ALL the pieces of the 2009 premiership puzzle fell into place perfectly for Pakenham’s triumphant coach Michael ‘Jock’ Holland at the Toomuc Reserve on Saturday.

Doveton, the Lions grand-final opponent that had gone through the home-and-away season without tasting defeat, had suddenly become vulnerable.

There were doubts about the Doves’ fitness, pace, intensity and, most importantly, unity after their second semi-final thumping at the hands of the Lions.

The mental scars were fresh and Holland’s pre-match instructions to his players were simple - retain your focus on what you have to do to perform at your best.

Those instructions were carried out to the letter and, when the final siren sounded just after 5pm, the Lions celebrated an emphatic 58-point victory.

Relief was a dominant emotion among many inside the ecstatic Pakenham rooms afterwards, but Holland revealed that he had been very confident.

“We believed that no matter what they threw at us, we could beat them one on one. It was a plan that we put in place late in the season,” he said.

“I didn’t tell anyone, but today I was super confident.

“These boys have earned their success and I knew that if we played to 80 per cent of our ability we just couldn’t get beaten.”

Pakenham won the toss and kicked with a four-goal breeze, taking in an unchanged side from its second semi-final and leaving out classy midfielder John Atwell.

The Doves brought back experienced trio Brad Downe, Ricky Hayes and Aaron Henwood at the expense of Michael Laszczyk, Ryan Pearson and Trevor Davies.

Pakenham started with Glen Wouters and Dan O’Loughlin in the midfield and Jeremy Everett deep forward, while Doveton captain Justin Hill became a loose man in defence.

Within 10 minutes it was obvious that the Lions were on their game and running goals to Dom Paynter and Luke Walker had the alarm bells ringing in the Doveton coaches box.

The Doves couldn’t get clean possession at the stoppages and had it not been for Hill, the floodgates would have been open very early for the Lions.

Jake Matthews slotted two goals in quick succession and when Wouters kicked an opportunistic major after a free kick to Sean Gramc, the body language of the once seemingly invincible Doves said it all.

There were hands on hips and bewildered looks across the field.

Doveton’s big guns in Russell Gabriel, Ryan Hendy and Michael Henry were swung into the action, but the momentum was set and the Lions took a 37-point lead over their goalless opponents into the first huddle.

A typically brilliant, snapped goal to Hendy four minutes into the second term gave the Doves a glimmer of hope.

However, with spearhead Danny Casset clearly incapacitated by a groin injury and few other scoring options available, the Lions defence led by Jared Goldsack and Tom O’Loughlin ran the ball out of danger with far too much ease.

The Doves failed to make an impression on the scoreboard with the wind and trailed by 40 points at half-time, with the result a foregone conclusion excluding a major Doveton form reversal.

That did not occur.

Doveton swung the changes in the third term with Peter Greenstreet and Daniel Charles going forward, but nothing worked and the Lions retained their composure to open the lead up to 54 points and then shut down the game in the final term.

Charles booted two goals in the third term with Casset off the ground, but the opportunities were few and far between as the Lions continued to dominate the midfield with Dean Blake, Paynter and Ryan Cassidy getting better as the game wore on.

After 22 minutes without a goal being scored in the final term, emotions spilled over and there were several spot fires on the outer side of the ground resulting in Hendy and Aboujaber ending the game off the ground and on report, but it was really the last huff and puff of a side in its grand-final death throes.

Lion rover Jack O’Rourke put the icing on the cake with Pakenham’s 15th goal one minute before the final siren signalling the start of a week of celebrations at the Toomuc Reserve.

Holland said the key to the season had been the reaction of his players to the round-13 loss to Keysborough.

“I always thought that if we played to our ability we could win it. After the Keysborough (loss) we were always going to go one way or the other,” he said.

“We changed our game plan and we started playing one-on-one footy and backed our ability to win the contested football.

“It took us a month to learn to play that football because we hadn’t been playing it, but it paid off.”