Coach Jason Wells’ encouraging words at half-time helped Goulburn Valley revert to the relentless tackling team of the opening term and it used handball to devastating effect.

The result was a comprehensive 30-point win for the visiting side.

‘‘The boys were great,’’ Wells said.

‘‘I was lucky to have a group of kids who just wanted to play footy. They all turned up to training both nights — I had 38 both nights.

‘‘It’s hard to cut 38 to 23 and that’s what I mentioned to them today, that there would be 15 blokes sitting at home knowing they were so close to playing.’’

There were some excellent Goulburn Valley contributors, but none more so than tough, strong-bodied Shepparton Swan Nick Calandro, who claimed the best-on-ground medal.

Alex Hyslop won the honour for Geelong.

Co-captain Calandro patrolled the middle with authority, while Jed Brain’s switch from defence into the centre in the third quarter was also telling.

Brain’s creativity and unerring accuracy were the catalyst for many Goulburn Valley forward thrusts and in the second half that meant, more often than not, Brody Webster was there to cash in.

‘‘I gave Brody a fair serve at half-time, because I know he can play and I’m a big fan of his, but he was probably just doing the things that came easy,’’ Wells said.

‘‘He’s played only two weeks of footy — he’s been out injured — and that’s why we put him deep. His efforts after half-time were great.’’

Brain and Webster combined in one slick play in the third term.

Brain delivered a fine pass to a fast-leading Webster, who marked despite close attention and made no mistake with his set shot.

Webster was a hive of activity after half-time, finishing with four majors, including one where he rag-dolled his opponent then gathered and dribbled the ball through.

The Benalla rising star also slotted the sealer in the final quarter after a well-timed jump to mark.

Other Goulburn Valley players who performed well were Kyabram’s Aaron Hayes, Benalla’s Tom Bennett, Echuca’s Matt Hay, Shepparton’s James Lloyd, who battled manfully in a foreign ruck role, and Mooroopna’s Dean Smith.

‘‘We knew height was going to be an issue, but we always hoped our ground-level ball would be great,’’ Wells said.

‘‘We had 21 tackles in the first quarter. I’ve been involved in footy for a long time and that’s a great effort. We had 10 for each quarter after that, so about 55 in the end.

‘‘I said if we hit 80 we would win easy and we hit 55, but after half-time we had a lot of ball in our hands, so we didn’t need to lay as many tackles.’’

There were two examples of inexperience in the third quarter, when ill-timed rotations gifted Geelong two scoring shots — the latter a goal one second before the three-quarter time siren.

Goulburn Valley overcame those mistakes to complete an exceptional display.