After winning the minor premiership comfortably during the regular season, the Queanbeyan Whites Second Grade side added the major premiership trophy to their cabinet following a strong 37-8 victory over the Tuggeranong Vikings on Saturday.
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In contrast to the two teams’ most recent meeting in the preliminary final a fortnight ago, the grand final blew out and resulted in a one-sided result largely due to Queanbeyan’s preparation and discipline.
“We knew the Vikings were gonna prepare well for us,” Queanbeyan coach Sean Debenham said.
“We had to be careful and prepare well, and again look at how they played and where we could exploit some deficiencies in their game.
“To the credit of Jake [Gordon, Queanbeyan captain] and the boys on the field, they held to the game plan, they held to the confidence and the mental toughness that we built all season to execute that game plan well.”
The match started, as all matches between the Whites and the Vikings have done this season, with an arm wrestle for control.
At half time, the score was 10-3 in favour of Queanbeyan, and they continued to break down Tuggeranong’s resolve until their opponents crumbled completely at the end of the match, which allowed the Whites a flurry of tries.
Debenham was personally “pretty satisfied” with the result, and praised his side for their consistent improvement up to the end of the season.
“The boys saved it until the last game to do a perfect performance,” Debenham said.
“In terms of the result, [I’m] very satisfied, very thankful to the guys to achieve what they set out to achieve.”
The Whites did so in resounding fashion, having only lost one match all year.
That was in round 16, against the Canberra Royals, who were defeated in the preliminary final by Tuggeranong, courtesy of a last-minute try.
Despite his side’s relative domination throughout the year, Debenham was reluctant to take too much credit for what he said was the players’ success.
“They were a great bunch of guys, the formed a good bond with each other through previous years of football,” he said.
“The coaching, that has its element, but it’s up to the boys on the paddock, week in, week out, to execute what they need to do, so it’s largely a squad effort.
“We used something like 53 players in reserve grade throughout the season, so by no means was it a one to 15 victory. 53 players all contributed to the outcome, so it’s a testament to those guys.”
In the Colts division, Queanbeyan was unlucky to lose its grand final match, also against Tuggeranong.
