Beaufort barely gave Buninyong a sniff of victory as it charged to premiership glory for the first time since 1996 on Saturday afternoon.
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The Crows jumped the Bombers early and never handed over the lead on their way to a drought-breaking 38-point success.
Beaufort used the ball well going into attack and pressured hard all day, barely allowing the Bombers to build any sort of momentum.
The Crows opened up a 19-point advantage by quarter time and had extended it to 32 by half time.
Three goals to two in the third term had the margin out to 37 points and the match was all but over.
Buninyong kicked the first goal of the last quarter through Isaac Baker, but soon after Tom Stapleton steered through a brilliant shot from the pocket to snuff out any chance of a red and black comeback.
From there, the match petered out to finish 15.9 (99) to 9.7 (61) at the final siren.
A telling factor in the result was Beaufort’s ability to find targets and convert when going forward. On the other hand, Buninyong often blazed away and bombed long kicks into their forwards.
Small forward Jack Duke won the best on ground medal for his five-goal haul, but there were a large number of other standouts for the Crows.
Captain Michael Foster had a huge game in the middle alongside Daniel Venditti, Brendan Howard was awfully hard to pass in the heart of defence, Josh McDermott rucked well, Rupert Sangster was his lively self and Jacob Garvey and Adrian Beer had solid performances.
There were plenty of players down for the Bombers, but Ned Gilbert can hold his head high after a commanding effort in the middle.
Isaac Baker was the best of the forwards with three goals, Jack Romeril found plenty of ball and was dangerous off a wing and moving forward, Jacob Coxall tried hard, Liam Rigby rucked well, particularly in the first half, and Sam Russell was also named among the best.
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In the last quarter, there were some concerns for Levi Cox, who was left with concussion after a knock from teammate Tim Haase.
He was assessed by trainers on the ground before being helped from the field.
Earlier in the afternoon, a hamstring injury to Buninyong star Derick Micallef proved telling. He kicked an early goal and was looking dangerous in attack, but left the field in the opening term and failed to reappear.
Saturday’s defeat at Mars Stadium follows recent grand final losses in 2012, 2013 and 2016 for the Bombers, which have not won a Central Highlands Football League senior flag since 2002.
For the Crows, the success ends more than two decades of waiting for the league’s ultimate prize and helps ease the pain of last year’s grand final defeat at the hands of Hepburn.