Check out out all of the action from the final.
North Queensland Cowboys have won their first trophy since the club was established, accounting for fellow Queenslanders the Brisbane Broncos in a thrilling Auckland Nines final.
It would have been interesting to see the Broncos in the final at full strength, with star Ben Barba (foot), David Stagg (knee) and Jake Granville (concussion) all forced out of the match.
Young backline talent Curtis Rona was the star of the decider, sealing the 16-7 win with a double, including the match winning try in the dying stages, just as the Broncos threatened to get back into it.
The speedy Rona was able to take advantage of a broken Broncos defensive line after the Cowboys dived a short kick-off, which the Broncos needed to regather in a last roll of the dice after getting within three points as the clock wound down.
After upsetting tournament favourites and hometown team the New Zealand Warriors in the semi-final with a superb defensive performance the Cowboys grew.
After absorbing plenty of pressure, it was the Broncos who crossed first through Ben Hunt, but the try was disallowed after it was ruled Sam Thaiday had put his foot on the sideline before flinging the final pass in-field.
As was often the case over the weekend’s games, the Cowboys went straight down the other end from the resulting handover to score the first try of the game through Antonio Winterstein.
The Cowboys got their hands on the ball just minutes later to increase their lead to 10-0 at half-time after Rona stayed alive to dive over following a scuffed grubber kick from Michael Morgan and a sharp bat on into the hands of the winger.
The Broncos threatened a boil-over when Hunt zipped his way over with three minutes remaining, but it wasn’t to be.
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