The Hawks set up the win by kicking the opening four goals of the match and, despite being challenged in the final quarter, held on to give Ryan Richardson a fairytale send-off as coach.

The win capped off an emotional week for Richardson who had to make the gut-wrenching decision to leave close friend Travis Knight out of the side after he was “85 to 90 per cent” with a quad injury on Thursday.

Richardson was proud of the way his players responded after being repeatedly challenged.

“I couldn’t ask for any more,” Richardson said.

“The boys have been fantastic all season.

“Mitta kept coming and we kept responding.

“I thought our running power and ability to link up was really good and we got the spread we needed to win.

“We have 26 or 27 blokes who could fit into this side and today was for all of them.”

While the win was full of heroes, none stood taller than the diminutive Jason Bartel who played a blinder.

The rover was at his electrifying best in the opening quarter as Kiewa-Sandy Creek slammed on four goals inside 16 minutes to grab a lead it never surrendered.

When Guy Telford kicked his second major, the Hawks led by 26 points and a blow-out was on the cards.

Mitta United pegged it back to 13 points at quarter-time before the floodgates opened again as the minor premier slammed on four goals to two in the second term to lead by 27 points at half-time.

One of them came from the boot of Jye Shields who bombed a goal from well outside 50 metres to set the huge crowd alight.

The margin increased to 32 points midway through the third term with the seriousness of the occasion not lost on coach Clinton Gilson who had sent Alex Beggs to defence and James Gray into the ruck.

While it’s debatable whether those moves worked or the Blues just lifted, the match started to turn.

Full-forward David Paton came alive on the back of the class of Jarrod and Tyson Gorupic and the phenomenal workrate of Nathan Reynoldson and a miraculous comeback looked a possibility when the deficit was cut to 10 points with five minutes remaining.

Young forward Aiden Adams kicked three goals for the term to underline his ability and Kiewa-Sandy Creek needed a goal to break the momentum.

Enter Cameron.

The VCFL medal winner swooped on a ball that was pushed forward and casually stepped around two opponents to kick the sealer with only seconds left on the clock.

Fittingly, it was Bartel was finished with the ball in his hands when the siren sounded as he had seen it on 35 occasions previously.

Richardson, who coached the Hawks to the premiership in 2011 from the elimination final, will hand over the top job to Callum and Trent Turner next season.

Bartel said the Hawks were rapt to send their coach out a winner.