And the script couldn't have been written any better as after years of heart-break and near misses the Frogs were crowned state open men's champions for the first time in front of a parochial home crowd on Monday.

Like every good script there was some late drama with Illawarra South Coast awarded a penalty corner after the bell that if successful would have locked the scores up at 3-all and sent the game into a shoot out.

They had already had struck twice from corners.

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But ever 'Mr Reliable', Riddell got a touch on the flick and Calvin Farmilo "knocked it away" to send a sigh of relief around the Tamworth Hockey Complex and spark emotional scenes out on the pitch: the drought had finally been broken.

Post-match Riddell conceded he didn't know that time was up.

"I didn't actually realise it was full time until I got in the box and looked up and I saw the whole [Illawarra South Coast] team (around the circle), and I was like man this is full-time they could push us into the penalties here and who knows what could happen," he said.

One of Frogs' stalwarts, he spoke about how special it was to not only finally claim that elusive silverware but to do it the first time Tamworth has hosted the championships in 37 years.

Riddell said all weekend they could feel the crowd support.

"When we finished the game we came over and saw the crowd. We could hear them singing as we finished the game.

"It was really special," he said.

It was far from new territory for the Frogs - making the final. Riddell had played in three, before yesterday, in his time involved with the Frogs.

Even back to the 1980's when the likes of coach for the weekend Richard Willis was running around.

After Ehren Hazell had put on a masterclass in their semi-final, scoring all four goals in their 4-2 win over Metro South West, Matt Willis was the man with the golden stick in the final, the former Kookaburra potent from the top of the circle with his drag flicks.

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The Frogs had the better of the play and the territory for much of the game but just couldn't shake the defending champions off.

After a scoreless first quarter, Willis put them ahead five minutes into the second. But Illawarra South Coast hit back in the final minute to level the scores at half-time.

Willis put the Frogs back in front two minutes into the third quarter, his third then giving them a two-goal buffer at the final break.

Illawarra South Coast cut that back to one early in the final quarter while Tamworth were down to 10, Riddell then, sweeping in cover, denying them what could have been an equaliser as the crowd buckled in for a tense final 10 minutes.

"We went into it knowing that those guys would be very fatigued (they only had the bare 11) so we wanted to control the game and knock it around," Riddell said.

"We knew that okay we're not going to win it in the first quarter, or the first half, it's going to go to the dying minutes, as it did.

"But we actually thought we would have ground them down a little bit maybe sooner and got a couple of other goals."

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"But I think when we got our yellow card for five minutes that really pepped them up and they came at us and they got that goal and everybody was on eggshells.

"But it was good. We were able to compose and keep a bit of attacking possession in the last few minutes and we got there in the end."

Local sides featured in all three finals with the Tamworth 2s going down to Bathurst 3-1 to finish runners-up in Division 3 and New England likewise in Division 2 after losing in a shoot-out to Sydney South.

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