Opinion
This Sunday, when the Sydney Roosters face the New Zealand Warriors at the Sydney Cricket Ground, both clubs will mark a significant anniversary – two decades since the clubs met in the first ever trans-Tasman NRL grand final.
The Warriors went into the decider off the back of their most successful season, winning seventeen of their twenty-four regular season matches, though only clinched the minor premiership in the final round just weeks after one of the biggest scandals in the NRL’s history.
En route to the finals, they had beaten the all-conquering Bulldogs at home in Round 22, ending the latter’s 17-match winning streak and setting off a stunning chain of events at NRL HQ that would throw the premiership race wide open.
Two weeks later, it emerged that the Bulldogs had engaged in long-term salary cap breaches, which saw the club stripped of 37 competition points and sent from the top of the ladder to the bottom of it in one hit with three rounds of the minor premiership still to play.
Ultimately, it was the Warriors that finished on top of the ladder for the first time in their history, despite losing two of their final three games, including a 44-0 loss to the Roosters, who finished fourth, in Round 24.
Daniel Anderson’s Warriors won their way through to the grand Ffnal courtesy of wins over the Raiders and Sharks, while the Roosters defeated the Sharks, then the previous two premiers, the Knights and Broncos, in succession to take their place in the big dance.
The Warriors went into the match looking to claim their first premiership in its eighth season, while the Roosters were attempting to end a 27-year title drought having not saluted since 1975.
Normally a rugby union-mad country, New Zealand got behind its team as they sought to bring the title home across the ditch for the first time, but it was the Chooks, with players such as Anthony Minichiello, Justin Hodges and Brad Fittler, that started favourites.
The evening got off to a disastrous start, when a pre-match performance by Billy Idol had to be aborted due to a power outage.
Once play got underway, both teams tested each other physically, with the first score not coming until the 23rd minute when Shannon Hegarty scored for the Roosters.
A successful conversion from Craig Fitzgibbon, followed after by an Ivan Cleary penalty goal for the Warriors, saw the scoreline read 6-2 in favour of the men from Bondi Junction at halftime.
Following the resumption of play, the Warriors would score a try through captain Stacey Jones, and the successful conversion from Ivan Cleary saw the Kiwis take an 8-6 lead. At that point, they and the club’s supporters were daring to dream.
But the Chooks, led brilliantly by Brad Fittler and with up-and-comers such as Minichiello and Hodges in their side, would score the final four tries of the match without reply to romp to a 30-8 victory, ending a 27-year premiership drought in the process.
To this day, many continue to question whether the Roosters were worthy champions that year, given the Bulldogs were romping towards a certain title when they were suddenly rocked by the aforementioned salary cap breaches.
But this statement need not be questioned, because on their way to the title, they’d knocked out the previous two premiers – the Knights in the semi-final, then the Broncos in the preliminary final.
Stuart thus became the second consecutive first-year coach to win a premiership, after Michael Hagan did likewise in his first season at the Knights the previous year, and no rookie coach would achieve this feat again until Trent Robinson at the Roosters in 2013.
Hodges would win a second premiership medal with the Brisbane Broncos in 2006, while Minichiello would stick around and captain the Chooks’ next title eleven years later under Robinson’s coaching.
Stacey Jones is a Kiwi rugby league legend. (Photo by Adam Pretty/Getty Images)
For the Warriors, it was a disappointing end to an otherwise successful season, which they’ve not been able to reach the heights of since, though they would qualify for another Grand Final in 2011 after finishing that season in sixth position, losing to the Sea Eagles by 24-10.
Shaun Johnson, who last week booted the winning field goal in golden point extra time against the Cowboys, is the only remaining survivor from the side which defied the odds to reach its second decider, though returned to the club this year after a three-year stint at the Sharks.
Since then, the Kiwi-based club have only reached one finals series – for an elimination final loss to the Panthers in 2018 – and are spending a third consecutive season camped in Australia due to COVID-19 travel restrictions.
This takes us to the present now, where both the Warriors and Roosters go into Sunday’s clash at the SCG fresh off recent victories over the two Queensland clubs – the Broncos and Cowboys – in the sunshine state.
After two straight losses to start the season, the Warriors have hit back by winning their past three matches; last week they defeated the Cowboys 25-24 with favourite son Johnson being the hero.
They had earlier beaten the Wests Tigers in Campbelltown and the Broncos in Redcliffe, leaving them well-placed at 3-2 and sitting in seventh place on the ladder.
This came after Brown said he was sick of continually developing his players following their round two loss to the Titans, and that he simply wanted to win games of football. Their only other loss was against the Dragons, who have since sunk to 14th on the ladder, in round one.
Meantime, the Roosters return home after a successful fortnight in Queensland, first thrashing the Cowboys by 28-4 in Townsville before coming from behind to beat the Broncos by 24-20 in a thriller at Suncorp Stadium last Friday night.
(Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)
They trailed 10-0 at half-time but worked their way back into the match, with Sam Walker displaying nerves of steel to nail a conversion from the sideline to give his side a 24-16 lead, before Corey Oates pegged back a consolation try for the Broncos at the death.
It was also a successful weekend for the club in Brisbane with its women’s team claiming their first title on their third attempt, coming from behind to beat the Dragons by 16-4 with Sarah Togatuki winning the Karyn Murphy Medal as best on ground.
The corresponding match between the Roosters and Warriors last year saw Sam Walker make his first-grade debut a week after Luke Keary, now his halves partner, suffered a season-ending ACL injury against the Rabbitohs.
He produced a memorable debut, setting up two tries as the Roosters won 32-12, and would continue to perform consistently for the injury-hit Chooks, leading them to the second week of the finals last year and ultimately being named the Dally M Rookie of the Year.
The match-up between him and Shaun Johnson will go a long way towards determining who wins on Sunday, and for the Warriors a fourth straight win could see them emerge as the dark horses of the competition as their return home in the second half of this season looms.
Otherwise, a win for the Roosters would reaffirm themselves as one of the favourites for the title, and with several winnable games to come in the next month, it might set them up well for a top four finish, with which comes the double chance in September.
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