Myrtleford co-captain Matt Dussin produced one of September's great last quarters as the club snapped a 13-year winless streak in finals against Wodonga Raiders on Sunday.
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Raiders came from 22 points down at three-quarter time to fall 10.11 (71) to 9.14 (68) in a pulsating elimination final at Albury Sportsground.
A bumper crowd of 2369 was enthralled as both teams had players step up, including Myrtleford's Riley O'Shea with three telling marks, but Dussin was inspirational, getting to contest after contest.
"Talk about people that love the club, he carried basically the community across the line, you wouldn't expect anything else from the captain of the club, he's a superstar," Myrtleford coach Jake Sharp said in a packed Saints' shed.
Raiders will rue missed opportunities, posting two more scoring shots.
The slight outsiders hadn't kicked a goal since the 11-minute mark of the second term and landed eight straight behinds before Ethan Boxall snapped the drought in the first minute of the final term.
But when Elijah Wales stole the ball in the middle of the ground, it allowed Brody Riccardi an open goal to restore the 22-point break.
It was Myrtleford's last goal.
Raiders' Jarrod Ardern roved the pack to cut the margin to 16 and Boxall ran into an open goal with 16 minutes left.
Ardern snapped a point to cut the deficit to nine, but Myrtleford's Jarryd Wallace regained the double-figure lead.
With just over nine minutes left, Dylan Clarke 'foxed' the umpire to receive a 50m free kick to make it four points.
With seven minutes left, Johann Jarratt kicked a point. It was the last score.
Raiders dominated territory, but couldn't breach the defence.
Then with 2mins and 18 secs left, Connor Newnham marked around 45m out on a 45 degree angle.
He kicked the ball out on the full as the Saints clung on to claim their first finals win since 2006.