THE under-12 Gremlins took to Sullivan Oval in what was probably the most physical game of the league grand-final day.

The boys represented Stanthorpe at the Warwick and District Junior Rugby League finals on Saturday.

Team manager Justin Heaven said despite the boys' 28-6 loss against an undefeated Goondiwindi Boars they did themselves and their town proud.

"The final score was not a true reflection of the game," Heaven said.

"In the first few minutes, we lost a player to a knee injury.

"The way the boys started the game was at such a fast pace and they got on top of Goondiwindi in the first few minutes and had them trapped down on their own line for the first stanza.

"Then a Goondiwindi player went down with a suspected dislocated elbow, which led to a half-an-hour break in proceedings."

Heaven said due to the special circumstance, officials decided to re-start the game at the 18-minute mark.

"Goondiwindi started up the better once the ball started again and ran in three quick tries, which put the boys on the back foot," he said.

"The boys then came out in the second half and played a fantastic game. Their defence at that time was the pinnacle of their game and they lifted it to the next level for the grand-final."

Heaven said they came back and kept themselves in the game, with a try from Jake Burnell and a conversion from Zeke Walter.

"They also had two chances in that half that were very close to being tries," Heaven said.

"In defence, Tomas Bonner, Will McPaul and Spencer Jensen were fantastic, while in attack Hamish Cole played out of his skin as usual, Jake Burnell, Michael Carmody and Kye Watson never stopped trying all day."

Hamish Cole played the whole second half with a broken hand and Josh Wren had a hairline fracture to his thumb.