By Will Evans
Before the Sydney Bulldogs (as they were known in 1995-96) could pull off arguably the biggest grand final boilover of the past half-century, they had to produce an equally improbable preliminary final upset.
The Bulldogs had been torn apart by the Super League war that broke out in April 1995. The club sided with the breakaway organisation, but star quartet Jason Smith, Dean Pay, Jim Dymock and Jarrod McCracken reneged on Super League contracts to sign with the ARL establishment – creating a near-untenable environment in the squad and adding to the tsunami of Super League-related court cases.
But Canterbury had shown a remarkable ability in the past – most notably during Warren Ryan’s tumultuous but successful stint as coach in the mid-1980s – to turn turmoil into premiership glory. With only McCracken left out in the cold by coach Chris Anderson, the Bulldogs rallied to win seven of their last nine games and finish sixth ahead of the maiden eight-team finals series. Captain and club legend Terry Lamb’s impending retirement provided another key motivational tool for the Bulldogs.
The Bulldogs then edged St George 12-8 in a tense, wet elimination final and stunned perennial heavyweight Brisbane 24-10 with a brutal semi-final display.
The 1995 upheaval had been a significant distraction for Canberra – the rebel outfit’s flagship team along with the Broncos – but the defending champs signed en masse with Super League and they won 20 of their 22 regular-season games, pipped for the minor premiership by Manly on for-and-against.
The Tim Sheens-coached Raiders saw off the Broncos in the qualifying final and lay in wait for the overachieving Bulldogs, who the Green Machine pulverised 36-12 in the 1994 grand final.
But the Bulldogs threw the script out the window on another soggy day at the Sydney Football Stadium, starting with one of the great finals tries after a scoreless opening quarter.
Halfback Craig Polla-Mounter sliced through on the Raiders’ 40-metre line and linked with fullback Rod Silva, who produced a trademark step and found Lamb – still the support player’s support player a day after his 34th birthday – on the inside to score under the posts.
Livewire Silva had only joined the Bulldogs in May, cast out by the Roosters after signing with both the ARL and Super League. Another unheralded player turned finals success story was the next to strike in the 32nd minute, with workhorse second-rower Simon Gillies pouncing after a Dymock kick bamboozled superstar Raiders fullback Brett Mullins.
Lamb slotted a late field goal for an 11-0 halftime lead.
Mullins struck back early in the second half after fine lead-up work from skipper Ricky Stuart and David Furner. But the expected Raiders fightback stalled – and their title defence was put on life support at the hour mark.
Lamb floated a brilliant long ball for centre and first-year rugby union convert John Timu to slice through. A Daryl Halligan penalty with 11 minutes left gave the relentless Bulldogs an unassailable 13-point advantage, before man-of-the-match Gillies – described afterwards as “the Bulldogs’ Brad Clyde” by Anderson – raced away for his second on fulltime following a Steve Price intercept to complete a euphoric 25-6 rout.
“Nobody thought we’d get this far. It’s good that we don’t have a week off going into this year’s grand final; we don’t have much time to think about it,” flashed Dymock, referencing 1994, when the Bulldogs crumbled in the decider after a fortnight’s break.
Stuart’s running battle with infamously terse referee Eddie Ward was a major sidelight of the match – “You can’t talk to him…you can’t ask him questions. They’re kidding if he referees the grand final,” he steamed in a dress rehearsal for countless press conference tirades as a coach – but Daley was more circumspect after the shock loss.
“We didn’t handle their pressure…there’s no point worrying about things now,” Daley said. “When you’re under pressure you always tend to look for excuses.”
For their part, modern greats Stuart, Daley and Clyde had uncharacteristically error-riddled performances in the face of the Bulldogs’ aggression, hampering the Raiders’ ability to muster any momentum.
Attention shifted to whether the Bulldogs could complete a remarkable fairytale against the might of Manly, who beat Newcastle in the second prelim the next day.
“No, I didn’t expect to play in the grand final,” Lamb said frankly post-match. “But now we’ve made it, I don’t think these blokes will be denied. They’ll send me out in the best possible way.”
The Canterbury icon was proven right a week later as the Bulldogs produced another ambush, thwarting the ARL figurehead Sea Eagles’ near-perfect season 17-4 in the grand final (despite Lamb’s first-half sin-binning) in what seemed destined to go down as one of the great farewells. No team since has won a grand final from outside the top four.
But ‘Baa’ would selflessly rescind his retirement and play every game in 1996 for the decimated Bulldogs, who finished 10th in their premiership defence. The club regrouped under rookie coach Steve Folkes in 1998 to embark on another phenomenal sudden-death run to a grand final.
Meanwhile, the prelim defeat proved something of a beginning of the end for the Raiders’ dynasty that had garnered three titles from five grand finals in their previous eight campaigns. Season-ending injuries to Stuart and Clyde, and multiple suspensions to props Quentin Pongia and John Lomax, contributed to the Raiders limping into sixth and making a week one exit in 1996.
Sheens, Steve Walters and Lomax departed for North Queensland ahead of the 1997 Super League season and Canberra subsequently slipped back to the middle of the premiership pack.
But after some lean times, the 2025 NRL competition is shaping as a genuine opportunity for both clubs to reclaim past glories.
