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Newtown Jets premiers of NSW Cup - a storification of Grand Final day

The Newtown Jets won the 2012 NSW Cup grand final on 29 September at ANZ Stadium with a heart-stopping 22-18 victory over the Balmain Ryde Eastwood Tigers. In my opinion it was easily the best of the three games on Grand Final day, and gave the Jets their first victory in the NSW Cup since it was reconstituted as the de facto reserve grade for non-Queensland NRL clubs.

Here's a storification of selected tweets and images of the Jets victory, including progress reports of the game and the celebrations afterwards:

It's deja vu all over again once more revisited

Item One - Newtown 8 Wentworthville 12. After a record 24 minutes of sudden-death extra-time and nineteen missed attempts at golden point field goals by both sides, the Maggies ended it with a try. For the second time in three years, the Bluebags have lost the NSWRL Cup GF in extra time after falling for a kick-a-field-goal-from-anywhere-on-the-ground strategy. Credit where it's due - Wenty dominated the second half and the bulk of the extra time.

Grand final preview

The only game that matters today kicks off at 12.15pm. Newtown will face Wentworthville in the NSWRL Cup (Reserve Grade in a past life) Final. It's revenge time for the Jets, having lost a golden-point Grand Final to Parramatta in 2006. The Wenty Magpies are the Eels' proxy in this year's reserve grade comp.

My pick: Newtown by 14.

Festival das Boot

Life is full of ironies. An AFL grand final without a Melbourne team, and an NRL grand final without a Sydney team. In a year when I have become more and more apathetic about rugby league, today I am going to my first-ever Sydney rugby league grand final.

I should say, however, that it's really the Premier League fixture, the second curtain-raiser of the day at Telstra Stadium, that is my main attraction. Newtown (who, to be fair, is a glorified Sydney Roosters Reserve Grade this year) take on Parramatta. A remarkable comeback for a club that was kicked out of the NSWRL comp in 1983, went broke, re-emerged through minor competitions and became something of a cause celebre for the anti-Super League true believers.

Newtown 28 North Sydney 4

The Jets beat North Sydney 28-4 at Henson Park tonight in their Premier League trial match which doubled up as the first leg of the Frank Hyde Trophy.

Newtown scored seven tries to one, with kicks at goal not being taken in this game. Newtown are a feeder team for Cronulla this year, while Norths have become a feeder for the Melbourne Storm.

It wasn't a bad crowd at Henson Park for a mid-February trial game, probably 500 or so.

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Newtown miss the eight

My first season as a born-again Jets fan is over. Newtown missed the eight in the VB Premier League, finishing in tenth spot on 23 points. Conceding 696 points in 24 games is not a good way to do things, but rather better than the club I used to follow in its NRL days, North Sydney, who allowed 1024 points in 24 matches, almost 43 per game.

I got to see Newtown play at Henson Park four times this year: March 27, when they lost 26-14 to St George reserve grade in round three; May 8, when they beat North Sydney 42(right on average)-20 in round nine; June 5, when they beat Balmain 20-12 in round thirteen; and July 31, when they beat the Roosters reserves 22-20 in a thrilling round twenty-one clash.

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