South Sydney’s best season since its 1960s and ’70s golden era came to a devastating end courtesy of a 36-11 defeat by fairytale side Balmain in a spiteful minor semi-final.
The scene had been set a few weeks earlier at Leichhardt Oval when the Tigers pulled off a 38-20 win over the Rabbitohs in the final round of the regular season, scraping into a fifth-place playoff and simultaneously denying their opponents the minor premiership.
Frank Stanton’s Tigers gathered steam with sudden-death wins over Norths and Manly, pitching them into another do-or-die clash with Souths, who lost to Canterbury in week one of the finals.
The scores were locked 8-all at halftime at the Sydney Cricket Ground following tries to rookie Rabbitohs forward Ian Roberts and star Tigers centre import Garry Schofield – both resulting from kicks.
But a scrum erupted just three minutes into the second half and Souths captain Mario Fenech was sensationally sent off for allegedly gouging opposing hooker Ben Elias.
High tackles, head-butts and melees permeated the remainder of the match as the Rabbitohs imploded. After an ugly butting incident involving Phil Gould and Steve Roach – who both remained on the field – Tony Rampling and Roberts were sin-binned along with Tigers forward Kerry Hemsley, leaving the semi at 10 on 12 in the latter stages.
The Rabbitohs had managed to nudge ahead 11-8 but ran out of steam. Tigers halfback Scott Gale and winger John Davidson scored brilliant tries before Schofield completed a hat-trick (matching his final-round tally at Souths’ expense), while Ross Conlon finished with eight goals as the Rabbitohs provided him with five penalty goal opportunities.
Roach was rubbed out of the preliminary final – which Balmain lost to Canterbury – after being cited for head-butting.
But the post-match focus was on hapless firebrand Fenech, who contended he had become a victim of his reputation…and bitter rival Elias’ gamesmanship.
“I’ve got no hope, I’ve got no future in the game – I’m the big bad wolf, I’m always the one,” the crestfallen Rabbitohs skipper lamented in an emotional dressing room interview.
“He (referee Kevin Roberts) said ‘gouging’, I’d like to know where he got that from. Blokes out there can be headbutt kings … but nothing’s done.”
Elias, the Tigers’ captain in the absence of Wayne Pearce, played a straight bat as the dust settled on a rugby league war.
“Roberts wouldn’t have sent [Fenech] off if he hadn’t been sure of what he had seen,” the combative Elias said.
“Souths had worried us a lot with good football. The biff contributed to their own downfall.”
The explosive encounter added to the tumultuous Balmain-Souths lore, which included the infamous 1909 premiership final ‘forfeit’ incident and the Tigers’ victory in the 1969 grand final, regarded as one of the biggest boilovers in the game’s history.
Rubbing salt into the Rabbitohs’ immediate wounds, the club was snubbed completely by the Kangaroo Tour selectors. Tigers Elias, Roach, Garry Jack and rookie Paul Sironen were all chosen, while Pearce was a controversial late scratching with injury.
Souths gained some revenge with a gripping 15-12 elimination of Balmain in the 1987 major preliminary semi, but the Tigers prevailed 20-10 over the runaway minor premiers in the 1989 major semi.
The inner-city heavyweights both plummeted to also-ran status over the ensuing decade, which ended with Balmain merging with Western Suburbs and South Sydney getting temporarily axed from the NRL.
