The final few moments were testament to that.

Holding onto a six-point lead and pinned on their line, they just kept repelling Pirates’ advances.

“The last two weeks we’ve done a lot of work on our defence,” co-coach Tom Cullen said.

“The way the whole line defensively worked won us the game.”

It was one of the things they learnt from last year’s grand final loss to Moree, and focused on.

Another was the set pieces, and it was, fellow coach Hunter Harley felt, one of the biggest differences this year.

“Moree taught us a lesson last year in the set piece,” he said.

They knew they had to be strong there.

There hasn’t been anything between them and Pirates this season, with only two points separating them in three of their previous four games.

The most recent of those was the major semi-final.

Saturday was almost the opposite of then, with the Blue Boars grabbing the early momentum.

Their intensity was evident from the kick-off when they swarmed on Pirates five-eighth Andrew Moodie.

A few minutes later, second- rower Henry Curtin burst  down the left touchline to put the home side up 5-nil.

It was just the start they were after.

“We spoke about it all week,” Harley said.

“Pirates have traditionally been the best starters in Central North all year.”

They haven’t often not been the first to score, and they thought if they could at least be with them after 20 it would make them uncomfortable.

They were better than with them, dominating the first 20 minutes to to be up 18-3 with 16 minutes to go.

But Pirates chipped away and got back to 18-11 at the break.

They carried that momentum into the second half and closed to within four points a few minutes in.

But the Blue Boars rallied and spent the next five minutes  on Pirates’ line.

Just as the Narrabri would  do in those final minutes though, Pirates’ defence held firm and eventually forced a turnover, with Brenton Cochrane knocking on in the process of putting the ball down.

It was a golden opportunity for the Blue Boars to get a bit of breathing room but they got another a few minutes later with five-eighth Henri Knight showing great vision and delivering a great cut out pass to unleash Michael Cain.

Their comfort didn’t last long though, with Pirates centre Greg White twisting his way over to make it a six-point game with just over seven minutes to go and setting up a thrilling finish.

Pirates thought they might have snuck over in that final stand but will reflect back on the start as where they lost it.

“We didn’t start well and our error rate was too high,” co-coach Andrew Verrell said.

“We made too many 

mistakes.”

They had to defend too much in the first half but he felt towards the end of the half they were getting a roll-on.

“The way we’ve been playing we have one good half in us,” Verrell said.

That was going to be the second half.

“I thought we were going to get them,” he said.

The way they can create opportunities from nothing they were always a chance, and he thought if they hung onto the ball the opportunities would come.