This Saturday night, the Wests Tigers will celebrate ten years since their historic and surprise NRL premiership win when they clash with the North Queensland Cowboys at Campbelltown Stadium.
It was on October 2, 2005, when one of rugby league’s biggest fairytale stories came true at ANZ Stadium. The Tigers, in just their sixth season of existence as a joint venture, climbed from near the bottom of the ladder mid-season to the premiership dais in the space of three-and-a-half months.
At the start of the year the club wasn’t considered a serious contender to win the premiership, having failed to reach the finals in their first five seasons as a merged entity and boasting one of the most inexperienced playing lists in the competition.
But under the coaching of Tim Sheens, who coached the Canberra Raiders to their two premierships in 1990 and 1994, the Tigers surprised many with upset wins over the 2004 grand finalists, the Bulldogs and Roosters, to start the season.
However, a form slump which saw the club lose seven of ten matches between Rounds 6 and 15 saw the club languish in 12th position on the ladder and at this stage their season appeared to be all but written off.
The Tigers then embarked on a then-record eight-match winning streak which included wins over the Dragons, Sea Eagles, Roosters, Cowboys and a record 54-2 win over defending premiers the Bulldogs at ANZ Stadium in Round 24.
The winning streak would come to an end at the hands of the Melbourne Storm in the penultimate round of the season, and despite another loss the following week against the Penrith Panthers in Round 26, the club did enough to finish fourth at the end of the regular season.
Their finals debut would see them drawn against the North Queensland Cowboys, who the previous year reached the finals for the first time after entering the competition in 1995, falling just one match short of the grand final.
Entering this match, the two sides had split their meetings during the regular season, the Cowboys winning 44-20 at Willows Sports Complex in Round 6 and the Tigers returning the favour 28-16 at Campbelltown Stadium in Round 23.
Led by a 30-point haul from fullback Brett Hodgson, the Tigers would hand the Cowboys a humiliating 50-6 defeat but would be forced into sudden death the following week.
Their semi-final match would see them pitted against the Brisbane Broncos, who handed the Tigers a 40-22 defeat at Suncorp Stadium in Round 15. Back then, the Broncos appeared to be well on their way to the minor premiership, however a late-season form slump would see them finish third on the ladder.
The Tigers caused the nadir of that slump and sent Wayne Bennett’s men crashing out of September with a 34-6 victory, setting up a blockbuster preliminary final against fellow joint venture club the St George Illawarra Dragons in the process.
This was where the club’s premiership credentials would be put to the test.
The Dragons entered the preliminary final match as premiership favourites, having overcome an 0-4 start to the season to finish equal first with the Eels on the ladder, but second on percentage.
Filled with internationals including Trent Barrett, Mark Gasnier, Matt Cooper and Luke Bailey, among others, the club was expected to advance to the grand final on the back of their experience and more impressive season.
Instead, Nathan Brown’s men were exposed as premiership pretenders by the underdog Tigers, with Wests leading from start to finish to win 20-12, and the fairytale was almost complete.
Standing in their way of the premiership were the North Queensland Cowboys, who rebounded from their heavy qualifying final loss to the Tigers to set up the rematch after defeating the Storm and Eels in consecutive sudden-death finals matches.
But just as they did in that qualifying final, the Tigers entered the grand final as favourites, and it was easy to see why. They had won eleven of their last thirteen matches dating back to Round 16 and were peaking at the very right time.
After Matt Bowen scored the first try of the match for the Cowboys, the Tigers would score their first try on the back of a Cowboys error, with Bryce Gibbs pouncing on a loose pass from Paul Bowman. Suddenly, the scores were level once again and the game was anyone’s to win.
But that would only set the precedence for one of the best, if not the greatest, plays in recent grand final history.
Fielding a kick from Johnathan Thurston on his own tryline, Benji Marshall would break the Cowboys defence, run down the same wing where Todd Byrne was tackled two years earlier, and flick a look-behind pass to Pat Richards who finished the play with the match-turning try minutes out from half-time.
That would see the Tigers enter the main break 12-6. The job was half done.
After the two sides traded tries in the first 15 minutes of the second half, the Tigers would skip clear thanks to a try from Daniel Fitzhenry, which would see them surge ahead 24-12 with 15 minutes to play.
However, the Cowboys were not done yet. With five minutes to go, Matt Sing scored a try in the corner and Josh Hannay needed to convert it to keep alive their fading premiership chances.
He missed, and so the Cowboys’ premiership dream died. A minute out from full-time, Todd Payten would put the icing on the cake for the Tigers and from there the celebrations would start going into full swing.
The fairytale was complete. The Wests Tigers had gone from outsiders at the start of the season to unlikely premiers by its end.
A decade on, only three players from that victorious side remain at the club today: Robbie Farah, Pat Richards and Dene Halatau.
Farah will miss the match as he has been selected to captain the New South Wales State of Origin team ahead of Game 1 at ANZ Stadium next Wednesday night. Richards and Halatau, on the other hand, both went to different clubs before returning to the Tigers prior to the commencement of last season.
The Wests Tigers’ unlikely premiership victory from 2005 will be celebrated when they face the Cowboys at Campbelltown Stadium this Saturday night, but on a serious note they must win this match if they are to get their season back on track.
The present-day Tigers have been slow to start life under Jason Taylor, winning only four of their opening ten matches to currently be sitting in 12th place on the ladder.
The Cowboys, on the other hand, sit equal with the Storm, Dragons and Broncos at the top of the ladder, having won their last seven matches, thus equalling the club record from 2007, after losing their first three matches of the season.
However, it’s the Tigers who lead in the head-to-head by 16 wins to 14, and the club hasn’t lost to the Cowboys anywhere in Sydney (ANZ Stadium, Leichhardt Oval or Campbelltown Stadium) since the penultimate round of the 2004 season.
That statistic, and the celebrations surrounding their 2005 premiership victory, will be the two factors which the Tigers hope will inspire the current side to their fifth victory of the season.
On the other hand, if the Cowboys are to break new ground and win their eighth consecutive match, which would mark a new club record, they’ll have to do it without Johnathan Thurston, Matt Scott and James Tamou, all of whom will be missing due to State of Origin commitments.
So, can the Wests Tigers take advantage of their absences, end the Cowboys’ winning streak and come away with the win this Saturday night?
We all wait to see.
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