This year, the young outside back was on the other end of the ledger.

Lining up with Mounties in the Intrust Super Premiership NSW Cup grand final on Sunday, Naden’s outfit suffered a heartbreaking 21-20 loss to the Illawarra Cutters at Pirtek Stadium.

Although on the wrong end of the scoreline, Naden made 16 tackles and ran for 74 metres for the Mounties, the Canberra Raiders’ feeder side in the NSW Cup.

The side included a stack of NRL talent, with Mounties guns Shaun Fensom, Jeff Lima, Sam Williams, Zac Santo and Brenko Lee all getting a taste of the top grade with the green machine in 2016.

Naden lined up inside another Western Division product in the form of Orange Hawks winger Alofi Mataele in a beaten side, the Cutters led to victory thanks to a Drew Hutchison field goal in the 73rd minute.

With Parkes’ Sam Cotter drafted into the Illawarra line-up late, starting a five-eighth, the Cutters laid their intentions for a more expansive style of football early, throwing the ball around like it was going out of fashion.

Naden’s Mounties trailed the Cutters 16-14 at the break, and then scored just minutes into the new term to shoot out to a 20-16 advantage after a Santo four-pointer.

With four points in it, the Cutters were determined to be next on the board and the wing of NRL weapon Kalifi Fai Fai Loa had been a danger for Mounties all night. They shifted right, and Quinlan got a ball for the try-scoring winger to stroll over and lock the scores up at 20-all. 

With less than seven minutes remaining, NRL-bound Hutchison slotted premiership-winning point for Illawarra to win it.

Sam Williams attempted a field goal on the buzzer, but it was waved away, and the Cutters completed a fairy-tale 10^th to first in the space of a year.