Brendy Myers completed a triumphant return home to Wagga Tigers when he claimed best-on-ground honours in their grand final victory against Griffith.
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The 20-year-old was important through the midfield in getting Tigers moving, and had his hands on the footy in the first half when Griffith threatened to take the game away.
Up forward, he kicked two goals, offering an option in attack alongside their star target Jesse Manton.
Those goals almost told the story of Tigers' day. The first from a free kick was sandwiched between Lucas and Jacob Conlan goals for Griffith, but kept Tigers within a kick at quarter time.
The second was a delightful left-foot snap on the run early in the final quarter, to restore Tigers' eight-point lead when they'd seized control of the game but needed to make it pay.
"It's a grand final, the pressure was red-hot at the start as we expected. We needed to just ride that out through the first couple of quarters," Myers said.
"We just sort of sensed (by three-quarter time) that they weren't far off cracking and knew we had to keep that relentless pressure and keep doing what we needed to - switching the ball, changing the angles - and it paid off pretty much."
Myers was Tigers' best-and-fairest in their premiership-winning season of 2016 (at the age of 17). After a season in the VFL last year, he was a key factor in the club getting the band back together again, along with Jackson Kelly, Dylan Morton and Manton.
He's repaid the faith and taken the reward, adding a Ron Hutchins Medal and a second senior flag to an impressive resume.
"It's unreal. Words can't really describe how good it is. You could never get sick of winning premierships and the bunch of boys we did it with - I couldn't be prouder," Myers said.
"I think best on ground in a grand final is more a team reward than an individual award, that's what I think anyway."
Myers thought key defender Reid Gordon put his hand up for best-on-ground honours with a big game and praised the efforts of Morton alongside him.
Kelly and Shaun Driscoll were also superb in the middle for Tigers, and Jake Mascini's reliability and run out of the backline valuable.
One of the first to congratulate Myers was Shaun Flanigan, who won the medal in Tigers' 2016 success, also in the number 9 jumper.
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