A late try from player of the match Sam Trood ensured Kangaroos survived a scare from Brothers to win the under 18s Weissel Cup grand final on Sunday.
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The minor premiers rallied from a 10-4 deficit with less than 15 minutes left to hold off a gallant Brothers 14-10 at Equex Centre.
Brothers handed Kangaroos their only loss of the year in the last regular season round, and threatened to repeat the dose when it matters most.
But a try to Kangaroos skipper Ben Cronin running onto a nice dummy half pass from hooker William Hurst close to the line with 13 minutes remaining levelled the scores at 10-all.
With five minutes left Kangaroos centre Ned Cooper, one of the more dangerous players on the park all game, found space before offloading to Trood in support for the match-winning try.
Brothers pressed the Kangaroos' line late after receiving back-to-back penalties, but couldn't find the killer blow they needed.
Trood and Cooper wreaked havoc all game down the left edge, with the combination coming up with the crucial play when it counted.
"It's a good feeling but I was just the one who put it over the line, it's all down to the boys and we all worked together as a unit," Trood said.
"(At 10-4 down) we wanted to keep resilient and that's what we aimed for. I'm proud of the boys, we dug deep and got a good win in the end.
"I'm proud of the effort everyone's put into the season, and to get the season up and running was great."
Earlier, Kangaroos five-eighth Billy Reardon opened the scoring in the 15th minute, before Brothers winger Latrell Goolagong replied with a try just before the break to level scores at 4-all just before half-time.
Brothers threatened to produce an upset when prop Cameron Lyons barged over close to the posts to give then a 10-4 lead, but Roos kept their heads to produce the right plays down the stretch.
Roos coach Timoci Vatubuli said his side had formed a bad habit of giving up leads before recovering.
"We've played on the back foot all year, we seem to get behind and come back but it seems to work for us," he said.
"That loss in the last round (to Brothers) really hurt the boys, they didn't want to hear them sing their team song again so it was probably a positive to lose that.
"To be fair had we won every game we may not be here. We all need to get pulled back down to earth every now and then."
Cronin, Cooper, Trood and Hurst were among the Kangaroos' best, while Reardon and hooker Will Hamblin were dangerous for Brothers.
"Our captain led form the front and Ned Cooper, but the whole squad of 20 building into the week had a hand," Vatubuli said.
WEISSEL CUP
KANGAROOS 14 (Billy Reardon, Ben Cronin, Sam Trood tries; Cronin goal); def BROTHERS 10 (Latrell Goolagong, Cameron Lyons tries; George Collins-Kelleher goal)
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