THE Manunda boys in the stands called it first. They piped up as one when spearheads Nick Gill and Matt Walsh kicked back-to-back goals to end the first term three goals ahead.
"The game's already over," they said.
And they were right.
North Cairns had earlier edged in front with their third goal early in the first quarter.
But they kicked just one more in the next hour of footy, as Cairns Saints amassed 20 of their own.
Saints eventually won 31.11 (197) to 6.12 (48), earning a week off before the AFL Cairns grand final in a fortnight.
It was the same pressurised, relentless display from Saints, and their accuracy in front of goal (73.8 per cent) just meant the margin was even greater than normal.
At half-time, they had kicked an amazing 18 goals to just four behinds and only some ferociousness from the Norths midfield could slow that down in the third term.
Gill, the Saints centre-half forward, booted 10 to bring his season tally to exactly 100 goals, an accomplishment from that position up the ground.
He was voted best on ground, while full forward Matt Walsh kicked eight to also poll some votes.
Jesse Dixon produced one of his best games of the season in the midfield, while Adam Couch was rock solid in defence.
Gill agreed that it was one of Saints' best efforts this year.
"I guess against a good opponent and in a finals game, it was," he said. "It's finals time, the intensity upped. You wake up in the morning, your cereal tastes different and the sun shines a bit brighter."
The heat was certainly not just symbolic though, with temperatures pushing 30C on Saturday afternoon.
Earlier, Manunda faced South Cairns and it was the Hawks, who handled it best.
Last year's premiers trounced Cutters, 21.13 (139) to 9.8 (62) to book a date in the preliminary final with Norths next weekend.
Mid-season recruit Tim Churchin was the star, bagging nine goals, while everyone was left to talk about the Phil Dreise hanger in the final quarter of the semi final.
The nimble half-forward used all the spring his legs had to get his entire body above his opponent and grab the mark on the 50m arc.
He then unselfishly handballed to a teammate, which resulted in another Manunda goal.
"We won't be able to shut him up for a week," Saints co-captain Luke Powell said.
"It was a pretty big grab though, probably up there with the best ones of the year."
The real damage had been done much earlier than that though.
Churchin had free rein of the forward line, while the skill, experience and precision kicking of Willie Alick, Lincoln Withers and Nathan Bradbury proved too much for the Cutters' side.
"In the last few weeks we've really started to get that good vibe back amongst the team and we're certainly in a better place than we were about a month ago," Powell said.
Last Modified on 24/10/2012 10:35