The Panthers were too good against Macarthur Heat with a 60-55 win.

It was their third consecutive premiership title under head coach Jeff Cooper.

Rookie Tom Dawson was the stand-out performer of the year, winning the "Most Valuable Player", "Rookie of the Year" and "All-Star Five" awards for the regular season, then taking out the "Best Defensive Player" and "Most Valuable Player" awards in the grand final.

The Blacktown Storm Youth League men's team suffered a second half melt-down in their grand final, falling 76-60 to the Ryde Bulls on Sunday.

The Storm had held off a fast-finishing Grafton Vikings on Saturday morning, to win their semi-final clash 79-72 and were favourites to take out the grand final against the Bulls, who had finished in second spot behind the Storm in the regular season.

The weekend was a big occasion for the Storm, who were fielding a team in the senior playoffs for the first time in the very short history of the association.

There were few signs of nerves, however from the young Blacktown players, who 'stormed' to a 21-10 lead in the first quarter, 42-30 at half time and 58-44 heading into 'money-time'.

The Vikings showed great character to fight back in the final quarter, closing to within uncomfortable margin as the Storm squad members began to run into foul trouble.

Key play-makers Daniel and Tim Garland both fouled out of the game during 'money-time' but the calm heads of Francis Barquez and Mark Deriviere guided the Storm to victory.

Sunday's game saw the Bulls take the early initiative, leading 13-10 at the end of the first term before the Storm swept through their opponents in the second quarter, racing away to a 34-26 lead.

There would however be no fairy-tale finish to the season for the Storm, who simply withered under a point-scoring avalanche and an overwhelming rebound count, heavily in favour of the Bulls.