Against a star-studded parramatta side chasing more silverware, it was a lesser known hooker who scored the decisive try for Canterbury in the 1984 decider.
Facing a side chasing its fourth straight premiership, few gave Canterbury a chance of winning the 1984 grand final.
The Bulldogs won the minor premiership that year and beat Parramatta in the major semi final a few weeks earlier, but most pundits were still tipping the Eels to get the job done again at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
“When I think back to that day, the first thing that comes to mind is the opposition we were up against,” Canterbury centre Andrew Farrar reflected.
“They had won three on the trot and had stars right across the park, sowe knew we were going to be in for a helluva fight.
“But that also added to the excitement for us because we were the up and comers. We were confident because we’d had a good season up until that point, but we knew we’d need to be at our best.”
In a bruising but entertaining first half, both sides missed opportunities to open the scoring. Following coach Warren Ryan’s instructions, Canterbury aimed to “gang tackle” the big Parramatta forwards and stymie the Eels’ outside backs.
Parramatta eventually opened the scoring with a try to Mick Cronin and led 4-0 at half time.
Canterbury responded after the break though with a try to Mark Budgen. Budgen had joined the club that season from Newtown and scored just 15 tries across a 10- year career.
But in his first grand final, the hooker spotted an opportunity and struck to score the most important four-pointer of his life.
“He picked the gap where Ray Price had gone down injured and took off before the other Parramatta defenders realised and that was quite telling in the end,” Farrar explained.
“We kicked the conversion and went ahead and they threw everything at us after that but luckily we held on.”
In just his third year of first grade, the then 22-year old Farrar fulfilled a childhood dream when the siren rang a little later that afternoon.
“For me, a big part of those memories tie into the history of the Sydney Cricket Ground. I’d grown up as a kid in the bush and every year we all watched the grand final on TV with 40,000 plus people watching on at the SCG.
“As a young kid, when you were in the backyard kicking the footy around, you were one of those players playing on the SCG on grand final day so it was pretty special to get to do it.”
Farrar went on to play in another three grand finals in the 1980s and finished his time at the Bulldogs in 1990 with 186 first grade caps and three premierships. But that Saturday in September remains one of his fondest memories in rugby league.
“‘84 was special because it was the first one so there are a lot of good memories,” he said.
“I think we were particularly proud to beat that Parramatta side as well. They had stars right across the park and had been the dominant team for a while.
“Chris Mortimer and I really had our work cut out for us in the centres, stopping the likes of (Steve) Ella, (Brett) Kenny, (Peter) Sterling, (Mick) Cronin and (Eric) Grothe. It was quite a side.”
After celebrating the premiership with his teammates and the Canterbury fans on the SCG, Farrar said it felt like half of Sydney made their way back to the leagues club.
“It’s a fantastic, passionate supporter base and we saw that again at the backend of this year.”
