THE class of Port City shone through as the Breakers ended Wauchope's season with a 24-4 win in their Group 3 ladies league tag preliminary final on Sunday.
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Breakers coach Troy Roach was pleased with the response from his side after they suffered a rare 14-12 defeat to Forster-Tuncurry last weekend.
"It's amazing what a loss can do when it comes to the will to want to compete again," he said.
"In hindsight that loss to Forster was a good thing for us."
Port City controlled the ball better, played more direct and had a better attitude, but it was their effort without the ball that impressed the coach the most.
"The most pleasing thing was that we had more pride in our defence," Roach said.
While the way the Blues played didn't surprise the Breakers, they were full of praise for their gutsy effort.
"(Coach) Ged (Roods) did a really good job at getting them up for the fight; it was a typical Wauchope performance - they don't go away," Roach said.
Roods said it was a brave effort from his side who climbed from seventh position three weeks out from the finals to qualify in fifth spot.
They then navigated their way through successive elimination finals with victories over Port Macquarie and Taree City before they came up short against the defending premiers.
"Once (Port City) got three tries in front the girls dropped a bit because they saw it slipping away," Roods said.
"At the start of the year I knew we had not a bad side but there were a couple of games we lost by one or two tries and probably underachieved."
The Blues stuck with the Breakers for three quarters of the match before Port City kicked clear towards full-time.
"I thought we were genuine contenders throughout the game because we based our whole week around the fact we had nothing to lose," Roods said.
"We felt if we had have shaken them up a bit we were half a chance."
Roods admitted he was confident they would account for the Sharks and the Bulls, but acknowledged the Breakers were a class above.
Port City will now face Forster-Tuncurry in Sunday's grand final.
"The grand final is a fair indication of where everyone is at - they're the two best sides in the competition," the Blues coach said.
"I think the Breakers will win because they've been there too many times to let it slip away."
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