THERE was huge smile and a thumbs up from Oberon coach Dallas Booth on Saturday afternoon, but there was also plenty of relief after he guided the Tigers to their first senior men's premiership in 17 years.
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The Tigers bettered a brave CSU Mungoes side 23-10 in the Mid West League Cup decider at Carrington Park - a moment every Oberon player relished given they'd never before worn a senior premiership medal around their necks and a black and gold jumper at the same time.
"Look it's amazing, it's been 17 years since we won one and no-one who played for us on Saturday has actually won one for Oberon," Booth said.
"A couple of blokes have won senior grand finals for other clubs, but everyone on the field, that was the first senior grand final they'd won for Oberon.
"Dropping back from Group 10 there was always going to be that added pressure, when you come from a more prestigious comp back down into a second division comp there was always going to be pressure on us.
"So while I was happy, it was more of a relief than anything. I said to a couple of the guys, it was like a pimple that you've had for 18 years and you finally got to pop it."
CSU was the first side through to the grand final and keen to make it back-to-back men's Mid West premierships for the first time in the history of the Mungoes, but it was Oberon who enjoyed the better start.
Hooker Caylib Marston, five-eighth Blake Fitzpatrick and centre Jacob Howes - who finished as the cup's leading try scorer - all crossed in the first half to help the Tigers out to a 16-6 lead.
The Mungoes pilled on the pressure in the third quarter as they tried to reduce that deficit, but the Tigers' defence held.
"We did absorbed a lot of pressure for the first 15 minutes of the second half, but then we scored a try. Caylib Marston jumped out from dummy half, threw a dummy, ran through a gap, ran 50 and scored, that made it 22-6," Booth said.
"CSU kept coming to make it 22-10 with a couple of minutes to go but then Josh Rivett slotted a field goal. It was not the best field goal attempt I've seen, it came off the side of the foot and wobbled around, it was an ugly one point.
"It was a good game, full credit to CSU they kept coming. We got the lucky bounce of the ball and that's why we won and we'll take it, but they can hold their heads up high because it was a great game.
"CSU, they pressed our line hard, it was a mixture of really good defence and a bit of luck that we managed to hang on."
Rivett was named man of the match for his performance at fullback while his seven points also saw him end up as the leading points scorer for the 2020 competition.
Booth also praised the efforts of Marston, Fitzpatrick, second rower Dave Sellers and Dan Rogers.
"It was 18 seasons of competitive footy and it was both the first grand final I've won and the first time I've ever been sin-binned - it was a late shot in the second quarter," he said. "It was just a great game of footy."
