A devastating 10-minute spell at the start of the second half delivered South Melbourne its eighth Dockerty Cup trophy last Sunday, in the cup final against Oakleigh Cannons at Lakeside Oval.

Souths netted three times to dash the Cannons’ hopes of capturing its first major piece of silverware.

The reigning premiers made two changes from the team that started in the FFA cup loss to Palm Beach Sharks at the Gold Coast midweek. In came Matthew Theodore and Leigh Minopoulos in place of David Stirton and Jake Barker-Daish.

A tense opening half produced few clear-cut chances to either side. However, Souths had keeper Nikola Roganovic to thank for keeping the Cannons from scoring the opening goal when he foiled Oakleigh’s Lambros Honos in a one-on-one after the Cannons’ playmaker found himself on the end of a pass over South’s back four.

Two minutes into the second half, an attack down South’s left flank by left back Brad Norton delivered the ball to striker Milos Lujic, via a Minopoulos backheel, who netted the final’s opening goal. Minutes later, Lujic doubled South’s lead and his personal tally, when he powered home an Epifano corner with a header.

As the evening rain set in, so did the Cannon’s woes, with South’s holding midfielder Iqi Jawadi taking advantage of a slip-up to gain possession and set up Minopoulos for the third goal. South were well on top of the Cannons by this stage, controlling possession and producing the clearer chances.

Milos Lujic’s brace earned him the Jimmy Mackay Medal for man of the match.

After the game, South Melbourne coach Chris Taylor commented: “Moments win games and I think that’s what happened tonight. The minute we got the first goal, we went on with it, moved the ball around and played some of the best football we’ve played all year. I thought once we scored the first goal, we dictated the terms and pretty much controlled the game after that … I thought our midfield really controlled the game well tonight … Matty Theodore made a big impact for us.”

Cannons coach Arthur Papas commented after the match: “When you go one-nil down, you need to be able to show a bit more resolve and we didn’t do that immediately in the end. We needed to stick together a bit longer, hold our heads up after going 1-0 down.We needed to be a bit more composed. They deserved to win based on the second half.”