DUNEDOO captain-coach Tom Yeo said before Saturday's Castlereagh League grand final defence would decide the winner. How right he was.
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The Swans' defence had stood strong all season and it was only fitting they won the title 32-12 on the back of it.
They led 20-0 at half-time but the telling period of the match was their ability to hold the Bears out on their line for three consecutive sets in the opening half.
Coonamble did hit back in the second half to make it 24-12 but Dunedoo scored twice at the end to win their first top grade premiership since 1967.
"It [defence] won the game," Yeo said.
"We went away from things at the start of the second half, we played silly footy, silly off-loads and it cost us.
"I started to get a bit worried there but I knew if we played our best footy we would win. At the stages we didn't play our best footy they found us out."
Spectators had barely enough time to get comfortable in their chairs when the first points were scored.
After Aaron West was taken off the field for treatment for a cut near his left eye as a result of the first tackle, followed by Daniel Smith losing the ball, the Swans swooped to score in the opening minute.
Chris Jones, the man who scored the try in golden point extra-time when the two teams met in the major semi-final a fortnight earlier, clutched onto the ball and raced to score in the scoreboard corner.
Kerrin O'Malley's attempt was waved away and Dunedoo led 4-0.
Errors and penalties played their part with both teams guilty, and the stop-start flow of the match meant the crowd was quiet rather than vocal.
It wasn't until a quarter of the game had gone when the scoreboard attendee was called into action again as Swans hooker Chris Walkom turned the ball inside to Ryan Marlin and the second-rower put the ball down. O'Malley's conversion made it 10-0.
Shortly after Chris Walkom scored a typical dummy half try and when Troy Rose scored the first of his hat-trick of tries Dunedoo had a 20-0 half-time lead.
Early in the second stanza a Mitch Squire kick ricocheted off a Coonamble player and into the arms of Rose who strolled to the line for a 24-0 lead.
Coonamble was able to score when halfback Smith crossed over from close range and Pickering's conversion made it 24-6.
But the game was halted again as another Coonamble player was taken from the field in the back of the ambulance. The Dunedoo ground announcer couldn't resist the moment as he played Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust" over the loud speakers.
But once the dust had settled, the Bears scored through Troy Evans.
At 24-12 it was game on and Coonamble had all the momentum.
But a knock-on changed everything.
From the scrum the ball was spiralled to Rose and the centre palmed some soft defence to race away for a 50-metre try.
A minute later, winger Tyson Searle scored in the corner to put Dunedoo up 32-12.
As Ben Bruce attempted his conversion, the full-time siren sounded and it was party time in Dunedoo.
"It means the world to me, the whole boys, the whole town, everybody who has played for Dunedoo. All the support we have had for the whole year, I've just been blown away," Yeo said.
"I never seen the town so happy, so excited. It is unreal for this town. I'm just happy to be a part of it."
o DUNEDOO SWANS 32 (Troy Rose 3, Tyson Searle, Chris Jones, Chris Walkom, Ryan Marlin tries; Kerrin O'Malley 2 goals) def COONAMBLE BEARS 12 (Daniel Smith, Troy Evans tries; Nathan Burtenshaw, Brad Pickering goals).