It was a case of history repeating itself for the Goulburn Dirty Reds in their ACT First Division, First grade grand final at Tuggeranong on Saturday, August 26.
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On the same ground on which they lost last year's grand final, Goulburn lost 21-7 to an energised Uni-Norths Owls.
It was a particularly bitter pill for the Reds to come home empty-handed from their second successive grand final in two years, just a week after the Goulburn women's team lost their match.
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Experienced trio Mikael Webber, Jackson Reardon and Ben Todkill were also likely to retire.
The Owls received first possession and instantly looked good in the set pieces, stealing Goulburn's first line out.
Goulburn began infringing early and the weight of possession allowed the Owls to have a few tilts at the Goulburn line.
The Dirty Reds drove the Owls player into touch on the first of those five minutes in but two minutes later the Owls, swinging the ball wide from the back of a lineout, weren't to be denied.
The Owls second try wasn't as hard earned as the first as they scored against the run of play.
Goulburn had the better of territory for that last 10 minutes in the first half but could not capitalise on it.
The Dirty Reds found themselves three tries down in the second half, but never threw in the towel.
Battling for possession and field position, Goulburn replied in the fifty third minute.
Todkill received the ball from the scrumbase and provided a neat inside pass to Eric Brown, which when converted by Webber, reduced the lead to 21-7.
However, the Owls held on in what wasn't Goulburn's best game of the year.
While the effort was there, decisions, application and ball security could all have done with some work.
However, even with difference in scores, it was a try each in the second half and if you take out the lucky intercept and the lucky bounce from a kick ahead, there wouldn't have been much in it.
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