League tag
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A DOUR defensive game has secured Leeton's sixth Group 20 league tag premiership with an 8-0 win over West Wyalong on Sunday.
Although the best scoring team in the competition, Leeton also had the best defence all season and it was on display to devastating effect.
Despite defending for multiple sets in their own half, the Greens managed to prevent the Mallee Chicks from scoring one point in the 40 minutes of game time.
While it wasn't a new game plan, coach David Warburton did have his side focusing on stopping the opposition scoring.
"Our attack is pretty good, but the amount of defence we did took away from our attack (today)," he said.
"In the end it was a deserved result because we had the best attack and the defence all year.
"They gave it to us though.
"If we just defended and stopped them from scoring we were going to win. I said to them the attack would come.
"To do that amount of defending and not let them score a try was sensational."
With the dust still seemingly settling from the kick-off and the crowd still settling, Leeton was into attack and had crossed the try line for a 4-0 lead.
However, West Wyalong came to life and set about camping in its attacking half.
It was all to no effect as Leeton withstood multiple sets - mostly though its own mistakes and giving away penalties - to keep the try line unbroken.
Warburton had pinpointed the Mallee Chicks' desire to attack up the middle and even when they tried to go wide, the Greens were waiting to tag.
In the 16th minute, Ua Ravu made a break as Leeton tried to come out of defence and scored a length-of-the-field try to go to an 8-0 lead.
Two minutes later Georgia Everett appeared to repeat the dose, but she was deemed to have been tagged over the try line just before grounding.
Leeton couldn't make the most of the field position and the score remained unchanged at the break.
If their defence in the first had been unbreakable, in the second the Greens stepped it up further.
Shaylah Elwin and Anna Poulson were driven, stripping tags off left, right and centre to stop the West Wyalong progress.
Leeton went the closest to scoring in the half, but the ball was called back for a forward pass.
Neither side was able to break the defensive deadlock and in the end, Leeton's two first-half tries proved enough.
"That's the best I've seen (West Wyalong) play in our two outings and in the final last week," Warburton said.
"We had our dramas (this year), but we got through."
Ravu was named best on ground for the grand final.