That’s all there was in it as MJR Electrics snatched a remarkable after-the-siren win against The Casuals in the men’s Premier League grand final at Jubilee Park on Tuesday night. 

The defending champs looked on the ropes more than once in the season showpiece, and when the siren sounded with scores locked at 9-all, appeared to have done well to have it looking like extra time. 

But the ball landed in the hands of their star, Campbell Lovell, who was across the line and grounding it for a stunning 10-9 victory in, literally, the final moment. 

“That’s a great escape, isn’t it,” MJR captain Brocke Argus said. “They had us bamboozled at the start. They come out firing – young kids putting it together and we got caught napping by a young team showing the maturity of 28, 29-year-olds, knowing when to slow it down, when to attack.”

The Casuals, the first team into the decider when they beat MJR in the semi-final, came to play – and with serious and dangerous intent. 

They scored the first two tries of the match and, although MJR hit back, were up 7-4 late in the first half, on the back of some classy ball movement and a hat-trick of touchdowns to captain Dylan McLachlan.

MJR pegged the margin back to two by half-time, but they did look a little rattled.

“Definitely,” Argus said. “I went back and asked the boys, what are we doing wrong? They had the answers. We knew it, we just had to rectify it.

“Touch isn’t a game where you can just change something at the click of a button. It’s such a fast game, you can’t stop and talk.”

Argus led the way with a best-on-ground performance as his side found a way back. When he and Lovell combined eight minutes into the second half, the score was back to 8-all. 

It was then superb defence, holding out half-a-dozen sets on their own line, that changed the game, taking momentum away from The Casuals and allowing the scene to be set for a Lovell clutch play. 

“We held tight, kept the guard up… and then to come back and score the winning try,” Argus said. 

With a second straight title, Electric relief was in contrast to The Casuals’ disappointment. 

“It’s tough, it’s definitely tough, when we were up by three tries halfway through that game,” McLachlan said.

“But that’s their full-strength team, that’s our full-strength team so it goes to show how tough and how close the year was. 

“Losing on the bell, it was hard. But someone has to win, I suppose.”

He had a big game for The Casuals while Daniel Foley was very impressive and Bowie Foster and Tyson McLachlan also played well.