Sometimes, even a loss leaves you feeling proud and impressed by your side and despite losing 24-20 to the Gungahlin Eagles, that was the case for the Dirty Reds First Grade side.
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Coming off a 75-12 shellacking of Queanbeyan, the resurgent Eagles side hit the ground running and had a 24-8 lead at half time, but in the second half, even as key players were injured out of the game and despite a few players carrying injuries and illness, Goulburn fought back gamely.
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Gungahlin were kept scoreless in the second half even as key forwards Mikael Webber and Henry Cooper had to come off.
As the game ran on, Goulburn emptied their bench to provide replacements.
Goulburn's leading men's tryscorer Josh Condylios added another to his tally three minutes into the second half and Eric Brown crossed 20 minutes after that.
The final 20 minutes of the game was a tough, muddy trench warfare, with Goulburn repeatedly challenging the Gungahlin line but to their credit, the Eagles held firmly and held on for the win.
Also to Gungahlin's credit, they did not stack down players from second grade as other Canberra sides had recently done.
This was simply a quality Gungahlin side playing a competitive brand of footy in tough conditions, making a solid back-nine charge for the semis.
As with the first-grade score, the second grade result wasn't a cause of celebration, but the context provided a lot to be proud of.
The final result of 50-22 indicates a commanding win, and it was, but it doesn't show that with 15 minutes left in the game, last placed Goulburn was trailing the competition leaders by just two converted tries.
Highlights for Goulburn included a bonus point for scoring four tries, a try on senior grade debut by former Goulburn junior Sam Spackman and Brandon Courts' 50th club try.
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