They played minor premiers the West Belconnen Warriors at Seiffert Oval, and despite being down 10-0 after the first 30 minutes, found the fire in their bellies to storm towards their first premiership since 2012.

The win was a significant one for the club on the day, raising the curtain to the first grade Blues' grand final, and coming after last year when both the first and reserve grade teams went down to the Queanbeyan Kangaroos.

Hoare admitted his men made the win hard for themselves, even labelling them "disrespectful to the ball", but said he was happy with the way they re-grouped in the second half.

"After the disappointment of last year, and coming into this game as underdogs, we didn't treat it with the respect it deserved, but with the whole new group we've got this year, we really worked our butts off for the win," said Hoare.

The Blues were on the wrong end of an 18-5 penalty count, under some controversial refereeing decisions, but Hoare said his men earned themselves more credit by beating that statistic.

"It wasn't a flash performance, but we really dug deep and worked very hard to pull things together as a team," he said.