AFTER a hard-fought season which saw the team overcoming several setbacks, the Jimboomba United under 14s gave their all during the weekend's grand final against the Brisbane Knights.
Trying to back up last year's grand finals win, the team went down 2-1 in a tough match at Logan Metro Sports Centre.
"The kids played really well and kept fighting till the end," coach Nigel Vallis said.
"They didn't hang their heads when we went down 1-0 after the first five minutes and continued to work the ball up the field and backing each other up."
With no subs on the bench, every player had to rally for the whole match.
A motivational boost for the team came when Jimboomba pushed forward from their own goal line up through the middle to a big high kick, sending the ball over top of defence players.
Winger Brodie King and striker Mitchell Taylor charged the keeper and put pressure on him to fumble the ball, with King slotting the ball in neatly for a goal.
Mr Vallis said it had lifted the spirits of the whole team, giving them renewed invigoration to keep pushing hard to equalise the game.
"Communication was the key out there," she said.
"As we had no subs on the bench to rotate players when they got tired, they all need to step up and play for not only themselves, but each other. With the parents showing their normal supper shouting from the side lines, the kids dig deep and played till the final whistle.
"As coach I'm very proud of their performance this season."
Mr Vallis said the team had faced setbacks and had been forced to reshuffle players mid-season to fill in positions they were not accustomed to.
"To their credit they took it in stride after a few hiccups but learnt it was for the better of the team and they owned their new positions," she said.
"Tyler Vallis going from attack player to defence and really made a huge impact on the defence side of game saving a lot of goals in the process. Brodie King moving to attack wing from defence sweeper last year was a move no one saw coming but I saw potential in him and it paid off, with Brodie being top goal scorer for the team with 22 goals for the season."
Also among the moves were James Russo going from striker back to wing defence and Mitchell Taylor transitioning from wing to defence then back to striker.
Tate Kite stepped in to cover the goalkeeper position when the team lost Nickolas Voysey to a broken arm three weeks before finals.
"We lost to a better team on the day but the kids can hold their heads high," Mr Vallis said.
"We will be back ready to take the crown back next year."
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