership to one of the pioneer female football clubs in south-west Victoria.

"I'm a little bit numb, it's a little bit surreal as we watched Horsham play last week and they looked brilliant," he said.

"With (Nekaela) Butler and (Lauren) Sykes back in they looked really good and I wasn't confident coming into the game and we had our work cut out for us but they stood up."

Meade said his team wasn't complacent coming in, despite not dropping a game for the whole season and with their lowest winning margin of 16 points coming in round one.

"The key message (to the girls) was we all start zero-zero and we really have to make an effort if we're to put it on the board," he said.

READ MORE:

"Any previous games didn't matter, grand finals are different as they can go either way just because we're going in undefeated doesn't mean they'll give us the grand final.

"(I told them) to just go hard at it and take it inch by inch and work it forward the best we can because sometimes grand finals aren't really attractive games but we managed to do that.

"It took us until the last quarter to get a little bit of a break on them as goals were hard to come by."

Scores were level at the first break before South kicked the first major in the second term. With momentum in the third the Demons could only manage three points.

It set the scene for a tense final term, which saw the Roosters hold firm to kick another goal to seal the win.

Stella Bridgewater, who before the game was named runner-up in the league best and fairest, secured the DUFFL best on ground honour while teammate Rosie Pickles secured the AFL Victoria medal.

The pair described the win and best on ground honours as "amazing".

Stawell Warrior Crystal Summers secured back-to-back DUFFL best and fairest awards after edging out Bridgewater by six votes.

Have you signed up to The Standard's daily newsletter and breaking news emails? You can register below and make sure you are up to date with everything that's happening in the south-west.