Some may have thought the day would never come, but the North Sportsman’s Hoggies Wines Barber Shield dynasty is officially over after wooden-spooners South Gambier stunned the reigning champs at Marist Park on Saturday.

Not only is the Tigers’ dream of a four peat and an eighth straight Grand Final appearance gone, but they will also not even feature in the semis after being outplayed in all facets of the game by the Demons.

North entered the second day with a mountain to climb needing to compile the biggest score of the summer to stay alive and the writing was on the wall almost instantly.

After two tight overs to open proceedings, Robert Drenthen sent a huge message of intent by beating the usually unforgiving defence of Michael Johnston with the seventh ball of the day.

The spearhead of South’s stunning win over East Gambier in the previous round proceeding to knock over Kayne and Trent Badman cheaply.

His new-ball partner Jakob Opie also had a major say on proceedings bowling Elliott Fisher moments before taking a sharp catch in the cordon.

Bowling off a full run up for the first time in six weeks, South skipper Cam Jorgensen was also keen to make an impact and he worked over Mitch Lewis for a 12-ball duck.

After 26 deadly overs, the scoreboard was a sorry sight reading 5/44 with North’s dream quickly turning into a nightmare.

If the journey to a miracle was not hard enough for Tigers’ leadership duo Nick McInerney and Declan Kenny, their concentration was broken by the strange sight of a Golden Labrador having the time of its life on the Marist Park square briefly.

But the moment of puppy playtime unsettled the visitors more than the hosts, stopping South’s charge as the bowlers were hit off their lengths as McInerney and Kenny used every ounce of experience.

Determined not to allow his perfect captaincy record to go up in flames, McInerney played an inspiring innings which allowed the Tigers to dream and minus a close run out chance, looked flawless.

At the other end Kenny looked to shift up the gears by striking Steven Easterbrook for back-to-back fours, but the opening day centurion had the last laugh by performing the old “you miss, I hit” trick to end the 50-run stand.

McInerney – now batting with just a cap – took matters into his own hands and dominated a 34-run partnership with Justin McConnell which accelerated at better than a run-a-minute.

But once the North captain was outsmarted by Dan Loupos for a brilliant 74, the hosts knew their dream was over and were bowled in 67 overs after Nicholas Seager wrapped it up in style.

Drenthen was the pick of the bowlers with 3/31 in a well-rounded attack which shared the wickets around.
Demons’ captain Jorgensen was delighted to end a tough season on a high with back-to-back triumphs.

“To finish the year with two wins in a row against a pair of high-quality sides gives everyone a lot of confidence,” he said.

“After we got humiliated against West we thought we could either get flogged in the last two games or have a dip finishing with some positivity.

“Stephen made his 100 very convincingly and made it look easy, but thought he left a lot of runs out there after being dismissed.

“It was great to have someone else than Dan (Loupos) to stand up with the bat, but we knew North was going to stick around with the bat.

“At 5/50 we were well on top, but you could tell Nick McInerney was a man on a mission.

“He looked like he was going to take the game away from us, but Dan restricted his leg-side power and eventually made the captain get himself out.

“We have had around five Under 20 kids, so if we are really looking forward to next summer now.”