The Bulls’ fourth second grade premiership in five years, it was harder to achieve that it looked like it was going to be when Brennan Sinclair gave them a 22-6 lead early in the second half.

But Narrabri found a second wind, fullback Michael Cain scoring two tries in 10 minutes to make it a four-point game with five to play.

The Blue Boars were camped in the Bulls’ territory for a lot of that, and for the last two minutes had a man advantage after Bulls outside centre Sean Robson was sin-binned. But they couldn’t break the Bulls’ defence, a crunching tackle after the Blue Boars took a quick tap from a penalty forcing the ball loose and seeing the Bulls hold on 22-18.

Bulls co-coach Peter Copeman credited their defence with getting them home.

“Our defence was excellent that last seven or eight minutes,” he said.

It was pretty good all game with the Blue Boars “never really looking like scoring until late in the second half”. 

The Blue Boars dominated the opening 10 minutes, and courtesy of Cain kicked out to a 6-nil lead.

“I think we were a bit flat and we made mistakes that we spoke about we weren’t going to make,” Copeman said.

Eventually the Bulls got a bit of territory, and chancing their arm from a penalty bagged their first points through Jake Cutcliffe.

Looking dangerous when they spun the ball to the backs, winger Trevor Tighe put the Bulls in front 12 minutes later with an NRL-style finish in the corner. Breakaway Andrew Fuller extended their lead to 15-6 at the break with a last-minute try. 

“I thought we had the game (at half-time) but I knew we had to work hard,” Copeman said.

“I knew Narrabri would come back. But I didn’t think they’d come back that well.”

He felt the momentum shift with Cain’s first try.

“They got on a roll and they got confident,” Copeman said, conceding he wasn’t “confident at all” the Bulls were going to get there.

Fuller was named player of the grand final and hard to go past as the Bulls’ best. Jared Snook, Jackson Fernance and Tighe were also up there.