The Eagles’ 13.7 (85) to 10.7 (67) win marked St Pats’ first loss of the season and booked in Evandale’s first decider appearance in six years.

On a perfect day for football, the Eagles kicked eight straight goals before registering a behind and outdid the Saints with intense tackle pressure and a play-on at all costs brand of footy. 

“I think we earned a bit of respect today,” Evandale coach James Storay said. 

“We had a few patches that we weren’t happy with, but overall it was a fantastic win from the boys.

“We don’t want any passengers going through and it was like last week; it wasn’t one or two blokes getting us up and about it was a collective unit which is exactly what I’m after after.”

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Storay led from the front, kicking a bag of five for the first time this season - including the first two of the final term after St Pats had trimmed the margin to less than two goals at the final change.

A midfield group led by Andrew Frame and Alex Langridge set the standard for physical aggression and attack on the footy, while Warwick Johnson, Jake Goodyer and Brady Wagner used their pace and smarts around the wings.

Tom Chugg showed an appetite for taking mark of the year contenders in the first term, and spent time in the middle and across half-back while collecting three goals. 

“Especially in that last quarter (Chugg) turned it on, Jacko Davey was fantastic as well and the veteran Phil Skinner was spot on – he’s only played nine games for us this year so he’s going well,” Storay said.

“(I’m most proud of) the belief among our group – as a collective we believe that we can do it, if we play that four quarters we can beat anyone.

“We’ve just got to keep a bit of a lid on it - we’re not there yet, we’ve still got a hard four quarters of footy to play.”

The Saints were always a few goals in arrears but looked threatening at times, especially when Jacob Knight and Mathew Williams goaled on the stroke of three-quarter time to hint at a comeback.

Knight’s pace and Lucas Crawford’s midfield grunt were responsible for many of St Pats’ forward thrusts, but a succession of undisciplined 50m penalties and a determined Evandale defence made victory a step too far.

St Pats coach Alex Russell said Evandale had been the better team on the day. 

“They definitely deserved to win, we gave ourselves too much of a gap to try and chase down,” Russell said.

“A lot of stuff we could have controlled we didn’t which was frustrating - whether it be free kicks behind play or 50s and not sticking to what’s got us all those wins during the year.

“As a group we’re bitterly disappointed but finishing on top has its luxury, we’ll get another go next week.

“We’re going to take the hard way about it but we want to respond.”

St Pats squared the ledger in the reserves semi-final as Maxwell Magann starred in a 16.12 (108) to  7.11 (53) defeat of Evandale. 

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