THE script is perfect. The raging hot favourite found out in the semi-final, only to rebound in emphatic fashion to set up a mouth-watering grand final.

Sunshine had the unenviable task of facing a furious Spotswood in Saturday’s preliminary final, and was simply no match for the rampant Woodsmen.

A ruthless Spotswood, desperate to atone from the previous week’s surprise loss to Albion, smashed Sunshine by 103 points in an unforgiving display of physical, rapid-fire footy.

The scene was set early. Spotswood kicked three quick goals at the start of the first quarter and had the majority of the play. The ball stayed in Spotswood’s forward half for most of the quarter due to the Woodsmen’s intense pressure, with midfielders Mick Lewis, Chris O’Keefe and Will Langlands controlling the midfield, and Ray Jensen dominating the early ruck duels against Tom Millar.

On the rare occasion the ball did enter Sunshine’s forward 50, Spotswood found it all too easy to run it back out. Daniel Mangan had the wood on Sunshine’s power forward Patrick Wiggins, who battled valiantly against the odds - not just against his opponent, but against patchy and infrequent delivery.

The Kangaroos could not get any structure or flow going in their game. They were forced to kick hurriedly and blindly, often to Spotswood’s advantage.

The stronger Woodsmen, who by contrast, had plenty of time to set up their attacks, were winning most 50/50 contests.

Spotswood, who finished the game with 13 individual goalkickers, booted seven goals to none in the second quarter to set up a 66-point lead at halftime.

As much as Sunshine tried to put some respectability back on the scoreboard in the second half, the Woodsmen did not abate, they were keen to run the game out and send a strong message to Albion, a message to expect a different Spotswood this time.

“We took stock of the fact that we sort of came up last week expecting something to happen, and we didn’t really acknowledge that finals has started for us yet,” Spotswood coach Ben Kelly said. “It just took a real whack in the face which Albion did to us to make us realise that this is a contest.”

Sunshine’s more experienced players tried hard but where overwhelmed. Bringing their younger charges into the game was an uphill battle against Spotswood’s hardened bodies.

Wiggins made something of his limited opportunities, and provided one of the only highlights of his team’s game in the third quarter, when he brought the ball down in a marking contest against Mangan, scooped the ball up and snapped a goal around his body from the boundary.

But the game was dead by then. Spotswood had booked a grand final appearance, and had come away reasonably fresh due to Sunshine’s inability to put enough physical pressure on the Woodsmen.