Instead, Lachie Allman - his flowing mullet as red as his boots - drove a last-minute try across the line to give the Bathurst Bulldogs their second premiership of Saturday's deciders.

The Bulldogs came away 15-8 victors, with Allman's try in the final minutes sealing the deal after a hard slog.

The Roos had three tries disallowed in the back end of the second half and kept turning the ball over with penalties, with their few other thrusts forward cut off by a stellar Bulldogs defence.

Even with a man down the Bulldogs resisted on their defensive try line for five minutes before attacking at the other end for the same period of time.

The side hammered the left edge, but swung it wide to Allman and the rest - as they say - was history.

Bulldogs skipper Tom Fitzsimons said the win "feels real good".

"Especially with a man down we thought they were going to go over but all the boys lifted and we go it done," he said.

"The intensity and everyone lifted for each other and really didn't want to lose."

He said watching Allman go over the line on the right edge with minutes on the clock was a "feeling of joy".

"We knew we didn't have much time left so it all went pretty well," Fitzsimons said.

"It's a good feeling, happened last year but for a lot of the boys who've come from school who've never played in a grand final before it's good for them."

Dubbo skipper Josh Laurie said he was disappointed to have gone down.

"I expected us to win and we put ourselves in the right spots to do it," Laurie said.

"It was a tough game as you'd expect it to be tough but the discipline let us down. We shot ourselves in the foot all the time.

"They only got field position on the back of our mistakes or penalties and three disallowed tries didn't help."

BATHURST BULLDOGS: Lachie Allman, Owen Hollihan tries, Owen Hollihan 1 penalty, DUBBO ROOS Josh Laurie try, Nick Harvey 1 penalty