Tallon Smith

The Kiama Knights have ended a 6-year drought to take out the 2025 Group 7 Rugby League premiership with a 16-4 win over the Shellharbour Sharks at Albion Park’s Centenary Field on Sunday.

The Knights ran in three tries to one on a wet South Coast day to secure the win, with skipper Tom Angel leading the way with a double to lead Kiama to its first title since 2019.

Kiama opened the scoring in the 28th minute after a Jacob Seabrook error on kick receipt was toed ahead by both Callan Thistlethwaite and Max Jennings, leaving the ball in the right spot at the right time for Angel to pounce and collect the first four pointer of the match.

Shellharbour responded in the 55th minute, when a strong charge from Palu Tausala was followed up by a right side raid, with Braxton Wallace floating a Harbour Bridge pass over the top to winger Jye Brooker who raced in to score in the corner.

Not about to let their grasp on the trophy slip, the Knights hit back four minutes later, with halfback Cameron Vazzoler seizing the moment with a short ball to Angel for his second to give Kiama a 12-4 lead with a quarter of the match remaining.

Needing to be next to score, a haphazard last tackle play from the Sharks saw Wallace nearly caught with the ball, only to pass it back to Palu Tausala, who in turn threw it to Seabrook, only for the play to end in disaster when Thistlethwaite toed the ball ahead in the wet conditions to score an opportunistic try and seal the deal for Kiama.

Kiama captain Tom Angel said that the club’s second win in six years meant a lot to the Knights’ players and supporters, especially following the return of halfback Cameron Vazzoler after his battle with a rare autoimmune disorder.

“This one [held] a little bit more meaning,” he said.

“My first premiership was after I’d only played about 30 first grade games, so now that I’ve played over 100, and going through those few slim years that we had, just not only for myself but the whole playing group, the whole club, to win another premiership, within that six years, after the last premiership being 34 years, it meant a lot.

“Obviously everyone’s heard the stories about Cameron and his illness and all those kind of things, just to win the competition, bringing back our local juniors [as] the youth of the side, and then those couple of handy additions of Joshy Hitchins and Sammy Hooper from Warilla, definitely it meant a little more to us.

“Everyone hadn’t written us off, but we were always the underdogs the whole way through the season.”

Following the match, Angel was awarded man of the match honours cap off a two try performance to be proud of.

However, according to the man himself, it was more a sense of relief that he felt following full time, knowing he was the one who stepped up in the final game in a team renowned for efforts across the park.

“[There was] a little bit of surprise and a bit of relief that I’d played one of my biggest games on the biggest day,” he said.

“Obviously the first one was a bit of luck of the draw, right place, right time thing, but to score that second one which pretty much wrapped us up the game was very satisfying.

“It was just my turn to put my hand up on the day and have a good game, and that’s the thing about our side, there were blokes willing to do that all year, it wasn’t the same person that stood out every week.

“I’m just lucky that my day was the big dance.”

When asked about his side’s opponents from Sunday’s match, the Knights skipper said he was full of respect and admiration for the level of competition they offered.

“They have been the benchmark of the competition, other than Gerrringng, for four or five years now, they’re always there and thereabouts and they are a very strong and physical side,” he said.

“Obviously it’s hard to get to back-to-back-to-back Grand Finals, so full credit to them, they’re a great side.”

In the lower grade deciders, Kiama fell just short of a First Grade-Reserve Grade double Stingrays of Shellharbour recorded a 22-16 win, while Berry-Shoalhaven Heads defeated arch rivals Gerringong 34-12 in the Under 18s decider.