NEW England kicked away in the final quarter to claim its first TAFL competition flag in eight years at Inverell on Saturday.
It was six seasons since the Nomads had even played in the grand final, but they knew if they could play their own game they could conquer Inverell .
They did and did, accounting for the Saints 15.11.101 to 11.9.75.
The Nomads led at every change but the Saints were never far away and at three-quarter time there was only a point in it.
But the Nomads came out and booted five goals in the final term to secure their fourth premiership with their running game proving
superior.
“That was always the game plan, to play our running game,” Nomads player-coach Tom Granleese said.
“We knew it would be pretty even for the first three quarters but we knew if we executed our running game we’d be able to blow the game open in the last quarter.
“That’s what happened.”
The Saints had the advantage of the breeze in the first quarter and controlled in the first five minutes of the contest.
However, the Nomads defence held firm and restricted them to just a solitary behind in that time.
They then kicked the first two goals of the game, and another late in the quarter for a five point lead at the first break.
The Saints again enjoyed the ascendancy early in the second quarter and put their noses in front for the first time at the 10th-minute mark.
But the Nomads kicked the last three goals of the half to take a 12 point lead into the main break.
With the wind behind them again in the third quarter the Saints kicked the first two to draw level before a settler from the Nomads separated another pair to the Saints.
Like they had the previous two quarters the Nomads scored the last points for a one point advantage, and then with a dominant display in the last quarter turned it into a 26 point win.
“Once we kicked the two goals at the start of the fourth quarter, Inverell looked pretty demoralised,” Granleese said.
“I knew if we kicked one more we’d be safe, but we ended up kicking three.”
Granleese felt they controlled the game pretty well and was only really worried a couple of times.
One of those was at the start of the third quarter. “They (Saints) were down by a couple at half-time and kicked three or four goals in a row, and starting kicking away,” he said.
“But to our boys credit they kept working away.”
It was a very different Nomads side to the one that fronted for the major semi-final.
Their attitude was fantastic and “everything worked perfectly”.
Dave Richards was a livewire up front with four goals with Weston Whitby kicking three and Shaun Cusack two.
Dave Graan was adjudged the player of the grand final and received the Graham Nuttall Medal.
Granleese said he provided a lot of their run for them, but he had plenty of support.
The Saints were left to ponder another grand final loss and a game where they really struggled to get a good feed into their forwards.
“In patches we played our brand of footy.
“The second quarter was a good quarter,” Saints coach Jason Gobbert said. “Then then Nomads came along and really stamped their authority on the game.
“They forced us into a lot of rushed stuff.” He said youth and fitness probably told in the end.
“They had a bit more run in them in the last quarter,” he said.
Michael Gould and Alex Walker both slotted three majors for them.
Gould tried hard all day but they couldn’t get him enough ball. Joe Kimmence up forward and then in the ruck, Sam Kimmence at the back and Tom Williams were also strong.