QUEANBEYAN Tigers' Rising Stars coach Peter Jensen said his under 18s boys put in an "admirable" effort after hitting the lead in the dying minutes to take their grand final against Ainslie by three goals at Gungahlin last Sunday.
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They took a 7.8.56 to 3.8.38 win at the Town Centre Oval, but did not hit the lead until six minutes into the fourth quarter, when NEAFL young gun Brandon Lagana booted a goal, which inspired a 3.0.18 to 0.2.2 last term runaway for the Tigers.
It was an evenly spread effort by Jensen's men too, with each goal coming from a different player, and mid-fielder Jarrod Thompson collecting the man-of-the-match honours.
Jensen said he was happy with the way his players kept their energy levels up at the end of the game, which he believed got them over the line.
"We just kept going. We got to three quarter time down by a kick, and we knew we just had to run over the top of them, and that's exactly what happened," he said.
"We stuck to our guns and played four good quarters."
Jensen said the first half of the match was very physical and close, but he conceded he did not change his game plan in the second half, but his men were able to execute their plays better.
He recently re-committed to his coaching for 2015, and said he now planned to prepare some of his players for the AFL Canberra first division competition.
"Jarrod Thompson stuck to his guns and was consistent all night, and did the job in the mid-field and up front too, which was why he was man-of-the-match, and he'll be considered for higher grades next year," Jensen said.
"Matt Grocott and Brandon Lagana will all probably go up. They're all good enough, so they should go and have a crack up there."