A grandstand finish in front of a big home crowd was the perfect way for the Greater Northern Tigers U16s side to take out the Country Championships final as Scully Park swelled to capacity for the AAMI City-Country clash.
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Coming in against a bigger Western Rams side, the Tiger cubs knew that defence was going to be the key to victory and, while they might have missed a few attacking opportunities in the first half, they made up for it with a huge effort to defend their line, going into halftime down 12-6.
After holding the Rams in the first half, the second half saw the Tigers on top but unable to penetrate an equally stiff defence until halfback Bailey Ellis put flying winger Luke Howes over in the right corner before Ellis slotted his second conversion from the left sideline to lock the game up again at 12-all with five minutes to go.
The Tigers then applied the blowtorch in defence again, causing a turnover on halfway that saw them attacking the line before the ball flew back to Jordy Allan on the last for a field goal attempt.
The pass went to ground but the Scone Thoroughbreds junior showed plenty of poise to run the ball and find flying Tingha fullback Steve McGrady out wide who touched down in the right corner on the bell for the Tigers to take the title 16-12.
The last-minute win came on the back of a similar victory over Bidgee in the semi-final last week at Dubbo, although coach Gary Jones was still blown away by the effort of his young charges as the Tigers made it three Country Championships in a row for Jones, who described the win in one word.
“Incredible,” Jones said.
“We knew if we could hang in there we could get them at the back end.
“The whole side defended so well and that was the difference.”
Skipper Max Altus was named man of the match after leading from the front and was justly rewarded with the 13 jersey in the NSW Country squad named after the match.
Allen and Ellis were also stand-outs, as was hulking centre Hayden Bourke in a team that all stood up on the day, despite some early nerves.
Western coach Jamie Szczerbanik was obviously disappointed with the loss but was impressed with the maturity shown from both sides in a tough final.
“The Northern Tigers are a good side and sometimes the footy gods aren’t in your corner,” Szczerbanik said.
“They stuck in defensively and we made too many errors and made too much work for ourselves.”
Five-eighth Matt Burton was one of the best on field along with lock Nathan Swain and centre Brock Naden.
It wasn’t a good day for Western who went on to be beaten in the U18s by the Bidgee Bulls 44-10 in the U18s final.
