Victorian supporters could be heard across the polocrosse grounds at Chinchilla on Sunday morning when their under 21 men's team claimed victory in the intermediate final at the national championships, defeating NSW 27-24.
Subscribe now for unlimited access to all our agricultural news
across the nation
or signup to continue reading
It's the first win for Victoria in the U21 men's division since 1996, and saw them go one better than their runners-up result at the last Australian championships, at Ballarat in 2022.
It was one of many highlights of a day that featured teams from NSW in all five finals scheduled.
NSW started off well, cruising to victory over Western Australia in the men's masters championship with a 38-14 score line.
Spectators got used to hearing the call "Woodward - Grills - goal" repeated over the loudspeaker as the number 2 and number 1 Brett Woodward and Matthew Grills made an effortless combination.
The two early games gave both Victorian and Western Australian teams their second appearance in finals at Chinchilla, easing the pain of Victoria's one-point loss to NSW in the junior mixed final on Saturday, but not giving WA a repeat of its sub-juniors' triumph against NSW in that final.
The three open finals contested on Sunday were between Queensland and NSW, and the Maroons started well with a 30-19 victory in the mixed championship.
NSW turned the tables in the open women's championship, defeating Queensland 27-20, although the latter's Beth Hafey and her mare Jaylen Downs Memphis were named best horse and rider in the women's competition.
Their NSW male counterparts outplayed Queensland in the open men's championship 39-25, a result some didn't see coming, after Queensland defeated NSW in an earlier match in the carnival.
The game started in Queensland's favour, taking a 5-3 lead after the first chukka.
Each team scored two goals in the second chukka but the sky blue jerseys belted out an unanswered 6-1 goal advantage in the third chukka, and never looked back, although Queensland did manage a 5-4 goal advantage in the fifth chukka.
There was consolation for Queensland when Matt Davison's horse, Berragoon Obsession was named the overall champion horse of the carnival.
There were plenty of accolades for Chinchilla across the weekend, with many saying they were among the best national polocrosse championships they'd been to.
Chinchilla life member Murray Sturgess joked that their biggest issue was Saturday night in the canteen when people were given bamboo knives to eat their steak with.
Polocrosse Australia president Mick Templeton said the sport had changed enormously since 1963, when Chinchilla first hosted the Australian men's championships.
"Polocrosse is an event now and Chinchilla delivered a spectacular event," he said, acknowledging the work put in by volunteer umpires, referees, and the horse welfare committee.
"You've been competitive right across the country - with the exception of the Northern Territory, each state won a title," he said.
The six-day event was livestreamed, attracting 101,850 viewers.
That compares to just over 80,000 online that watched the national competition at Ballarat two years ago.
Last week's online viewers were predominantly from Australia, with 96,000 viewers, plus 2000 from the US, 1500 from New Zealand, 750 from the UK, 300 from South Africa, and 250 from Canada.