Lee, a Nirranda forward, suited up for the clash alongside cousin Danny Craven, and made a beeline for the talented midfielder immediately after the final siren to soak up the victory.

Lee and Craven joined the club for the 2015 season and were in part inspired to join in honour of their late grandfather, who was the games record holder for the Great Ocean Road club.

The small forward said the club’s family atmosphere was a defining element of its culture.

“It’s pretty special to be able to do this with my cousin, who has played footy right through,” he told The Standard.

“We were born on the same day, so we’re basically like brothers from a different mother. It’s just awesome. To do it for the 40-year-old blokes and older ladies around the club who had tears in their eyes when we won other finals, let alone the grand final, is just special.

“It’s unbelievable, just out of this world. Everybody buys into the family.”

Lee was unable to leave his mark the scoreboard but provided air-tight defensive pressure, helping to lock the ball inside the Blues attacking half for long periods of the game.

Renowned for his work as a defensive forward, Lee was an integral figure in the Blues’ premiership run, booting 13 goals and amassing large numbers of tackles and pressure acts throughout the season.

Lee said the key to victory in the forward half of the ground was to “keep working” when the ball was locked in the midfield.

“The ball wasn’t coming in great, but that is just finals footy. There’s going to pressure, it’s going to be hard, that’s what you expect coming here. We love that,” he told The Standard.

“As a forward it was just keep going all day. I think we did as forwards. We took the opportunities that came our way and we had to do that.”

Craven, however, was named as the Blues’ fifth best among a host of the club’s promising young contingent.

“It’s just good to do it for our late pop too, he was the games record holder at Nirranda and that was one of the reasons we came to the club,” Craven said.

“We’ve had a really couple of months of footy and we knew we were ready for it heading into the game.

“We were quietly confident but it was a really tough game.”