Kangaroos party on after downing Roosters in grand final

It wasn’t quite like ’05, but plenty of rugby league fans in Campbelltown celebrated in style on Saturday night when the Kangaroos defeated Thirlmere 30-8 to win the Group Six premiership.

As did the players, who for 80 minutes put their bodies on the line to win the 2017 grand final in an imposing manner.

There were incredible scenes of jubilation when the referee blew the final whistle at Campbelltown Stadium just before 9pm.

Scores of Campbelltown fans jumped the fence to join the players in celebrating the first grand final win for Campbelltown in 34 years.

Coach Liam Fulton copped the inevitable bucket of iced water on his back but he just kept smiling.

And why wouldn’t he after such a major trophy in his very first year of senior footy.

Now he will sit down and decide if he will coach again next year.

The Campbelltown City Kangaroos would dearly love to have him as the mentor again next year but the Wests Tigers premiership legend has a young, growing family to consider.

Whatever he said to the players on Saturday worked a treat as Campbelltown came out firing when the referee blew the whistle to start the highly anticipated grand final.

The Thirlmere Roosters, who boast plenty of NRL experience in their squad, were favourites to win the grand final.

Indeed they received a bigger cheer than the Kangaroos when the boys entered the playing arena.

But the Kangaroos ambushed them by playing a high energy, high tempo game that asked a lot of questions of the Roosters defence.

It worked a treat because just nine minutes into the game City fullback Jett Karam took a beautiful mark off a bomb to score the first points of the match.

City fans lifted as a result of their team leading 6-0 while the large Thirlmere contingent went a little quiet.

They became even quieter five minutes later when Josh Burke scored after charging down a Roosters kick and racing away 35 metres to plant the ball under the black dot.

Burke, who was named man of the match, scored a hat trick for the Kangaroos.

Despite being 10-0 down, Thirlmere still looked the more dangerous of the two teams when they had the ball.

They had most of the possession after the Burke try in the 15th minute and threw everything but the kitchen sink at the Campbelltown boys, but they stood tall as they repelled wave after wave of attack.

It was obviously a matter of time before fatigue would cause cracks in the Kangaroos defence and that’s exactly what happened.

Roosters winger Justin Smith scored out wide to reduce the deficit to eight points and restore the faith of their fans in the stands.

The last 16 minutes of the first half turned into an incredible display of physical rugby league as both sides tried to get on top of each other.

Off the back of some very big hits, it was the Kangaroos who outmuscled the Roosters and went to the break leading 16-4, thanks to another try three minutes before the siren and then a penalty in front of goal after the hooter.

After the resumption it was clear Thirlmere wanted to have one last crack at the Kangaroos as quickly as possible.

They forced a line dropout before they finally crossed for their second try, to make the score 18-8 and the Kangaroos brains trust a little nervous.

But the Roosters were impatient near the try line and as a result bombed several opportunities to score points.

The Kangaroos on the other hand looked as though they may have put the cue in the rack and were just concentrating on defence.

But a smart play out of the blue helped Burke to a try and all of a sudden the Kangaroos at 24-8 looked like they had one hand on the trophy.

When Burke scored his third and it was converted to make it 30-8, everyone at the ground knew it was time for the celebrations to start.

RESULTS  GRAND FINALS

FIRST GRADE Campbelltown City 30 Thirlmere Roosters 8.

RESERVE GRADE Mittagong Lions 24 Camden Rams 22

UNDER 18  Picton Magpies 32 Thirlmere Roosters 16

LEAGUE TAG Narellan Jets 8 Thirlmere Roosters 6

SECOND DIVISION CUP Narellan Jets 20 Appin Dogs 18

SOUTHERN HIGHLANDS SHIELD Bundanoon Highlanders 36 Oran Park Chargers 6