Playing at George Park 1, a strong opening term set up a 14-7-91 to 5-9-39 win for the Giants.

“The boys really deserved the result they got, they had to work really hard at it this year,” Giants under 14s coach Darryl Macauley said.

The Bathurst Giants finished the season as minor premiers to earn a direct path to the grand final, while the Bushrangers qualified thanks to an impressive preliminary final win over Orange Tigers.

The head-to-head record between the rivals during the regular season stood at one win apiece, Bushrangers the only side to have defeated Giants.

According to Macauley, losing to Bushrangers in the final round actually helped his players.

"I think that loss two weeks ago might have been what the boys needed. Probably a little bit of complacency had set in as they hadn’t been pushed throughout the season,” the coach said.

“The Bushrangers play an aggressive, hard at the ball type of game and I guess we were a bit timid. But that game gave us a heads up as to what to expect.

“The Bushrangers, they really stuck it to Orange last week and had really improved throughout the season. They deserved their spot in the grand final and we were expecting a good game.”

Giants got the first advantage on Sunday by winning the toss and electing to run with the breeze. It helped Macauley’s side to a 4-2-26 to 0-1-1 lead at quarter-time.

“That was probably our goal first and foremost, to try and get a bit of a start on them and send a message that we had come back bigger and better after losing last time,” Macauley said.

“We had two goals on the board before they could blink and getting a head start certainly helps in big games. I think it helped to ease their nerves a bit.”

By the long break the Giants had extended the advantage to lead 8-2-50 to 1-3-9 as the tactic of using the pace of their players on the wings rather than driving through the centre corridor worked well.

Though Bushrangers rallied in the final term to boot three majors, the Giants finished well to win by 52 points.

Giants’ Jacob Molkentin was named best on ground, while Ben Cant, Hugh Parsons plus Charlie and Nash Hutchings – who booted seven goals between them – impressed as well.

Matt Banks kicked a pair of majors for the Bushrangers while Michael Callen, Scott Brown and Lachlan Coyte also got on the scoresheet in the decider.

Meanwhile, the under 12 Bathurst Giants players pushed Cowra all the way in their respective grand final before going down 7-1-43 to 5-8-38.

Giants looked headed for victory with 30 seconds to go as they led by one point, but Cowra managed a late major to snatch the win.

Cooper Brien (three), Mac Hutching and Calvin Windus kicked the Giants’ goals.