Chasing their third premiership in six seasons, Canberra sent Mal Meninga off in style with a dominant victory over Canterbury.
In his final premiership match, it was only fitting that Canberra legend Mal Meninga had the final say, snatching an intercept and racing away to score and seal a 36-12 victory over Canterbury in the 1994 grand final.
“Go, big fella,” commentator Paul Vautin screamed on Channel Nine, echoing the thoughts of every rugby league fan watching on, outside of the Canterbury-Bankstown local area.
“I’d never scored in a grand final before that,” Meninga recalled earlier this year.
“In Brisbane, I played in six grand finals with Souths and then played five grand finals with the Raiders.
“Thankfully for (Canterbury forward) Jason Smith, I got his best pass of the day I think and was able to run just far enough to score. I probably couldn’t have gone much further.”
In some ways, Meninga and the Raiders were lucky to be there in the final game of the season.
Looking to add to titles won in 1989 and 1990, Canberra beat Manly in the final round of the regular season and avoided an elimination final against defending premiers Brisbane.
The Raiders then lost to Canterbury in the major semi-final and were lucky to beat Norths a week later to book a spot in the decider.
“The Norths’ team in 1994 were superb and they had a forward pack that deserved a premiership,” forward Bradley Clyde said.
“But we were pretty average that day and we were lucky to win.”
Meninga said the Raiders’ poor performance against Norths was the wake-up call the team needed, while his teammates were determined to send Mal off as a champion.
“We had a fantastic side on paper, but that Norths game probably made us realise that we weren’t as good as we thought we were and that clunkiness gave us an opportunity to reset,” the skipper said.
“We had a chat after the Norths game and said if we played like that again in the grand final, we’d be no chance.
“We spoke about trying to prepare as well as we possibly could and to be honest, I think it was the best preparation I was ever involved in.”
While the likes of Meninga, Clyde, Laurie Daley and Ricky Stuart garnered most of the attention leading into the decider, it was lesser known forward Paul Osborne who made the biggest impact in the first half.
Osborne replaced suspended forward John Lomax in the Raiders’ starting side and set up the opening two tries with brilliant offloads.
“Ossie still tells me that he should have won the Clive Churchill Medal that year,” Raiders outside back Ken Nagas laughed.
The Raiders scored two more first-half tries and led 18-6 at half- time before tries to Noa Nadruku, Ken Nagas and Jason Croker put the game out of reach, clearing the stage for Meninga’s swan song.
The victory cemented Canberra as the dominant team of the late 80s, early 90s era but that 1994 premiership was the Raiders’ last.
“To be honest, I think the platform and the foundations were being built from around 1986 or 1987 and it took until 1989 and 1990 to win,” Stuart continued.
“That 1994 team probably had the most self-confidence and belief. When we crossed that white line, we just knew we were going to win.”
Meninga retired after winning three premierships with the Raiders and later that year became the only player in history to be selected for four Kangaroo Tours.
“Of all the teams I played in in clubland, I think talent-wise the 1994 team was the pick of them.
You only have to look at what some of the players went on and did later in their careers,” Meninga said.
“It was certainly the best team I played in.”
