Sandhurst coach Wayne Primmer sat back in the change rooms with a grin on his face.

The first-year Dragons’ coach had just led the club to its first premiership in 12 years. He wasn’t smiling because of his own achievement. It was all about his players.

“I’m so happy for the players,’’ Primmer said. “They’ve put in a lot of hard work to get to this. They’re a great bunch of young blokes.”

Primmer took over from Brett Fitzpatrick as Sandhurst coach at the end of last season.

Fitzpatrick did little wrong in his reign having led the Dragons to two-straight grand final appearances.

Primmer was on a hiding to nothing. Anything less than another grand final appearance would have been seen as a failure.

“I was very lucky in that I inherited a group of players that had played a lot together and knew how to play footy,’’ Primmer said.

“The hurt of playing in two losing grand finals helped me as well because the players were very keen to go the extra step.”

Primmer implemented a team defensive mindset not seen at the Dragons before.

 Their pressure around the ball and tackling were two of the major reasons why the club won 14-straight games, including the grand final.

Sandhurst restricted Golden Square to eight goals in the decider. In four matches against Sandhurst this year the Bulldogs didn’t kick more than 10 goals in a game.

Sandhurst didn’t concede more than 95 points in a game all season.

“Our team defence has been great all year, but I thought our backline was brilliant overall,’’ Primmer said. “The way we defend and keep teams to 10 goals… you’re going to win more games than you lose.”