The heartache and horror stories of rugby league’s biggest comebacks
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As Penrith celebrated by posing for photos with Norm Provan, Arthur Summons and Mick Fanning in one dressing room, Brisbane were just down the hallway, mute at first, then sombre with a side of XXXX.
Like the Eels a year earlier, heartbreak gave way, at least in the interim, to a sense of achievement in the company of family and friends.
Like Parramatta – who had been through salary cap scandals, wooden spoons and laughing-stock status to make the 2022 decider – Brisbane had risen from the club’s lowest ebb to be here.
“Definitely proud of that, but 100 per cent we butchered it,” prop Payne Haas said afterwards.
“Up by 16 with 20 to go? That’s going to hurt for a long time, but you have to use it.”
Easily said. And provided they can keep a talent-laden roster together, the Broncos have Haas, Reece Walsh, Pat Carrigan, Ezra Mam and serious potential to end the club’s premiership drought.
In historic terms though, it’s not so easily done, as the cautionary tales of rugby league’s “other side” – those on the wrong end of stunning big game comebacks – tell us.
1999: Storm 20 bt Dragons 18 after the Dragons led 14-0 at half-time
Paul McGregor, Wayne Bartrim and Lance Thompson ponder what might have been.Credit: Fairfax Photographic
Jamie Ainscough turned to coach David Waite after full-time, with then prime minister John Howard, the Dragons No.1 ticket-holder, in conversation too.
“Do you think I will go down in history?” Ainscough asked Waite.
“Yeah, probably,” was the response. Waite wasn’t wrong, if perhaps a bit understated.
Anthony Mundine spills the ball with the try line begging under pressure from Melbourne’s Craig Smith.Credit: Fairfax Photographic
Ainscough’s high shot on Craig Smith and resulting penalty try was the final act in Melbourne’s stunning revival, having trailed 14-0 after Nathan Blacklock streaked away for one of the great grand final tries.
Anthony Mundine is, of course, remembered for spilling a ball over the line when he had an unmarked man outside him, while the Dragons were dropping like flies as Melbourne roared home – prop Craig Smith requiring dozens of stitches for a tongue that was “split like a snake’s”.
St George Illawarra farewelled several retirees and missed the finals in 2000 as Mundine sensationally quit the game and Waite was sacked.
1989: Raiders 19 bt Tigers 14 after the Tigers led 12-2
Shattered: Bruce McGuire after Balmain’s loss to the Raiders in 1989.Credit: Fairfax Photographic
Long regarded as the greatest grand final until worthy challengers emerged in recent times, the ’89 decider was also played in sweltering conditions – Rex Mossop declaring before kick-off that “a player will have a heart attack out there today”.
The infamous call to bench Steve Roach and Paul Sironen, Steve Jackson’s try, Canberra’s thrilling extra-time comeback and Benny Elias’ field-goal attempt cannoning into the crossbar were all worthy cause for cardiac arrest.
Especially that last one, considering claims the SFS crossbar was “two inches too high” according to ex-Raiders chairman John McIntyre in conversations recalled around the game’s 30-year anniversary.
When coach Warren Ryan left the club a year later declaring there was “no juice left in the orange”, he was correct. Balmain’s ageing roster disbanded, and the Tigers played just one more finals game in their history before merging with Western Suburbs.
1998: Bulldogs 32 bt Eels 20 after the Eels led 18-2
Not a grand final, but Parramatta were entitled to think they were on their way with a 16-point lead and 11 minutes on the clock in this storied preliminary final. Cue bedlam.
Craig Polla-Mounter and Daryl Halligan emerged from the extra-time contest with a couple of the best clutch moments in history, and Paul Carige receded from rugby league amid abuse and endless social media jibes that still persist.
A week earlier, Eels icon Peter Sterling had praised Carige for “one of the best tackles of the season” on The Footy Show.
“He’s made some of the dumbest plays I’ve ever seen in a game of rugby league,” was Sterling’s withering summation of Carige’s last moments in the NRL, a series of inexcusable errors that still make Eels types cringe 35 years later.
Carige has kept the lowest of profiles since. Parramatta stayed at the pointy end of the ladder and swept all comers in 2001, before being swept aside themselves by Newcastle on grand final day. They are, of course, still yet to conquer that grand final mountain.
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