One of the major days on the Outback calendar is the Roma and District grand final with the annual favourite held at Bassett Park, Roma last Sunday.
A bit of rain overnight settled the dust for the big day with the crowd again providing plenty of atmosphere.
It's common for each club to settle into their own 'territory' around the grounds with Wallumbilla / Surat Red Bulls and Roma Cities clubs providing the back half of a semi as their own private box.
A large crowd gathered early to witness the Under 16 game between Red Bulls and Cities.
Previous games between the two teams throughout the season have been close, with their last fixture game resulting in a draw.
This one was no different with the lead changing on numerous occasions until the last couple of minutes when Red Bulls scored an equaliser but unable to convert.
With time running out, it looked like the first game of the day was heading for extra time until a penalty was awarded to the Red Bulls about 35 metres out just as the fulltime hooter sounded.
The kick was lined up and with plenty of nerves, the penalty was converted by Dylan Ogden for a Red Bulls win after the siren.
It was a great game of footy to start the day.
The Under 18 game kicked off with Red Bulls the favourites as they had been undefeated throughout the year; whilst their opposition, Mitchell Magpies, fought their way through from fourth position to make the grand final.
The Magpies started strongly, but were overrun by the solid Red Bulls outfit.
The Reserve Grade final proved again to be one of the hardest and toughest games of the day with both Cities and Chinchilla throwing everything at each other.
Massive clashes in the tackles really got the crowd buzzing and at halftime, Cities held a slim 4-0 lead.
The game remained close throughout, with Cities scoring a couple of tries late in the game to seal their premiership.
The A Grade decider was between the top two teams all year, Chinchilla and the Red Bulls.
The match was a great exhibition of Outback Rugby League; if you blinked you missed something happening on the field.
The attack was spectacular, and both teams still believed the best way to get the opposition to the ground was to take them around the legs ... and it worked.
Both teams were determined to assert their dominance early but by halftime, you could not separate the teams even though the Bulldogs were slightly ahead.
The result was not really known until the last few minutes of the game with the Bulldogs continually edging ahead, but the Red Bulls did not give up.
It was a great game of footy and a credit to the Roma and District Rugby League.
Congratulations to the match officials on the day - it was a great exhibition on how to let the game flow in all games.
Roma and Districts Rugby League grand final results 2018
UNDER 16:
RED BULLS 24 (Cody Fechner 2, Ash Harth, Joe Zellers, Lucas Crawford tries; Dylan Ogden 2 goals) defeated CITIES 22 (Damon Qualischefski 2, Beau Cash, Blayze Blake tries; Kayden Stoples goal)
UNDER 18:
RED BULLS 63 (Jarrod Rogers 2, Billy Jackson 2, Isacc Bannerman 2, Jye Johnson 2, Maverick Fisher, Ben York, Connor Humphries, Cooper Dingle tries; Billy Jackson 3, Maverick Fisher, , Lachlan Waugh, Taner Rivers goals) defeated MITCHELL 6 (Ryan Lemon try; Ross Tilley goal)
RESERVE GRADE:
CITIES 18 (Jamie Cloherty, Mick Waites, Rhett Lewis, Jeremy Mills tries; Dean Kennedy goal) defeated CHINCHILLA 6 (Brendon Waters try; Matt Edwards goal)
A GRADE: CHINCHILLA 28 (Tom Dodd 2, Romanda Sarea, Craig Johnson, Chad Dentson tries; Romanada Sarea 4 goals) defeated RED BULLS 14 (Khan Ladbrock 2, Jack Krienke tries; Jack Rowbotham goal)
Players of the Year winners
UNDER 16: Ryan Kehl (Red Bulls)
UNDER 18: Harvey Wright (Red Bulls)
RESERVE GRADE: Rhett Lewis (Cities)
A GRADE: Jeff Gilbert (Chinchilla)
*Peter Rafter is the QRL Operations Manager for the Queensland Outback
