Rugby league broke new ground in 1993 as Eastern Suburbs and South Sydney squared off in a historic Good Friday match.
Friday night football only became a permanent weekly fixture in the NSWRL premiership in 1990, while it took another three years for the League to take the bold step of staging a game on Good Friday for the first time.
Church groups opposed the scheduling of a match on the religiously significant day – but the Sydney Football Stadium turnstiles illustrated the rugby league public’s appetite for top-level sport on public holidays.
Eastern Suburbs captain Craig Salvatori and South Sydney skipper Michael Andrews led their teams out in front of a 26,433-strong crowd – a record for a regular-season match at the SFS at the time – as the inner-city archrivals got Round 5 of the 1993 season underway.
Rabbitohs halfback Craig Field created the first scoring opportunity with a sizzling break, but winger Darren Schott spilled the ball with the tryline wide open on the ensuing play.
The Roosters forged a 10-0 lead after half an hour via two tries to wing newcomer Michael Appleby – the second after playing the ball forward near Souths’ line, a legal play that would be outlawed a few years later.
Livewire Field, in just his fourth run-on appearance in first grade, earned a reward for his unrelenting attacking endeavour in the 53rd minute. The 20-year-old darted over for the Rabbitohs’ first try with a dummy-half burst.
Easts quelled a brewing Souths comeback, however, as their other winger, Jeff Orford, bagged a double inside the last quarter of the match with Kiwi halfback Gary Freeman playing a crucial role in the lead-up to both tries. The powerful Orford produced a sensational 50-metre run to the line with three minutes to go, sealing an 18-4 victory.
“I thought we had a chance to put the game away earlier than we eventually did,” Roosters coach and former Test halfback Mark Murray praised.
“But from a defensive point of view it was a very pleasing effort. That side scored 36 points last week (against Gold Coast) but we held them to just a try.”
Easts also stood up to a physical barrage from renowned Souths hitmen Peter Johnston – who left a trail of destruction before being stretchered off after 30 minutes with a knee injury – and Mark Carroll, giving their own back through the likes of unheralded second-rower Jason Tassell.
“A couple in the Souths camp like to be known as hitters – well, he shortened a few of them tonight,” Murray said of Tassell, who would join the Rabbitohs in 1995.
Meanwhile, Roosters lock Nigel Gaffey played his way into a maiden Country Origin jumper with a man-of-the-match display, while Salvatori and Orford retained their City Origin spots.
Easts went on to finish eighth in 1993 – nine points adrift of the five-team finals series – as Souths slumped to 14th with just six wins.
Good Friday rugby league became the norm thereafter, with more than 20,000 turning out at the SFS to see Easts cop a thrashing from two-time premier Brisbane in 1994. The Roosters and Broncos later had a standing Good Friday date from 2001 through to 2010.
The Rabbitohs and Bulldogs began their Good Friday series in 2012 – a rolling fixture that has produced some of the era’s most memorable and explosive encounters, routinely attracting massive crowds to Homebush. A regular season record attendance of 65,305 watched the clubs’ showdown at Accor Stadium last Easter.
In contrast, the AFL did not schedule a match on Good Friday until 2017.
