The nail-bitting last seconds of Sunday's match etched it into history: it was an extraordinary climax, replete with a last minute reprieve for the underdogs, delivering a fairytale victory. The gladiators deserve their win, especially so their superstar player, Johnathan Thurston. The game made history by being the first all-Queensland grand final and by delivering the first golden-point decider.

Even those few Australians who do not follow the NRL can be proud of how far the nation has come in the 21 years since the North Queensland Cowboys joined the competition. One facet of that progress was on display on Sunday, with two Indigenous captains leading their teams on to the field.

The win by the Cowboys will reverberate through the nation's north, not just in Townsville, but also in smaller centres such as Cloncurry where people can quite rightly take pride in an long overdue victory over "the southerners". A Queenslander knows that in FNQ, reference to southerners can mean those who live in Brisbane, not Sydney. The Cowboys' win is also a desperately needed confidence boost for the regions west of Townsville which are badly affected by drought.

Talk of secession erupts regularly in the north and, for one moment, it seemed Thurston – JT – was going to revive this issue during his post-match interview, but he went on to say the "new" thing he wanted was a stadium. His televised call to arms, on the back of the team's success, may help secure the funds for the facility.

A key aspect of the win is that the team comes from a regional city, displacing the customary capital city grip on the trophy. This boost in pride should not be underestimated – and the significance of this factor is not lost on the citizens of cities such as Canberra and Newcastle.

Along with a boost to local pride comes, possibly, hopefully, the creation of an awareness in other parts of the country about the nature of the city that produced the winning team. Certainly, after the Raiders' triumph in 1989, fans outside the national capital had cause to reflect. The commonly-held belief was Canberra was soulless and good only for housing politicians and bureaucrats. Mal Meninga's team gave the capital something even the knockers in Sydney or Brisbane couldn't dispute – sporting success, a powerful currency in this nation.

However, if the beliefs of other Australians were shifted, even marginally, after the Raiders' win, the effect didn't last long. Shocks jocks burst that particular bubble with a return to blaming "Canberra" for the nation's woes. Despite that ongoing campaign, residents of the nation's capital know better: they have witnessed their city come to life. And notwithstanding the Raiders' results this season, fans now have reason to show new respect to their opponents in the north and hope they enjoy floating on their new-found bubble of success.