While Greg Smith owns the title of worst debutant, Paul Carige is a strong contender for worst ever performance in Australian Rugby League.
Carige debuted for the Illawarra Steelers in 1996 and featured in 16 games in a solid first season. For 1997 he joined the Eels, managing 45 games for the club in two seasons only to completely disappear at the conclusion of the 1998 preliminary final. It is a game etched in folklore due to the incompetence Carige exhibited on the day.
The great Paul Carige was playing fullback that day, a position he had made his own in a promising start to his career. The Eels led the Bulldogs 18-2 with just over ten minutes to play. A number of shocking errors from the Eels allowed the Bulldogs to miraculously level the scores at 18-18.
But those errors were nothing compared to the meltdown that was about to occur in Carige’s brain. With under a minute remaining Carige attempted to gain a 20-metre restart by putting his foot over the dead ball line and touching the football, the problem was, the ball had already stopped moving. This gave the Bulldogs an opportunity to break the deadlock via a goal line drop out. While the Eels survived a field goal attempt from that set, Carige inexplicably decided to kick the ball on the first tackle ten metres out from his own line giving the ball straight back to Canterbury.
Craig Polla-Mounter then attempted a field goal which fell agonisingly short meaning the match went into extra time. The Dogs edged ahead with an early field goal in extra time and with his time now trailing 19-18 Carige inexplicably decided to field a misguided crossfield kick jumping into the air a metre inside the left hand touchline. Carige was pushed into touch and the Dogs would then go on to score a try.
The second period of extra time would incur another brain explosion for Carige. This time the fullback would field a bomb and walk straight into touch causing Eels legend and commentator, Peter Sterling to loose his cool with a blunt “He’s caught the ball and walked into touch.”
The Eels went on to lose the match 32-20 and Carige was never seen on an NRL field again. In fact for a time he wasn’t seen at all. Carige fled to Coffs Harbour after copping verbal abuse wherever he went.
In a 2007 interview Carige admitted that he suffered a few brain explosions during the match.
“Look, I was just trying my best for the team, sometimes those things come off and you come up with a win. We gave it our best shot, I suppose it was an exciting game, good for the fans.”
Carige attempted to resurrect his career in the UK but was unsuccesful. He would later play for Wynnum-Manly in the Queensland Cup in 2002 for a few seasons and as of 2007 was working as a teacher in the Brisbane Youth Detention Centre.
malcolmbrowne1286794
Roar Rookie
this truly is unfair on him, after this he became a teacher. single handedly best science teacher I have ever had, he made everything so easy to understand and really had a way of teaching that I haven't seen since, he was the only reason I passed science that year and was all around just a really great guy, he was so passionate about football its such a shame one small mistake cost him his dream.
Bloke7
Roar Rookie
I know this has been a while but what a perfect time its been for going back to watch a game I was lucky enough to attend..and not leave with 12 minutes to go. But being at the ground you miss just how inept Paul Carige was that day, you need the constant commentators attention calling his name for these mistakes. It might not be entirely his fault given the overall ineptitude of Parra from about the 60th minute for some reason; poor final kick choices, missed easy field goal, lazy defense which in a time of unlimited interchange is astounding and also some strange interchange choices by Brian Smith; but none of that compares to how awful Carige was at the back end of that game. Cheers mate, you gave me one of the best feelings I ever had when I thought that field goal went over..followed up by a slower build up of joy in extra time.
Dutski
Roar Guru
Looking at the slo-mo three times... ball was on the move.
Oingo Boingo
Guest
50/50
The Barry
Roar Guru
Haha...well said. I should have said "unlosable in the normal scheme of things bar multiple whacky interventions in a ridiculously short period of time from a complete pillock" I sort of assumed everyone would know what I was talking about with the abridged version...
The Barry
Roar Guru
Definitely stopped.
Bigj
Guest
Then it wasn't unloseable then was it? He lost a game through stupidity Gi was trying to win one, through a completely pointless act. Plus does anyone else think he did it I purpose??? It has happened before
Magnus M. Østergaard
Roar Guru
Considering thats one act verses about 30mins of complete debacles I think Carige has it all over Inglis. Especially considering it caused Carige to lose his career.
Will Sinclair
Roar Guru
With under a minute remaining Carige attempted to gain a 20-metre restart by putting his foot over the dead ball line and touching the football, the problem was, the ball had already stopped moving. Just quietly, this was an absolutely shocking refereeing decision. There is no way known to man that ball had completely stopped. It was mid-roll when he put his hand on it, for God's sake!
The Barry
Roar Guru
Ahead of a guy single-handedly losing an unlosable grand final qualifier?
bigJ
Guest
Still think GI wins with that Field goal attempt against the dragons with the score 8-6 to the dragons
Oingo Boingo
Guest
Yep , probably went on a nice long holiday after winning a handsome sum on the TAB.
The Barry
Roar Guru
That 98 semi was one of the all time great moments for Bulldogs fans. It was a 10 team semi series and we'd come in at 9th but won well against the Dragons (8th), Bears (5th) and Knights (2nd). It was looking like 95 all over again. The Eels had beaten the all star Broncos the week before. Unfortunately the gulf in quality between the honest toiling Bulldogs and one of the best club teams ever assembled showed on grand final day. Obviously Carige will go down for that game in 98 but I remember him having a pretty impressive start to his career. I wonder if the integrity unit would investigate a performance like Carige's if it happened today?