Port Macquarie wheelchair rugby athlete Ryley Batt echoed those sentiments after NSW had cruised to victory in the 2021 Wheelchair Rugby National Championship final on the Gold Coast on Sunday (May 30).

Playing in their first competitive tournament in the best part of 18 months, the Gladiators went through unbeaten where they saved their best for last.

"We absolutely smashed Queensland in the final so it's probably not the best thing for the sport because you want a nail-biter or a close game, but I'll take smashing Queensland in the final any day," Batt said.

"We've trained throughout COVID so the fitness was fine, but match fitness is a bit of a different story and the lungs were burning a bit for the first couple of games.

"I've been through that situation before and understand you've got to push through it. You do get it back pretty quick."

New South Wales won all five matches over the three-day tournament with Batt and fellow Port Macquarie product Andrew Edmondson playing integral roles.

Batt said their on-court partnership had improved despite the lack of game time recently.

"I was pretty happy how I played and myself and Edmo have trained locally and are on the same page and gelling really well together so that's really good for when we play for Australia," he said.

"It let us run some newer players who are developing and set us up in the final where we won by 20 points.

"I just wish we could play a little more competition before Tokyo but unfortunately with the world how it is that might not happen."

The competition was the first and last warm-up event before the duo team up again in the Australian Steelers team who will aim to back up their 2016 Rio gold medal in Tokyo.

"We've got to make sure every training session from here on in counts because it's been five years of work for us and we don't really want to let it slip now," Batt said.

"Tokyo is our goal and there is still a lot of talk about it, but at this stage it's still on and we've got our focus on defending our gold medal.

"It's going to be a huge task and we know that, but it's a challenge we're ready for."

What else is happening in news, sport?

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: