The talented five-eighth skippered his side to commanding wins over Lithgow and St Pat’s to reach the decider of the annual pre-season tournament, but it was Bathurst Panthers who won Saturday’s final 8-4.

The Tigers certainly had their chances and led 4-0 at half-time, but were unable to go on with things after the break at Carrington Park.

It was the second time the Tigers had made a pre-season tournament final, having also finished as runners-up at the West Wyalong Knockout.

“There’s no excuses on our end. Panthers were way too good. We dropped too much ball, but we won’t be using that as an excuse,” Branighan said.

"We’ve had a pretty good pre-season. We made the final of the West Wyalong Knockout as well. No excuses for us not winning there either, but we lost a lot of players in the semis. Today, we just weren’t good enough in the final.

“I’ll be disappointed tonight like I was at West Wyalong when we lost the final, but then I’ll cool down and work on what we need to do.”

A knee injury sustained by hooker Luke Carpenter in Oberon’s semi-final win over St Pat’s is a concern for the mentor, who will now focus on getting improvement from his men ahead of the Group 10 premier league season kick-off.

“I’m very happy with the squad I’ve got, but we are probably playing about 50-60 per cent at the moment. Talk is cheap; we’ve got to learn to take that next step,” he said.

“We got found out in the last 20 minutes of last year and we got found out today, but I’m not worried. We’ve got a fantastic playing group.

“I’ve been around a while now, I’m 36, I’ve played a lot of big games, and if the guys can take those things I’ve got to teach them on board, we’ll be a better side.”