He missed a regulation attempt earlier, but James Luff held his nerve to slot a penalty goal with two minutes remaining to hand Gundagai a 18-16 win over Brothers.
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After spraying an attempt from virtually in front with 12 minutes remaining to see the scores remain level, the Weissel Medal favourite didn't falter under more pressure from a much harder position at Anzac Park on Sunday.
Damian Willis wound back to clock to set up the game-winning play for the premiers.
The Gundagai left three defenders in his wake, storming 60 metres up field before Cade Price was sin binned for holding Willis down as he tried to play the ball.
Luff's attempt from 10 metres inside the sideline never looked like missing.
Brothers had one final chance when they received a penalty following the restart, and turned down the resulting long range penalty goal attempt to go for a try, only for Zac Wilson's pass to float forward.
Even with his uncustomary miss earlier, Luff didn't hesitate with the game, and top spot on the ladder, on the line.
"I missed one in the warm up from the exact same spot, so it might have been playing in my head, but it was good to get that last one," Luff said.
"I'd been striking from there at training during the week so I was pretty confident."
Six points was the biggest margin throughout the clash.
The Tigers opened the scoring when Luff put Luke Brekrey into plenty of space after three minutes.
Gundagai had most of the possession and field position, but on their first real attacking foray Brothers were able to come up with points as Dylan McLachlan found coach Peter Little with an inside ball after 19 minutes.
Gundagai broke the deadlock five minutes before half-time was Tyron Gorman worked his way over only for Harold Kirby to hit back with 19 seconds left in the first half as the teams went into the break locked at 12-all.
Brothers hit the front 15 minutes into the second half when Connor McCauley forced his way over and it looked like Gundagai would level things again when Blake Dunn scored with 15 to go before Luff missed his conversion attempt to set up a thrilling finish.
The wins sees the premiers remain on top of the ladder with four rounds to go before finals.
However Luff believes the side has plenty of improvement in them, especially after letting a lot of good attacking opportunities slip.
"It was scrappy but a win is a win and we haven't won against a top five side in a long time so hopefully we can try and build a bit of momentum on that," he said.
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