A James O'Connor penalty goal with two minutes remaining has seen Brothers defend their Hospital Cup title in thrilling fashion.
Ballymore erupted into a sea of blue and white as the 64-Test veteran made amends for an earlier conversion miss by striking true from the tee to earn a 29-27 grand final win over Wests Bulldogs.
The win marked O'Connor's first in the Butcher's Stripe while delivering a second straight year of grand final heartbreak to the Kennel.
Brothers needed just 10 minutes to open their account with James O’Connor putting in on a platter for Reds teammate Dre Pakeho to crash over in front of the XXXX Hill Brethren.
Wests responded in kind eight minutes later with fullback Fletcher Spicer pulling strings, first putting Seru Uru away down the right wing before switching sides to unlock space for Mosese Dawai to send Angelo Smith over for the equaliser.
Recent Queensland debutant Will Cartwright was next to strike with a 14-point play out wide, intercepting a promising Wests counterattack and racing 60m downfield to put Brothers back in front after 22 minutes.
A heaving Butchery then went into raptures as former Brothers-turned-Wests halfback Louis Werchon saw yellow for foul play with fullback Paddy James scoring from the ensuing tap move.
Trailing 21-7, the Bulldogs needed a spark and found it in David Vaihu, who scorched the Ballymore turf from a Lebron Naea offload to dot down Wests’ second try of the afternoon.
A rare charge down spoiled the Bulldogs’ conversion attempt but there would be late drama to come with Brothers halfback Isaac Tarabe seeing yellow for a professional foul and another long-range Cartwright try overruled, leaving the Brethren ahead 21-12 at the break.
Wests sprang to life after oranges, launching an end-to-end raid through six pairs of hands that put Mosese Dawai over the chalk smack in front of the Bulldogs faithful.
Werchon’s conversion pulled the margin back to just two and with the pressure mounting ramping on Brothers, another ruck infringement near the sticks saw Werchon put Wests in front 22-21 with half an hour to play.
From there, it was the small moments that mattered most.
A clutch David Vaihu tackle on O’Connor in space; a desperate Brothers scrum to force the penalty and exit their 22m under duress, one too many kick errors from the Bulldogs backfield, or a short lineout gone wrong.
Bradley Kelagai’s injection into Wests’ backrow added real venom to their defensive breakdown while the loss of Pakeho to concussion protocol forced a shuffle to the Brethren’s backline.
The Kennel roared to life with 13 minutes remaining when Spicer pulled Brothers’ scrum defence apart to put Dawai through for his second try and extend their lead but a missed conversion left the door open.
Enter Seb Hanna.
With seven minutes remaining, the diminutive winger found himself unmarked out wide and dotting down to give O’Connor a chance to put Brothers ahead.
No dice. Not yet, anyway.
The Wallaby veteran would get a second chance with two minutes remaining and made no mistake after referee Damon Murphy penalised Wests dead in front and 16m.
Cue the restart, retention and celebrations.
Earlier, Bond University stormed to a third consecutive women’s title win with Test duo Melanie Wilks and Charli Jacoby orchestrating a 35-12 win over Easts.
The Tigers drew first blood through Leilani Hills and trailed by just five at the break before best on ground Wilks sparked the Bull Sharks to life, bursting up field and setting Dianne Waight up for a sensational long-range try.
Jacoby’s two-try haul proved crucial as Easts’ discipline began to slip with Tyler Birch and Akira Michelle Crocker also touching down before full time.
Bond’s victory was all the more impressive without Wallaroos trio Tiarna Molloy, Madi Schuck and Eva Karpani, captain Zoe Hanna paying tribute to her side’s team-first mentality.
“We have a really awesome culture, and the girls go out there and really play for each other,” Hanna told Reds Media.
“Our forward pack is not the biggest but every one of them have massive amounts of heart. Borth teams were nearly dead in this heat, but it was a phenomenal effort and we just kept working.”
Souths also enjoyed Sunday grand final success at Ballymore, shaking off two yellow cards to roll Wests 31-15 in a fiery Colts 1 decider.
Australian U20 duo Xavier Rubens and Dom Thygesen impressive in oppressive conditions as Souths ran in five tries to the Bulldogs' two.
