HERMIT Park coach Barry Gibson challenged his Tigers to prove if they were premiership contenders or pretenders.

He got the answer he so desperately wanted at Tony Ireland Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

For the first time in this AFL Townsville Premiership campaign the Tigers beat high-flying competition leaders Thuringowa 16.15 (111) to 11.4 (70) to blow the title race wide open.

Hermit Park led from start to finish, but the result was up for grabs heading into the final term.

"At three-quarter time I challenged them as to how serious we were about this year and that we had 30 minutes to find out the guys that were really committed and serious about being real contenders," Gibson said.

"I think the guys really rallied to that, they stood up."

Gibson described the victory as the Tigers' most complete performance of 2010, although conceded wayward kicking in front of goal had cost them a chance to wrap up the fixture far earlier.

While the Bulldogs will unquestionably remain favourites for this year's crown after dropping to just their third defeat, Gibson said the victory proved it was anything but a one-horse race.

"It's how do you pick it for me? A couple of weeks ago Uni beat us by three-and-a-half goals and the next week they get their pants pulled down by Bulldogs and then we beat the Bulldogs by (41) points the week after," he said.

"It's wide open ... and it's a case that if one team comes really ready to play and the other team aren't on their game, there's going to be a gap because it's that close.

"But we're not getting too carried away."

Hermit Park had a strong spread of scorers, with Darren Andrews leading the way with four majors, while Keiran Daley, Jason Di Betta and Matthew Tebble each bagged three.

Adam Balnaves and Luke Sypott snared three each for Thuringowa.

HERMIT Park marked their 1000th Townsville AFL premiership game with a gutsy 13.3 (81) to 11.9 (75) win against a resurgent Curra Swans at Neil French Oval on Saturday. Any thoughts the Tigers would dominate their cellar-dweller opponents were quickly struck aside as both teams traded points from the outset of the contest.

Curra even hit the lead in the later stages of the game, but a late rally handed Hermit Park victory and the annual Eric Johns Cup contested between the two clubs. "We won by four goals in the end, it was anyone's game heading into the last quarter, we were probably three goals up and had our noses in front," Hermit Park coach Barry Gibson said. "It probably wasn't the prettiest win for us, I thought we made a lot of silly decisions throughout the course of the game, but when they tested us I was really impressed with our character and the fact we dug deep to get the win.

"They had their noses in front at one stage in the third quarter so it was pretty close, probably the standout thing for me was just the way we persevered despite not having the best day." Five games were played between the two clubs in a variety of grades, with Hermit Park winning all five. "We had a good turnout and I think the games were played in great spirit, everyone was pretty happy with that, from our club's perspective obviously to win the Eric Johns Cup five games to nil in all grades was a fantastic achievement," Gibson said.