Monaro send coach Frank Cachia off in style with NPL men's first grade grand final upset over Canberra Croatia

In what was Monaro's first grand final appearance since 1999, the victory at Deakin on Saturday night was a fitting farewell to departing Panthers coach Frank Cachia.

The revered coach has been the mastermind behind the Panthers' impressive turnaround of late, and responsible for recruiting heavily to boost the club.

"It feels unbelievable," he said after the win.

"I'm going to have a glass of wine, take a break and think about what's next later.

"This was one of those performances where we knew we were up against it. We put up a team that was resilient and would fight to the end, and this team have done that in spades all season long.

"This is two years we've been working so hard for this, and we finally got there."

Cachia hailed the team's stoic defensive effort which was the best in the competition all season.

"We take a lot of pride in our defence," he said.

"We wanted it as bad as Canberra Croatia did and got the breaks at the right time."

The season decider lived up to the hype in the first half with a captivating 45 minutes of football that saw Canberra Croatia presented with the best shots to take an early lead.

The home side peppered the Monaro goal and were unlucky not to go ahead as Nikola Taneski, Matej Busek, Stephen Dominici and Daniel Barac all had golden chances.

The Panthers defence were up for the physical contest that Canberra brought however and with experienced goalkeeper Jordan Thurtell, they survived wave after wave of attack.

Monaro then capitalised on a rare lapse in the Croatia defence against the run of play.

Teenager Sebastian Woods showed great vision to spot Zac McLaren unmarked approaching the left corner of the box. He delivered a perfect cross-field kick, which McLaren collected, before cutting back inside to clear his defender and nail a thunderbolt into the net.

At half-time the stat sheet revealed 12 Croatia shots on goal to Monaro's five, with just four on target, leaving the men in red ruing missed opportunities.

In the second half the match opened up with Croatia and the Panthers coming out of the gates firing.

In the 56th minute Croatia finally got a breakthrough from the penalty spot through Dominici after a reckless studs-up tackle by Darren Bailey on Taneski inside the box.

Tensions boiled over at times between the two sides as both were searching for the winner.

Then Darren Bailey scored the messiest, but most important goal of his life.

From a set piece in the 84th minute, a free kick whipped into the area failed to be dispatched by the Croatia defence, and Bailey scrambled the ball into the net, kicking off wild celebrations at the Monaro supporters' end.

Despite frantic attempts to find a late equaliser, Canberra Croatia couldn't get through the Monaro defence, and after four and a half minutes of injury time expired, the Panthers had secured victory.

For the home fans at Deakin, it was a devastating end to an otherwise dominant season.

"It's very frustrating," Golden Boot winner Barac said post-match.

"The boys gave it everything, but Monaro to their credit battled well.

"We had a great season, we were the most consistent winning the minor premiership, and we'll just come back hungrier next year."

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