It was an atrocious day - think waterhogs wallowing on the banks of the Zambezi - with rain throughout, kickoff delayed until 3.20pm because of two extra-time games on the No 1 field and mud stretching from 22 to 22.
Players were indistinguishable within 10 minutes of kickoff and consequently the final didn't amount to much - hardly surprising given footing was treacherous and handling almost as bad.
None of which mattered to Perrott, who treasured his winner's medal in his mud-caked hands, reward for a stellar season that has Te Puke being talked up as the authors of a Baywide dynasty after going back-to-back.
"Today is right up there for me after missing out on the action last year," Perrott said.
"Last year standing on the sideline at Greerton I was thinking how much I would have loved to be out there with the boys.
"I was happy for them winning the club's first title but it was the spur for me to get in and give it another go.
"Last year we were underdogs but this year we came in as favourites, so to back up a title with another one I think shows the mark of a quality side."
Perrott and co are unheralded but ultra-effective, particularly in the wet against a big Rotoiti pack. First-year Te Puke coach Craig Jeffries rammed home the need to get up in opposition faces and his young pack heeded the message.
"Defence is something we've worked on, particularly in the second round, and we had to take that step forward and meet Rotoiti on the advantage line," Perrott said.
"Rotoiti took Tauranga [in the semifinal] on up front and won and they've got a strong pack, particularly in conditions like today. Piglet [Jeffries] told us it'd be won through the forwards, probably fairly obvious to everyone as the ground chopped up, and we knew as long as we played our game no one could live with us."
Te Puke did cross the tryline, once, but centre Ben Ward's effort late in the second half was thwarted by referee Dave Carston pinging them for a forward pass. It was one of Ward's final touches - he was sinbinned soon after by Carston for interfering with play with Rotoiti hot on attack.
Rotoiti finally found the missing piece to their puzzle with 10 minutes to go and camped in the Te Puke 22, forcing the top qualifiers to use all the tricks to keep them out.
Carston pinged them eight times, creating a lopsided 14-6 penalty count for the match, but there was no holes in Te Puke's defence at a time Rotoiti needed tries rather than kicks to bridge the nine-point gap.
Skipper Jesse Acton lamented the late call to arms, saying nerves at making their first final since the one-point loss in 2006 to Whakarewarewa might have played a part.
"We didn't pull our heads in and start taking the game to them until the second half, and it was too late then because we were forced to play catchup and it wasn't the conditions for that.
"That last 10-15 was how we should have played from the start. Te Puke were up for the situation and played the conditions well, with their experienced guys Rollo [Simon Rolleston], Cash [Nick McCashin] and Nutty [Jamie Nutbrown] all possessing good kicking games which pinned us back where we didn't want to be."
