Munyard, who captained the side, said he was ‘still coming to terms’ with the achievement.
“It’s pretty surreal. I don’t really believe that it’s happened. It hasn’t really hit me yet,” he said.
Livingstone said he was in equal disbelief.
“It hasn’t sunk in at all. I don’t think it will for a long time,” he said.
“It’s a weird feeling, because it’s something me and Levi would talk about as kids. To do it together on the same team is so cool.”
The team won through to Sunday’s final against New South Wales Metro after finishing second in its pool, dropping its first game of the tournament to the same NSW Metro team before going undefeated the rest of the way.
In its first final, Victoria Country dispatched Queensland South 80-64, setting up a semi final against a highly fancied Western Australia Metro team that was yet to lose a game.
While WA Metro led by six points at half time, Victoria Country roared back in the second half to win 87-76.
Munyard was a crucial contributor off the bench, scoring 11 points including a three-pointer with three minutes remaining to give his side a 12-point lead.
It was a performance he would repeat in the final against NSW Metro, when, in a frenetic final term, Victoria Country led by four points with four minutes remaining.
A running hook shot by Munyard put his side up 71-65, but an even bigger shot was his three-pointer, which gave Victoria Country an 82-70 lead with only 90 seconds remaining in the game.
“The guy who had the ball, Keegan Johnson, is a great passer and as he dribbled down we made a little bit of eye contact, so I knew he was going to pass to me,” Munyard said.
“I was ready before it came to me, and I said to myself ‘I’m going to shoot it no matter what’. I got it a little bit deeper than I should have, and not much went through my mind – I just shot it.
“It took me a second to realise what actually happened.”
Munyard was mobbed by team mates after NSW Metro called time out following the shot.
“It was unreal. The adrenaline and the crowd was crazy. I didn’t know how to feel, but it was incredible,” he said.
But while his on-court heroics helped deliver Victoria Country a championship, Munyard said the attitude he and Livingstone helped embody was what led to the team’s success.
“I feel like I’ve matured in my game, realising that it’s not about me, it’s about how the team performs,” he said.
“For me, the only thing I care about is the score at the end. I don’t care about anything else, I just want to win, and that’s how I’ll always play.
“I think that’s what took us over the line in the end. Every time we were down or tired, we found a way, and that’s what we tried to emphasise in our game – finding a way when it gets hard.”
Livingstone said while he and Munyard played sparingly off the bench across the tournament – Munyard averaging about 13 minutes a game and Livingstone eight – they embraced their roles.
Munyard finished the tournament averaging 4.5 points, 1.5 rebounds and 1.6 assists a game, while Livingstone averaged 2.6 points, 2.1 rebounds and 0.3 assists.
“We had a really great sense of togetherness. We all knew our roles going into the tournament and we knew what we had to do to win it,” Livingstone said.
“At the end of the day it’s about playing your role and knowing what you have to do individually, whether you only get on the court for two or three minutes and grab a couple of rebounds and get a couple of stops on defence, or play 20 minutes as a starter and score 20 points.”
Munyard paid tribute to Livingstone and the rest of his team mates.
“Micah and I have been playing together since under-12s,” he said.
“He’s been my best mate since kindergarten. It’s more than a friendship between us, it’s more like we’re brothers. It was an incredible feeling to be able to do it with him.
“The way we won was more off the court than on the court. I’ve been playing with three or four of those players for seven years. We were just mates playing.”
Livingstone and Munyard both acknowledged the sacrifice of their families, who helped transport them to numerous state training events leading up to the tournament.
Victoria Country coach Brenton O’Brien said collectively, the families of the team’s players had driven 106,000 kilometres in the three months leading up to the tournament – the equivalent of more than two trips around the world.
But Munyard’s mother Amanda said the sacrifice had been worth it.
“We do it so much harder than all the metro teams when we have to come together for training, and they set this team up with a really full-on training schedule for the last three months – a lot more than they’ve ever done with any country team before,” she said.
“We’re overwhelmed with emotion. It was the most phenomenal week.”
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