The Boars, whose players won every individual award and almost every game this season, except for a final-round loss at Milton, never trailed and capped off its successful season with three unanswered tries in the final 10 minutes to clinch the title.

In front of its home crowd, the Boars withstood Milton’s domination and display of aggression and enthusiasm early in the game.

Batemans Bay stole a lineout in its own half and five-eighth James Thomas sent a clearing kick, with the wind, to the unmarked corner. 

Batemans Bay earned a penalty and took a tap on the right side of the field, 30 metres out.

From the next phase the ball was swung left and captain Andrew Fleming led the charge, busting through three would-be tacklers to score the first try of the match.

Thomas slotted the conversion to give Batemans Bay a 7-nil lead. 

Milton rallied almost instantly after a knock-on after the kick-off.

From the mid-field scrum, Milton swung the ball right and outside-centre Mick Devlin found space on the fringe.

Devlin had the Boars scrambling and found winger Mitch Rixon who ran around to straighten the conversion.

Matt Beauchamp converted and it was 7-all. 

Batemans Bay scored its second try after 25 minutes when forward Pete Ngarima picked up the ball from a scrum and scooted across field before punching through the line to score.

Thomas again converted to put the Boars 14-7 in front.

The Platypi delivered its reply 10 minutes later after a solo run from Grant Oliver became a penalty try to Milton and the game was locked at 14-all.

Minutes from half-time the Boars gained the upper hand when hooker James Bell streaked down the right wing to score in the corner and the Bay led 21-14 at the break. 

It took a minute for the Boars to assert themselves after half-time.

The Boars earned a penalty and a devastating set play gave fullback Ashbee Reid his only try.

Thomas failed to convert and Batemans Bay opened up a 28 to 14 lead.

For the next 15 minutes both teams played for territory but dropped balls and unforced errors started to build up.

Milton earned a penalty, metres from Batemans Bay’s try line, and Devlin found space before diving for the corner and scoring his team’s final points.

The turning point came five minutes later when Milton’s Henry Payne opted to run instead of kick.

He was caught by a few Boars and lobbed a ball over to his team-mate, which was plucked by Fleming’s outstretched hands.

Fleming ran 20 metres to score under the posts, which gave the Bay a convincing 35-19 lead. 

The intercept thwarted Milton’s spirited comeback and tries to Ngarima and Will Thomas blew  the margin out in the final minutes.

Boars’ coach Matt Ryan said he believed that his side’s ability to withstand Milton’s early pressure set up the win.

“We had a plan to wear them down and we were planning to utilise the last 10 to 20 minutes,” Ryan said.

“We probably played some of our smartest moments of the season.”