ONE try - that was all that denied Dubbo CYMS of what so easily could have been an undefeated run in the inaugural Western under 21s competition.
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On Thursday night the Paul Yeo-coached outfit threw everything at St Pat's in an intense hour-long battle at Pride Park.
They ran hard, tackled harder and kept coming up until the final whistle, but in the end it was the Saints who emerged 20-16 victors.
It was a tough loss to take for Yeo, who's side had posted four wins and a draw on their way to the grand final and boasted both the best attacking and defensive record of any of the six under 21s contenders.
He admitted it was just a lack of execution at some critical moments which cost his men.
"We just didn't take the opportunities that were there, but that's footy though, you've got to take them when they are there and we didn't do that," he said.
"The effort was pretty good, we were just a little bit wobbly in terms of direction and you can't afford to do that in grand finals.
"It was just was one of of those nights, there had to be a winner and we were just a couple of metres off the speed."
After scoring first in Thursday night's grand final, CYMS conceded the next 16 points of the match to the Saints.
But rather than that situation making CYMS players drop their heads, it spurred them on. In a sign of their quality the Dubbo outfit fought back to lock it up at 16-apiece.
While it was Pat's who then managed to score the match-winner, CYMS' effort could not be faulted. Yeo was proud of his entire squad, many of who had never played together before.
"It was a bit hard to gel obviously and as well as that, at the start 10 of them didn't know the other 10. So they've got new mates now and played in a grand final together," he said.
"It's been a good concept we love it and will be back again next year hopefully bigger and better as they say."
CYMS had highlights across the entire park in both the grand final and the games which had come before it, but Yeo nominated skipper Tom Stimpson and James Stanley as two of the best.
"Tom, he's been a good leader for the boys, he's got a sensible, thinking head on his shoulders and James just adds that extra bit of dynamic which helps us a lot," he said.
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