Tamworth captain Rory Marshman understandably couldn't wipe the smile off his face as he accepted the New England second grade premiership from Tamworth mayor Col Murray at Scully Park on Saturday.
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His side had just produced a grand final boilover to claim the silverware for the first time, upsetting the previously unbeaten Harbour Knights 28-19.
In a script similar to the preliminary final against Walcha the previous week, the Magpies fought back from a half-time deficit to get the win.
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Trailing 14-3 at the break on Saturday they got back into it with some nice interplay between half-back Charlie Kensey and five-eighth Liam Allan. Allan's second penalty then saw them close within a point.
The Knights hit back a few minutes later to kick away again, but with the wind behind them in the second half Tamworth were able to find some good territory and with just under 20 minutes to play, Allan found Jacob Williams with a great long ball and the winger dived over for what was his first try of the season.
Allan nailed the extras to cut the Knights' lead back to one again.
One of the Magpies' strengths is the speed in their backs and with the game in the balance, Sam Buster burned the Knights defence outwide to put them ahead 23-19 with seven minutes remaining.
The Knights had a chance to strike back but a timely intercept from 'super sub' Ben Coombes foiled their raid.
Backing up from third grade, Coombes didn't quite have the legs to go the distance but importantly got the Magpies into their half, and a couple of minutes later Williams crossed for his second, the raptures with which the man they call Kiwi was greeted by his team-mates indicating they knew what it meant. It pushed them beyond a try with just two minutes on the clock.
The best moment he has experienced in the black and white, Marshman was post-match feeling a mix of surprise, elation and relief.
"We said in our warm-up, today is when we peak, and luckily we did," he said.
Huge underdogs going in with the Knights having beaten them by 20+ points in both their previous meetings, he said they knew they had to do two things to give themselves a chance. They had to be disciplined and they had to be composed.
"There was definitely glimpses of the Knights rattling us and getting under our skin and us falling away and losing our composure but we held it long enough and were consistent enough for the 70 minutes," he said.
The heavy defeats also gave them that extra spur. They knew they "had to work" and "had to go out and earn it".
Marshman said at half-time they just reiterated the 'discipline' and 'composure' message.
While the Knights were in front, it wasn't an "insurmountable lead" and they had the wind advantage.
It was a matter of being composed and building the pressure; "letting it come rather than try and score every time we had it".
"We knew that we had to stick to our structure, we had to work the pods through the phases before we could then go wide," he said.
"We knew that if we did that we could get it wide and use our wingers and get around the edges and that's where we managed to get some points."
The first grand final he has played in with the Magpies, making the victory all the more special was the fact that he got to share it with his younger brother James.
Unfortunately James wasn't able to see out the game, the back injury that kept him out of the preliminary final causing him issues, but it was still a moment to savour for the siblings.
