It ended six years of grand final heartache for the east-Queanbeyan venture, after losing last year's grand final by one point to the Queanbeyan Kangaroos in extra time.

The Blues came out firing to start the match, and some great footwork by half Ben Nicoll saw him crash over the line to give his men an early six point advantage.

But from that point the match see-sawed, as both sides conceded a number of line breaks and struggled to fill holes in defence.

Goulburn fullback and former North Queensland Cowboys NRL star Michael Bani had arguably his best half of football for the season, and his try levelled the scores in the eighth minute.

While Queanbeyan's own former NRL star David Pangai scored a try of his own in the 19th minute, small mistakes and ill-discipline crept into his side's game, and Goulburn started to take advantage of that.

They went into the sheds down 12-10, with a Tim Turner try reducing the margin to two, but they had most of the possession in the first 20 minutes of the second term, and soon found themselves in front.

Winger Luke Turner crossed after a beautiful ball movement gave him an overlap, and Ben Picker's second conversion ensured a four point lead.

The Bulldogs continued pressing Queanbeyan's line, but despite the home side putting on a terrific defensive display, they continued to concede coach-killing penalties, and this put them under even more pressure.

But they held tight, and finally got some possession inside Goulburn's half of the field.

Enter Tom Ruedinger.

The talented centre and Les McIntyre highest try scorer award-winner scored an easy try to level the scores.

But with the Blues having ended last year's grand final on 16 points, to get beaten by one point in the end, he came up with a great play to get them off that haunting score.

He made a tremendous line break, giving his men a lead of four points- ensuring the match would head for a grandstand finish.

Given how close recent Canberra Raiders Cup grand finals have been in recent years, there had to be one more score-leveller in the match, and that came through Goulburn centre Nathan Chappell.

Some forward passes killed the Blues' opportunities to extend their lead- of which there were two instances where they were in the clear- and neither side could separate each other at full time with the scores locked a 20 a piece.

But Blues winger Leu Saipani was the hero of the match, after Pangai broke the Goulburn line, and grubbered across field for him to pounce on the ball, breaking six long years of premiership heartache for the east-Queanbeyan club.