While Young had been well beaten in its previous two outings and the Rebels went into the match on the back of a 28-goal performance, with a quarter to play at Burrangong Oval just three points separated the pair.

Rebels booted five majors in the final term to Young’s one to ensure victory, but co-coach Steve Grundy said he was worried an upset was in the making.

“We were all a little bit nervous going into the final term, deep down I knew we had what it takes, but it was a matter of it we’d be able to do it. Thankfully we were able to step up,” he said.

“It was a case of complacency. We’d probably went over there slightly complacent, especially because Outlaws had quite a convincing result against them the previous week.

“But not taking anything away from Young, they turned up to play, they threw everything at us. They really pushed us.”

Grundy said that the game was a reminder he and co-coach Matt Griffin need to make sure their players do not take any results for granted.

“You can’t go into any game complacent. At the end of the year you only look at wins and losses, but as coaches we need to make sure it doesn’t happen again,” Grundy said.

“We beat Cowra by 150 points the previous week, but to be honest, you learn a lot more in a game like this than a one-sided one.”