DUBBO CYMS under-18s coach Gerry 'Chicka' Merritt admits his side took him on a rollercoaster ride through the 2015 season but it finished on a high on Sunday when the Fishies were crowned Group 11 champions.
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Merritt joined CYMS this season after previously coaching Dubbo Macquarie, so there was little doubt he took great satisfaction from his side's 16-8 win over his former club in a match in which six unconverted tries were scored.
"They've only started to gel the last month or six weeks but they're a great bunch of kids and they've done a great job to win it all," Merritt said after the match.
"It's been a lot of hard work to get here but this result makes it special, especially given it was my first season with the club after they put their faith in me to do the job.
"We started pretty slowly but I got a message to the boys not to panic. I knew that if we could hang on to the ball and get on top through the forwards that we could get back into the game, and the boys did a great job."
For the opening 15 minutes of the match it appeared as though Dubbo Macquarie's run from fifth spot on the ladder was going to continue as they crossed through fullback Connor Mallison and centre Dean Walk to establish an 8-0 buffer.
But tries to Jaidyn Chapman and Jacob Scott in the five minutes prior to half-time ensured the scores were locked at 8-all at the break.
Five minutes into the second stanza CYMS hit the lead for the first time when Ben Wood crossed, and the result was sealed 10 minutes from the final siren when Jai Merritt snatched the ball from a Macquarie rival in the in-goal area and slammed down for a try.
Macquarie finished the match finished with just 12 men on the field after halfback Wade Kavanagh was sin-binned for a headbutt with less than a minute remaining on the clock.
"I thought we started well but fell away a bit," said Macquarie captain Phil Combridge, who was among his team's better players.
"We gave them too many piggybacks up the field with silly penalties, and in the end we weren't able to hold them out.
"But I am really proud of this bunch of boys for making it this far. We made it from fifth and it hurts because we'll have blokes leaving after this but to get this far shows the club has a pretty bright future."
CYMS prop and captain Ben Conroy, who was strong in defence and always attracted multiple defenders when he had the ball in his hands, was awarded the Dubbo RSL Memorial Club player of the match.
o DUBBO CYMS 16 (Ben Wood, Jaidyn Chapman, Jai Merritt, Jacob Scott tries) def DUBBO MACQUARIE 8 (Connor Mallison, Dean Walk tries)
