As Canberra and St George Illawarra gear up for a clash in the capital, Big League relives a 1996 elimination final classic between the Dragons and Raiders.
Few clubs’ preparations for the 1996 ARL premiership were impacted by the Super League war tumult as greatly as St George.
Rod Reddy’s defection to the breakaway organisation left the Dragons without a coach. Star forward Gorden Tallis opted to sit out the season rather than go back to the club when a court injunction prevented the rebel competition from getting underway, while fellow Super League signings Nathan Brown and Jason Stevens eventual returned to the Red V in late-April.
Super League figurehead Canberra’s season hit an early roadblock of a different kind, with champion duo Ricky Stuart (ACL) and Bradley Clyde (broken leg) both rubbed out by season-ending injuries before May.
Both teams came home with a wet sail to make the finals. Inspired by captain and Dally M Medal runner-up Laurie Daley, the Raiders won their last four games to land sixth – their second-lowest ladder finish in a decade. The Dragons, written off mid-season, lost just one of their last 10 games to grab seventh.
The rivals’ fiery early-season clash at Kogarah Oval – with the Saints prevailing 30-20 after Canberra’s Kiwi Test props Quentin Pongia and John Lomax were both sent off – added spice to the build-up to their do-or-die Sydney Football Stadium showdown.
Goalkicking back-rowers Wayne Bartrim and David Furner traded penalties in the opening six minutes, before Dragons game-breaker Bartrim produced one of the greatest individual tries in finals history.
The combative Queensland Origin rep scooped the ball from dummy-half just on Canberra’s side of halfway, stepped past champion Raiders hooker Steve Walters, and left fullback Ken Nagas and winger Steve Collins grasping at air on a scything, swerving run to the line.
A Furner offload delivered the Raiders’ response in the 24th minute, finished off by Brett Mullins, and the teams went into halftime locked 8-all.
Canberra hit the front for the first time three minutes after the break via Collins, preceding a long and absorbing impasse that still left the score at 14-10 with 10 minutes remaining.
The match-deciding sequence sparked a tidal wave of post-match conjecture.
Pounding the Raiders’ line, the Dragons employed a ‘mousetrap’ play at dummy-half – technically a breach of the game’s laws – with Brown feigning to pick the ball up and veering off towards the posts. Mercurial Saints five-eighth Anthony Mundine darted to the blindside with the pill instead, the resultant confusion in the Raiders’ defence helped by the questionable tactic as Mundine and skipper Mark Coyne combined to send beaming winger Mark Bell over in the corner.
Capping a dream game, Bartrim curled the sideline conversion between the sticks for a 16-14 lead, which the Dragons clung to until fulltime – despite a couple of nervous moments as Daley, Walters and co. desperately hunted a late try.
Daley remonstrated with referee Kelvin Jeffes after the siren, fuming with some of the calls that went against his side late in the match. Coach Tim Sheens, contemplating the end of an era with he and fellow triple premiership-winner Walters bound for North Queensland in 1997, was more circumspect when the dust had settled.
“We stayed calm and I thought we were the better side for the majority of the game, but that’s the nature of the beast,” Sheens said.
Coyne gave an insight into the feeling in the Dragons camp after what had been a two-month tightrope walk just to get to the playoffs.
“I guess today really sums up what the whole year has been about,” the captain said. “We were forced to dig deep.”
Man-of-the-hour Bartrim was even more emphatic.
“There’s a lot of emotion here at St George and I’m an emotional kind of bloke,” he gushed.
“It’s a great win and not one I’m going to forget too quickly. The boys can lift after this, no doubt about that.”
Bartrim’s declaration was prophetic.
The Dragons subsequently knocked over top-four heavyweights Sydney City and North Sydney in convincing fashion to complete one of the great sudden-death charges to a grand final, where dominant minor premier Manly ultimately proved too strong.
