He was wrong.

With five seconds left Coopa Martin dived over for a try which his Red Bend club-mate Raymond Towney converted to lock it up at 22-all. It sent the match into extra-time where two more Rams tries saw Western emerge 32-22 victors.

"You couldn't have wrote the script any better could you?,” Hancock said.

"We definitely spoke about the different scenarios during the week and that was one of them, being behind and having to chase points and hanging in there. We spoke about believing in their own ability and not panicking and they just kept trying.”

After the opening half at Cessnock Sportsground nothing separated the two sides at 12-all, Martin and Harry Hopkins having scored for the Rams.

But the Dolphins were able to pull ahead and as the game entered the final minute, they held a six-point buffer.

Not willing to concede defeat, the Rams continued to attack and looked to have created an opening before play was called back due to a forward pass.

With 30 seconds remaining, Hancock admitted he thought the game was lost at that point, but his players kept their composure.

"We were a chance that whole set when they called that back for the forward pass. I was up the other end of the field and couldn't see, but a few of the boys were a bit upset about the call,” the coach said.

"Lucky they kept their cool and packed the scrum.

"We quickly packed the scrum and the referee called time-out and there was 15 seconds to go or something like that. Then their lock knocked on from the base of the scrum and we were in with another chance.

"Then Coopa Martin scored and Raymond Towney, as he's done so many times, slotted a really important goal and then we went into extra-time.

"There was only five or six second left on the clock, we only had one play, but fortunately we scored.”

As Hancock addressed his players before extra-time, which was five minutes each way, he felt confident they would go on to clinch the Country Championship crown.

"They were really positive the whole way through the game, but I just knew when we got to extra-time and the way that they were talking to each other, they were still excited, still had some petrol left in the tank. I knew that momentum shift was with us,” he said.

This time Hancock was right and two more tries – one of them from Martin who finished with a hat-trick – sealed to win.

The winning team included three Bathurst Panthers players in skipper Nic Barlow, Nathan Ward, Brad Fearnley and Mackenzie Atkins.

Barlow, Campbell Woolnough and Ben Glasheen were named in the Country under 16s.