Cody Tickle joked that he knows why most junior development coaches don't have much hair after watching his Northern Tigers 16s rally from a half-time deficit to take the lead with around six minutes left of their Andrew Johns Cup opener, only to then almost squander it.
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After taking the lead for the first time in the game on 53 minutes, Tickle said that "16-year-old mentality kicked in" and they made a couple of errors to put themselves under pressure.
But some great defence, Tickle noting that they drove their opponents back a couple of times, and a fortuitous bounce helped them hold on to beat the North Coast Bulldogs 14-10 at Coffs Harbour on Saturday and get their campaign of to a winning start.
It was nervous times for Tickle and the Tigers in those final minutes with the home side coming very close to scoring on at least one occasion.
"If the ball had bounced forwards and not up they would have scored," Tickle admitted.
"They had two shots down our right side and the winger kicked it back on the inside and our fullback and five-eighth chased the ball, and I think we got the bounce of the ball in the end."
The determined effort was testament to the character that was for Tickle the standout aspect of the Tigers' performance.
Particularly in the first half they spent a lot of time defending.
That was partly of their own doing, making a lot of simple errors.
"We can build on that," he said of the performance.
"We can fix the little things, but that character it's great to have it."
You can't teach that.
Trailing 10-4 at half-time, he said were still in really good spirits going into the sheds after holding the Bulldogs to only two tries. Seeing that then filled him with confidence: "knowing that they have that sort of mental toughness as 16-year-olds to go back out and kick on with the game".
It was just a matter of a few tactical tweaks, cutting out the simple errors, going forward, and when they got their opportunities taking them, which they did.
Winger Charlie Lennard scored both of their second half tries after Darcy Weatherall had crossed in the first.
Prop Nate Rothall was meanwhile one of their best.
"He played big minutes in the middle and his defence was great and in the second half he took a lot of the tough carries to get us in good position," Tickle said.
The Tigers tackle Newcastle at Aberdeen next Saturday.
