Despite the gravity of the situation for the Saints, they showed plenty of courage and didn’t give up.

While Simpson’s try gave Souths the advantage there was still time for Saints to pull it off and they gave it their best shot.

Left winger Ethan Smith raced down the left sideline and he would most certainly have scored and forced the game into extra time if not for a massive cover tackle from big Raiders centre Travis Giddings-Dennis.

Man of the match Simpson, finished with two tries and four goals as Souths made use of a second half wind advantage to come home the strong after the Saints had led 18-10 at half-time.

After the South Dubbo Raiders had lost four successive grand finals in under-11s, 12s and 13s, it was left to the Gerry Merritt coached under-14s to change the fortunes of the day.

Merritt said the game plan was to hang in there in the first half and work home with the breeze in the final 30 minutes. “We certainly weren’t out of it at half-time even though we were down by eight,” he said.

“The wind was going to help us and we wanted to play the game down their end and let them do all the work, and hopefully make some mistakes that we could feed off.

“It worked out well for us and we got through, so great work from all the players.”

The first half was highlighted by five great tries - three from the Saints and each from their own side of half way.

They came from halfback Steve Cole, prop Jake Hall and Cole again but it was Hall’s 60-metre effort that thrilled the crowd.

The nephew of former Dubbo Westside and Australian prop Les Davidson, Jake Hall is obviously a player of enormous talent and his development will be watched with interest.

Down the other end Souths made their presence felt with a nice show and sprint by Darryl Simpson and another try to Jayden Merritt.

Saints’ coach Neil Millgate said his side had enough chances to win.

“Unfortunately our best half was in the first 30 minutes. We built up a lead and scored first in the second half to be in front 24-10 but then shut up shop,”he said. “We had chances but didn’t take them.

“But this game was more about the quality of the football and I think these two sides provided that.”

As one of the Saints people was heard to say: “You’ve got to learn to lose before you win.”

South Dubbo Raiders 28 (Darryl Simpson 2, Jayden Merritt 2, Hayden Sambrook tries; Simpson 4 goals) def St John’s 24 (Steve Cole 2, Jake Hall 2 tries; Jake Scott 4 goals).