The Lions could have been forgiven for being a bit rusty after two weekends off but they were anything but in the first half, racing to a 22-nil lead in the space of 20 minutes as Matt Nean ran the match from halfback.

The Bears were the rusty ones, dropping plenty of ball and giving  penalty after penalty as the Lions kept punching holes in their defence.

Winger Josh Moncaster opened the home team’s account after just two minutes in the left corner, before a penalty and a Nean 40-20 had the Lions right back down there for Ben Jarvis to cross.

Shortly after, a Bears’ penalty kick was tapped back in by Moncaster with skipper Phil Beaton getting a head of steam up to hit the line, before appearing at dummy half two tackles later to scramble over and reach out for a captain’s try and a 16-nil lead in the 12th minute.

Five minutes later Chris  Vidler took an inside ball from Nean to brush aside the defence and score under the post for a 22-point lead.

Norths had only had the ball a handful of times and had only reached the kick once or twice as errors were killing captain-coach Zac Russ.

“I think we only had the ball four times in the half,” Russ said.

“And we kept losing it when we did.” 

With ten minutes to go, the Bears got on the board through Kieran Fisher, who finished a move that he started with a searching run through the middle as the half ended at 22-4 with the Lions well on top.

The Bears started the second half with a dropped ball in the first set and than the Lions were awarded a penalty 20 out to the right of the post which Nean kicked to make it 24-4.

But then the tide turned, and Norths ran in the next three tries to be right back in the mix.

The electric Dan Bolton cut the Lions defence apart a few times on the wing to pick up a try, while big centre Brad Marshall couldn’t be stopped one on one and scored another before Richard Clegg came to the fore with his first of a double.

Sean Nean hit back for the Lions but the Bears were fighting hard on a day where the bounce wasn’t in their favour.

“We did well to stay in the contest,” Russ said.

At 28-18, Bears second- rower James Cooper was binned for ten and, while that could have spelt the end for the premiers, the Lions couldn’t cash in, North crossing to make it  28-24 with eight minutes to go.

Scott Blanch then set up the winner with a great break to set up Clegg’s second, which he converted himself from out wide to take the lead for the first time and win a second consecutive home grand final.

“We couldn’t have been more unconvincing but we stuck in there and did it,” Russ said.

“I don’t know how we did it but that home final means a lot.” 

The Bears weren’t so lucky in reserves, going down to Wee Waa 32-20, although they did win the other two  games.

The Bears juniors beat Gunnedah 28-20 while Emma Poetschka kicked a field goal deep into golden goal extra time for the Bears’ girls to beat the Diggers 5-4.