The Dragons’ players thought they were fit. That was until Wayne Primmer took over as coach.

Primmer put the Dragons through a pre-season training schedule some players described as “torturous”.

“It was bloody hard,’’ Sandhurst star Lee Coghlan said.

“The running was that hard that by the end of the session you could hardly walk or talk.

“it was good because it made us realise that if we wanted to be better as a team we needed to improve ourselves individually.

“It gave us some resilience and that helped us throughout the year. You only have to look at the second half today.”

The Dragons went into half-time of the grand final trailing Golden Square by five points.

Their hard running and fitness was decisive in the second half as they kicked four goals to none into the wind in the third term to set up their 32-point win.

“I’m a firm believer that you need to get the miles in your legs early, so that as the season goes on you get the benefits,’’ Primmer said.

“I’ll stick by it until someone proves me wrong…it helped us today.”

Sandhurst skipper Blair Holmes said the pre-season training was of similar standard to what he undertook at VFL level with the Bendigo Bombers.

“It was a huge pre-season… I think it took a few boys by surprise,’’ Holmes said.

“I remember being tired all the time.

“Even when we had the week off after the second semi-final win, he (Primmer) put us through a really tough session on the Thursday night.

“I think we probably racked up about nine kilometres on the track that night.”

Coghlan said a belief in their fitness and Primmer’s calmness at half-time was critical in the grand final win.

 “It was a funny feeling at half-time. There was no panic,’’ Coghlan said.

“Everyone looked at each other and we knew we had the belief that we could win.”

Coghlan helped spark the Dragons with a dominant first 10 minutes of the third quarter.

“I didn’t get much of the footy in the first half, so I needed to do something,’’ the 2009 Michelsen Medal winner said.