One point. When it got down to the pointy end of the Blowes Clothing Cup Colts grand final, that's all which could split Orange Emus and Orange City.
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Emus ran out 26-25 winners after an on-the-buzzer conversion from Alex Brien put the side one point up following a line-breaking Josh Dominello try with only a minute to go.
The two sides had been neck-and-neck all game, mirroring a season where the Emus colts had registered a draw and a one-point win over the Lions, and on Saturday at Wade Park they still couldn't be split.
Alex Watts burrowed over for Emus in the second minute of the game and Brien converted, but City hit back 15 minutes later to level the scores.
Patty Hickman gave Emus back the lead before Brien nailed a sideline conversion to put the side up before Noa Fraser split the Emus defence to score on the stroke of half time.
The Emus came out of the break fired up, with Cody Kelso nabbing an impressive intercept and run before goose-stepping around defenders to score.
But City rebounded. Addison Williams forced his way through and after a brilliant Aden Fraser run resulted in a scrum in the left corner, Kaden Wiliams pounced on the loose ball and dove over to put Orange City up, with the score 25-19.
With one last attacking push, Dominello burst through the pack, Brien converted on the buzzer and Emus were one-point winners, leaving Emus skipper Lewis Dunshea "over the moon".
"You couldn't have asked for a better game of footy. Boys from City put out a hard yard and so did we and we just came out on top," he said.
"It means a lot, a lot of us boys came across from Kinross and we had our season cut short for school so to be able to come down to Emus and take part in a premiership is really good for us."
He said the side's grit in an at-times fiery encounter had put them over the line.
"Always with a derby game you're gonna have a good healthy and when you've got two good teams from the the same town you're gonna have a strong rivalry."
Lions coach Ben Watson said his side was shattered following the loss.
"It always hurts to lose a grand final," he said.
"I think we were a bit slow to start the game and a couple of costly turnovers in the second half.
"Once we switched on and got into a grind and our defence lifted it lifted the whole team and once we started cycling the quick ball we made opportunities for ourselves."
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