The scoreline read nil-all deep into the second half, but Waratahs finally made the most of their numerous chances with Tim Kelly finding his way onto the end of a cross in after the 70^th minute. 

Man of the match and livewire striker Craig Sudgen stepped up to the plate to put the result beyond doubt with less than 10 minutes to go after heading in a Ryan Sinclair free kick.  

Watatahs skipper Sinclair said his side “dominated” possession for most of the game, but couldn’t get the ball home for an elusive goal.

It wasn’t until well after the clock had ticked over an hour that Kelly opened the scoring accounts for the game.

Sinclair said he was starting to get worried about the hour mark, as despite all the control his side had, he could see the Tigers getting them on a rebound. 

“We had plenty of chances but the more the game went on the more likely we thought they might be able to get one against the run of play,” he said.

“I thought if we weren’t able to score they’d be able to get one.”

Sinclair lauded the games of Sudgen, defender Tim Kelly and midfielder Jack Sinclair, who was awarded the side’s “player’s player” award after the final whistle. 

“(Kelly) was winning the 50-50 tackles we needed him to… and Jack took control of the midfield,” he said.

“We also had a different setup up forward, with Suggo (Craig Sudgen) and Tim Kelly up front together for the first time this year, which was a luxury we could afford with some players back.” 

The Tigers were missing two of their biggest names in Dave Rogerson and Jono McCann for the final, with neither able to get up from injury for the clash.

However, that didn’t lessen the rivalry between the side, with Sinclair saying the game was as physical as any other game against the Tigers he’d played in. 

“It’s always really physical and we get stuck into each other a bit,” he said.

“When we went 2-0 up we didn’t shut up shop,” Sinclair said, cautious of how dangerous Millthorpe could be in a short span of time. 

Sinclair said it was nice for the side to win the flag together, especially after a hiccup towards the end of the regular season where the side lost three in a row, and won only one game between rounds 10 and 14. 

“We’re just good mates who love playing together,” he said.

“We’ve been able to keep the core of the side together for four or five years and added a few older guys along the way.”

The absence of Rogerson and McCann did hurt Millthorpe’s chances in the decider, but skipper Jacob Evans wasn’t using it as an excuse, especially as the former has been missing for most of the season. 

“Losing Jono (McCann) did make it more difficult as he’s one of the more creative players in our forward third, but that’s not to say we couldn’t have won it without him,” Evans said.

“It was a good, tough game… we didn’t quite get things going in attack.

“They had more possession so we’re happy to sit back and counterattack, that’s how games against (Waratahs) normally go, we just lacked in the final third and their defence held up.”

Evans said the performance of goalkeeper Matt Amies was exceptional, the shot-stopper pulling out some remarkable saves to keep the Tigers in the game. 

“Matty’s one of the strongest keepers in the competition,” Evans said, also citing Mitch Christie’s game in the midfield as positives for the Tigers. 

While the Tigers were disappointed to go down in the decider, Evans said on a whole the side had a very strong year, and would look at the positives in order to build to 2019. 

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