FORBES ended a 29-year Group 11 premiership drought with a stunning 26-22 triumph over defending premiers Dubbo CYMS on Sunday – and an 18-year-old helped the Magpies do it.
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Born 11 years after the black and whites last tasted top flight premiership success in 1987, Mitch Andrews, a 1998 baby, scored the match-winning try for Forbes in the 77th minute of the grand final.
Another young-gun, Nick Greenhalgh, iced the win with a composed sideline conversion before the Magpies held on late to secure a memorable premiership victory.
“Just get the ball down, I didn’t think much else,” Andrews said post game.
“I teared up a little bit ... I wasn’t even thought of (when Forbes last won in 1987).
“The boys scraped into fourth and everyone wrote us off, no one thought we were good enough to match it with CYMS.
“Even this week, everyone wrote us off, but the boys knew in ourselves we could stick with them and give it to them, and that’s what we did.”
Captain-coach Jake Grace, the 2016 Bob Weir medalist as the grand final’s man of the match, was instrumental in the win.
Grace produced a huge effort playing 80 minutes in the middle of the field, scoring a try after a deft off-load from Zac Merritt in the second half.
Merritt, too, dug deep in a colossal display in the frontrow.
But for Grace, who helped lift his side from 22-14 down to score two late tries to snatch an unlikely victory, the team achievement out-weighs any individual accolades.
“To win a premiership at a club that probably hasn’t had much success, to do it and have the support of the old boys, it’s exceptional. There’s not a lot better than this,” he said.
“It’s definitely great to win (the Bob Weir medal). I’m grateful I got it.
“To be honest though, the personal accolades you pick up, no disrespect to Bob at all, an individual trophy is nothing on what we achieved as a team. You can’t do that on your own.
“We deserved it. There was a time there where we couldn’t have given up, backs against the wall, eight points down, but we kept on coming.”
Forbes last won the title 23-20 over Narromine in 1987. The Magpies’ win against CYMS is made all the more sweeter having lost three deciders – 2001, 2003 and 2004 – against the Fishies.