Northern Suburbs captain Will Miller has described the joy he and his teammates experienced over the weekend as the Shoreman broke their 41-year Shute Shield premiership drought.

In front of more then 11,000 fans at North Sydney Oval, Norths recorded their 13^th straight victory, beating Sydney Uni 28-15 to claim the title.

“It’s probably the best day of my life to be honest. I can’t explain it properly but I was just so happy and I still am so happy. It’s still probably sinking in a bit but it was just an unbelievable experience,” Miller said.

After gaining a 10-point advantage early in the second half, Norths let the Students back into the match, with Tom Carter and Tolu Latu crossing to put Uni in front.

“Uni are a team that like to play with momentum so we knew they were going to fight back and go on a bit of a run eventually,” Miller said.

“We just needed to minimise the damage when that happened and I think we did that. They scored those two tries but then a few plays went our way and we got the momentum back.”

Flyhalf Angus Sinclair kicked a penalty goal with eight minutes remaining to give Norths a one point lead, before he linked with his brother, No.8 Hugh, to put winger Richard Woolf in space.

“As soon as Woolfy got the ball, I knew they weren’t going to catch him,” Miller recalled.

“Then we kicked the goal and went ahead by eight and from there I sort of knew we had won. They weren’t going to score two more tries to beat us.”

Norths crossed from a driving maul in the final minute to seal the win, inspiring the Northern Suburbs faithful to invade the pitch and begin celebrations early.

“That was unreal, that’s the only way to describe it and it’s something that I’ll never forget,” the skipper said.

“There were probably three or four wins from those 12 where we were behind in the last 10 minutes and won, so that gave us a lot of confidence.

“When they scored those couple of tries, we just made sure everyone stayed calm and focussed on the next job because it was just about executing. We’d done all the hard work so we knew what we needed to do and fortunately we were able to get the job done, which was pretty awesome.”

Miller said the side was overwhelmed by the support from past and present players leading into the match and admitted the vocal crowd helped get his side over the line in the final minutes.

“It made you understand the importance of it and the history of the club. The old boys were just over the moon that we were in the final,” he said.

“I got messages through the week from old players explaining how much it meant to them that we were in the final, they weren’t worried about the result, they were just thrilled to see us there so to win front of those guys, legends of the club and legends of rugby, it was pretty special. “

The win caps a stellar year for Miller, who was awarded the 2016 Ken Catchpole Medal last week as the Shute Shield’s best player. While many believe he’s ready to play Super Rugby, the humble 23-year old seemed happy to deflect the attention.

“There’s a lot of luck involved because there are so many good backrowers in Australian rugby but it would be fantastic if it happened,” he said.

“There are probably a few other Norths boys that deserve it. Irae Simone showed just how good he is this year and I think he deserves to go on and play high level footy.”

After spending two seasons with the NSW Country Eagles, Miller has followed Norths coach Simon Cron to the Sydney Rays for this year’s National Rugby Championship, which begins later this month.

“It was hard to leave NSW Country because I loved playing with the Eagles but there is a better opportunity to play footy at the Rays so I’m looking forward to that.”

But Miller’s first priority is to return to the family dairy farm in Berry, where he works alongside his father on top of his rugby commitments.

“He wasn’t expecting me back on Monday morning, he was pretty happy with the win, but I’ll have to go back and milk the sarvo, I’ve got some hours to make up.”