A diving tackle in the final minute of Canterbury’s 16-13 victory over the Roosters in the 2004 grand final led to an unlikely figure lifting the provan-summons trophy.
When veteran Canterbury skipper Steve Price suffered a knee injury in the 30-14 preliminary final win over defending premiers Penrith, it was hard to know who would lead the side out in that following week’s grand final.
But 25-year old forward Andrew Ryan was sure it wouldn’t be him!
“Steve Folkes grabbed me on the Tuesday or Wednesday of grand final week once we’d realised that Pricey mightn’t play and asked how I would feel about captaining the team and I deadset nearly fell over,” Ryan recalled.
“At the time, we probably didn’t realise just how good a side it was but we knew we had a really good mix. Steve Price was a bit older and our leader and we had a lot of guys around their mid 20s, like Adam Perry and Corey Hughes” he said.
“Then we had Sonny (Bill Williams), Johnathan Thurston and Reni Maitua in their first full seasons of first grade. “It was pretty handy to have those guys coming off the bench alongside a young Roxy Asotasi.
“It wasn’t arrogance, but I distinctly remember that year looking around the group and knowing that if we played well, we’d beat most sides.”
The Roosters, led by Brad Fittler in his final NRL match, got the jump on the Bulldogs and led 13-6 at half time following tries to Chris Walker and Anthony Minichiello.
But the Dogs scored just two minutes after the break through Matt Utai and after Hazem El-Masri crossed 10 minutes later, Canterbury led 16-13.
“One of the great things about Steve Folkes as a coach was that he was always so calm,” Ryan said.
“That’s what gave us our confidence going into games and again at half- time that day, he was able to settle us down after things hadn’t gone our way.
“He’d always just reinforce that we’d done the hard work and that we deserved to be there and we had.”
After taking the lead, Canterbury defended desperately into the final minute of the match.
Roosters backrower Michael Crocker found a gap inside Canterbury’s half in the dying stages but was somehow pulled down by a diving Ryan, who ended the Roosters’ attacking raid moments before the full-time siren.
“It probably wasn’t the best tackle from a technique perspective but it worked. It came back to our training though. We’d done so many repetitions and worked so hard that year that it sort of came naturally,” the premiership winning skipper said.
“The feeling when the hooter rang after that, it sent tingles right through my body and I still feel that when I talk about it today.
“I remember as a kid on grand final day putting on a Bulldogs jersey to wear when they were playing through the 80s. Then to get to do it myself, it was special.”
The backrower played 218 of his 291 first grade games at Canterbury before retiring in 2011 and said he was thrilled to see the Dogs back in the finals this season.
“I’ve been fortunate to know Cameron Ciraldo for a while and to be back in the semis in just his second year at the club, it shows this new group has huge potential.”
