The power base in Sunshine Coast senior rugby officially moved on Saturday afternoon.

And, for the first time, it’s landed at University.

No longer are the Noosa Dolphins the No.1 club – and aren’t there plenty of rugby lovers outside of Noosa happy about that.

There’s been a lot of oval-ball envy about how Noosa has managed to qualify for grand final after grand final, and win premiership after premiership – 13 in all.

But that era of dominance has ended.

If it wasn’t official before Saturday’s grand final against Uni, it became so after the Barbarians clinched back-to-back premierships thanks to a comprehensive 37-14 victory at Sippy Downs.

Missing out on the premiership two years in a row is a drought for the Dolphins, who can still be proud of making yet another GF.

The Barbarians’ rise to the top has taken Coast rugby, so used to Noosa-Maroochydore grand finals, by surprise.

It was only a few years ago that they finished with the first grade wooden-spoon and, with the transient nature of their then student-based side, it didn’t seem as if anything would change in a hurry.

But it did, both on and off the field.

A more professional approach to running the club, including lining up an impressive list of sponsors, has been matched by a more professional approach to preparing for and playing the game.

The benefits started to show with a grand final appearance against Noosa at Kawana three years ago when Noosa narrowly won the highest-standard premiership decider in the past decade.

Would Uni return to their old ways and miss the finals the following year? No way.

They made it back to the grand final in 2007 and won their first top grade premiership by beating Nambour in the first GF not to feature either Noosa or Maroochydore.

That was sweet, but beating Noosa in a grand final is the pinnacle for the other seven SCRU clubs.

If Uni had lost to the Dolphins on Saturday, there’s no way they could claim to be the Coast’s No.1 club, even though they did have four sides playing on grand final day.

Realistically, the result in Saturday’s first grade game was relatively easy to predict.

Not only were the Barbarians at home – and they did a great job of hosting the big day – they were up against a Dolphins side which they had defeated the last two times they played, including a flogging at Sippy Downs in the second round.

Uni also had its complement of Sunshine Coast Stingrays Premier Rugby players back, although coach Regan Berryman resisted the temptation of including all of them in his starting line-up.

The 23-point margin the Barbarians chalked up was a fair indication of the difference between the two clubs.

If University, which lost just once all season and didn’t come close to conceding 100 points all up, can keep most of this squad together, three in a row is a big possibility and the streak could get even longer than that.

What they have done, along with winning two premierships, is show that it is possible for someone other than Noosa or Maroochydore to win a Coast grand final.

It’s up to the other clubs, who still sit on a duck egg, to try and match what the Barbarians have done.

And you can bet that, up Noosa way, they’ve already started thinking about how to get the premiership back