The Augathella Meat Ants broke their 25-year premiership drought on Saturday after defeating the Charleville Comets 24-16 in the Western Rugby League grand final.
For the first time in the League’s history, Brassington Park, Augathella played host to this year’s decider with the Meat Ants tasked to conquer the back-to-back defending premiers.
The crowd started building from 10.30am with juniors from the Quilpie Magpies, Cunnamulla Rams, Charleville Comets and the local Meat Ants playing Under 6 - Under 12 mini/mod games as a curtain-raiser. By kick off, a huge crowd had gathered for the big dance.
Both teams came out of the sheds confident and ready to take home the Wallal Cup and be crowned this year’s Western Rugby League premiers.
Defence is not usually a highlight in this competition, but both teams showed what the game meant to them with the first points not being scored until the 30th minute.
It was the Comets who recorded them, scoring a try next to the posts with the conversion giving them a slim 6-0 lead at halftime.
Both teams came out in the second half knowing they could win the game.
The Meat Ants came out the stronger side however, scoring three converted tries to lead 18-6 after 12 minutes.
Both teams played their hearts out with the Meat Ants running out deserving winners on the day, achieving a fulltime result of 24-16.
As expected, there were some amazing tries scored and some of the best defence was on show, especially in the first half.
The voting for the player of the final was unanimous with the honour awarded to Augathella lock Cody Steedman.
In a bittersweet moment for the Comets, Shannon Mitchell was named the Western Rugby League Player of the Year.
It was a great day of rugby league to finish off this year’s season for both the juniors and seniors.
It has been a good year for the Western Rugby League with many changes made to the Executive, who have all gone above and beyond to achieve great success this season.
One of the great success stories is the return of the Cunnamulla Rams after a four-year hiatus.
In more positive news for the League, the Quilpie Magpies are hopeful of returning next season after being unable to field a team for this year’s bumper season.
AUGATHELLA MEAT ANTS 24 (Cody Steedman, Ben Carmichael, Tom Dawson, Joseph Eising tries; Joseph Eising 3, Jay Steedman goals) defeated CHARLEVILLE COMETS 16 (Samuel Barrow, Joel Everitt, Jake Wade tries; Shannon Mitchel, Nicholas Russell goals)
