THE drought is over.
After 13 long, painful years, Ainslie has its hands on AFL Canberra's prime piece of silverware once again.
Led superbly by Alex Jesaulenko medallist Robert Shirley and five-goal hero Nick Paine, the Tricolours collected their first top-grade premiership since 1997 with a 25-point victory over the Eastlake Demons at Manuka Oval yesterday.
Ainslie hit its lowest ebb four years ago, when internal dramas resulted in more than 40 players departing the club.
Tricolours coach Chris Rourke has overseen the dramatic rise.
Having felt the heartache of losing last year's decider to Belconnen by a single goal, hearing the final siren with Ainslie ahead 13.10 (88) to 9.9 (63) was music to the coach's ears.
''Real relief, the fact when I came here we were rock bottom,'' Rourke said.
''The club had a change of committee, we lost 40-odd players and we started from scratch.
''We did it hard the first year. Everyone took off and you couldn't attract anybody.
''The whole competition towelled us up, but we hung tough and we thought we'd come back. It really is satisfying.''
The script appeared to favour the Demons early on, as the outsiders jumped to a two-goal break by quarter-time.
Whether it was grand final nerves, or a touch of rust after having last week off, Ainslie began slowly.
Rourke, though, remained calm.
''I was quite pleased. I thought we controlled the first 15 [minutes], and then they got a run on and we made a few silly errors and gave away a few easy goals,'' Rourke said.
For more on this story, see the print edition of today's Canberra Times.
Source: The Canberra Times
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