After a closely fought season, the 2021/22 Hoggies Wines Barber Shield minor premiership was not decided until the twilight hours of the home and away season on Saturday afternoon when Penola snatched the prize away from West Gambier.

As the Roos failed to bowl out East Gambier at Malseed Park, the Eagles bowlers got the job done at McCorquindale Park to head into the finals at full flight with the ladder lead to boot.

The achievement was sealed by a clinical win over Mil Lel, the same side Penola will meet in this weekend’s semi-final.

After Jack Mullan’s 66 powered the blue and white to 181 on the opening day, the hosts were able to pile pressure onto the visitors in the race for a home semi-final.

Despite the early loss of both openers, Mil Lel’s trump card Will Rowland went to work.

Rowland looked to be busy, piercing gaps in the field scoring a succession of twos to look threatening.

But the Eagles were closing in stunned Mil Lel’s top order with a huge assault from Lachlan Jones.

Rowland, Daniel Justin and Josh Smith had no answers for the left-arm pace of Jones, who ripped through the trio and left the visitors on the ropes at 4/41.

Shannon Megaw and Darcy Williamson stemmed the loss of wickets briefly to keep Mil Lel’s fire burning.

But Penola kept on attacking in waves and managed to keep landing killer blows at key times.

The spin of George Kidman accounted for Megaw before Conrad Slabber deceived Williamson and Nick Walters for low scores to put the Eagles in the driver’s seat.

The constant pressure was so strong that by the time number 11 Brodie Glynn walked out to the middle, Mil Lel’s hopes were effectively squashed with 92 more runs to win.

One thing in the visiting sides favour was the presence of the captain Jack Miller at the crease.

Miller was the hero from the previous round’s run chase against West Gambier, but this time he played the support act as Glynn dreamt of replicating an Ashton Agar like performance with the bat.

The tail ender started with all the confidence in the world hitting a boundary and a maximum inside his first six balls at the crease to pump the total beyond 100.

However, his fun was limited to 22 after Josh Doyle found the outside edge of Miller to calmly seal a 67-run victory.

The home team’s attack hunted as a pack with Jones, George Kidman, Slabber and Doyle all taking multiple blows.

To celebrate the triumph Penola padded up again and run-machine Mullan continued his golden touch.

The hard-hitting right-hander blasted his way to 87 as the Eagles motored to 4/137 from just 31 overs to finish the game with a bang.

Penola captain Mark Smith returned to the side after missing the ninth round due to COVID-19 restrictions and was proud of the way the team lifted to snatch the minor premiership.

“I am very happy to get a good win heading into finals and finish on top of the ladder,” he said.

“Given the circumstances of the season it is a pretty good effort.

“Our bowling has been a big strength, so I was confident our bowlers would stick to their lines.

“Everyone just took their opportunity to create mistakes and tie the opposition down.”