In the process they knocked off club rivals and men’s Premier League defending premiers Cougars in a hard-fought 1-0 win.

It seemed fitting Brad Paterson’s drag flick to the top right corner in the second half would prove the difference between the two teams.

Goalkeepers Declan Pitt and Tim Ronan kept their sides in the match with several outstanding saves before and after Paterson’s goal.

Blue Tongues captain Haydn Alexander said it was a typical Thunder final.

“Last year each of our finals games went into overtime and we were both at full-strength which was good, so it was tight and probably worthy of a Thunder final,” he said.

Alexander admitted he wasn’t surprised Paterson was the difference between the two teams after he scored his 20^th goal in his eighth match.

“He has been our main goalscorer all year and has almost as many goals to himself as we do as a whole team combined,” he said.

The Blue Tongues would admit they received the rub of the green with some lucky decisions.

“There were a couple of calls that went against the Cougars, but that’s the flow of the game really,” Alexander said.

“One team usually gets the rub of the green and it was us.”

Cougars captain Kevin Lewis refused to heap blame on the officials as the reason for his team’s defeat.

“I think anybody can say that in any game, but I don’t like to hang results on refereeing calls,” he said.

“Things could have gone our way in a couple of those, but in the end you’ve got to put yourself in the right position to win the game and we didn’t do that enough.”

Lewis admitted his team didn’t take their opportunities when they had the chance.

“We had lots of shots on goal and I walked off the field and said to both of the keepers they were the two players of the match,” he said.

The loss was the Cougars’ second-straight semi-final defeat which brought to an end their premiership defence.

“We were minor premiers and didn’t quite put it all together when it came to the semi-finals,” Lewis said.

“We live to fight another year.”