THEY started slowly, they lost their skipper and vice-captain to injury, but when the under 17 Bathurst Giants clicked into gear in Sunday's AFL Central West grand final they were just too good for the Orange Tigers.
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The Giants rallied on George Park 1 to come away with a 7-11-53 to 2-3-15 victory over the Orange Tigers as they finished their impressive season 2020 campaign as premiers.
The Brad Broes coached Giants lost just one game on their way to the grand final, while their attacking and defensive records were far superior to that of their rivals.
But when the Tigers walked off the field at quarter-time with a two-point lead, Broes was nervous.
"We were down by two points at the first quarter break then we seemed to click into gear and ended up coming out to lead by almost 30 points at half-time," he said.
"They were just a bit jittery to start I suppose. They copped a bit of a spray at quarter-time and everything worked from there.
"I was nervous, I had it in my head that that this was not how it was supposed to go, that's not how it's supposed to start."
By half-time the Giants looked in control as they held a 5-4-34 to 1-2-8 lead, but there were still nervous moments for the coach as injury forced two of his star players to join him on the sideline.
"We lost Zac Yandle, he has been our main man obviously through the middle all year, he had a crook knee, and then Liam Cooke hurt his ankle," Broes said.
"So we lost both our captain and our vice captain which kind of sucked. Zac came off for good during the second quarter and Liam came off in the third quarter, so we lost two of our main people in the space of two quarters.
"We had to nominate another on-field captain so we put the band on Rocco Yates and he ended up coming out with the best on ground. I played him through the middle through the entire game."
With Yates stepping up and the rest of the Giants all working hard to fill their roles, the hosts held a 27-point lead heading into the final quarter.
The Giants continued to impress in that last term as they held the Tigers scoreless and emerged 38-point victors. Tim Currie and Cooper Brien both finished with a pair of majors while Lachlan Macauley, Calvin Windus and Cooper Traves also kicked goals in the win.
"I am so proud of those bunch of guys, they had the top spot all year but we were playing the only team which had beaten us throughout the year," Broes said.
"They knew Orange would go into it ready to fire and they rose to that challenge. It was a great way to send out our graduates from junior footy, there are a lot of guys who are done with junior footy now."
