Illawarra South Coast claim rare double crown

Peter Hooper's Laurie Daley Cup (under 18s) side avenged the only loss of their campaign in outlasting North Coast Bulldogs 38-20 in the decider.

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The Dragons got off to a flyer, with tries to Kane Graham, Taarj Ford and Wil Patison taking a handy 18-4 lead into the break.

The Bulldogs hit back with the first three tries of the second stanza to briefly take the lead 20-18 before tries Kyle McCarthy, Jack Piccirilli and Ford's second four-pointer re-took a 12-point cushion with 10 minutes to play.

Zakariya Maarbani's try two minutes from time sealed the deal and well-earned silverware.

"We just had to be patient," Hooper said.

"We were really clinical in that first half, we had a bit of a breeze at our backs and I think we really wore them down.

"We took a lot of energy out of them and we've got a really, really good team and the boys just showed their class in that last 20 minutes."

It handed the Bulldogs their first defeat of the competition on its biggest day, but Hooper had no doubt his team would stand up when it counted.

"They hadn't dropped a game and they beat us convincingly three weeks ago, but there's a feeling you get," Hooper said.

"I knew if we could put on a 70-minute effort we'd get the job done.

"A common theme for us all along was 'don't make excuses four ourselves'. It's one thing for us as a coaching staff to say it, but they delivered it.

"When you've got a group of kids as driven as they were through this whole campaign, it was good to sit back and really enjoy that last 10-15 minutes.

"What they got there at the back end was what they deserved after all the work they've put in since November."

Fresh off a brutal semi-final win last week, Wade Forrester's open men's side got off to a flyer, taking a commanding 16-0 lead and going on to claim the country title 26-16 over Northern Rivers.

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