With five minutes left, Tyron Graham kicked the ball from a scrum around 50m out and Daniel Foley flew past the opposition to score under the crossbar.

“We were down by a fair few points, so we thought we’d try anything,” Foley explained.

“Tyron told me he was going to put the kick through and just told me to chase, just easy as that.”

Foley’s effort brought the biggest cheer of the match from the bumper crowd.

The 25-year-old Junee fullback has been one of Group Nine’s top-liners for a number of years now and he was delighted to play in the biggest game of his career.

“It was an unreal experience, they’re a very physical and fast team, I’ve never played a game of footy quite that fast before,” he said.

Not surprisingly it was a former NRL player in lock Nick Skinner who was the home team’s best.

“I liked the 13, I thought he was good, looked like he’s played a bit of footy,” Souths’ coach Wayne Bennett said.

Albury Thunder had four representatives and it was another 13, Bombala recruit Luke Ingram, who impressed.

Ingram has a reputation as a workhorse and he carted the ball manfully against the more powerful pack.

“I thought the Riverina guys did an exceptional job,” Rabbitohs’ assistant coach Shane Millard said.

“They won the last quarter two tries to one, they hung in there.”