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I was there, as a Balmain fan. Had seats in the sunshine, eastern side, right on the halfway line about 15 rows back. Even in the first half it never really felt like the Tigers were in control, even when Sirro crashed over just before half time. It just always felt like the dam wall was about to break. That Meninga ankle tap on Mick Neil....how does he not score. Just incredible. Was just not meant to be. So many young players in that Canberra team on the of precipice of becoming outright superstars. What a team they were. Despite the result i'm still proud to be able to say i was there that day. It's gone down in rugby league folklore.
So weird growing up in the modern game and watching a game like this. Actual backline moves, deep backlines, centres that passes to centres, skillful forwards, props that play 80 minutes. Much more exciting.
@J G So why isn't it the most popular sport in the biggest market in the world, the USA????? China hasn't exactly got a top soccer team. nations like Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, India, Wales, Ireland, and Taiwan aren't exactly huge soccer loving nations. Populous nations like Indonesia, India and China have under performing national sides, so having lots of people in a country doesn't equal popularity of a particular world sport. People love rugby League, they also love AFL, which isn't really played outside of Australia, Ireland plays a different version of it, so really a very popular sport in Australia that generates millions for the local economy equates to a high degree of love and satisfaction. That mean "WHO CARES" if soccer is the most popular game in the world? Everyone knows that soccer is the most popular sport, has been for a long time, but so many, especially in Australia and New Zealand don't give a toss.
So many legends on the field that day. I remember watching this on a sunny Sunday afternoon as a 15 year old and being totally amped as the game went on. Bradley Clyde one of the best!!! What an athlete!
I was at the 2015 GF, it was mostly boring, a real grind, if it wasn't for that fast finish, it would've gone down as one of the dullest GFs in history. 1997 was a great game, poor Manly were very unlucky the ref had a shocker but maybe the Knights would've prevailed anyway, who knows? Another terrible GF I went to was the 2004 GF, Roosters V Bulldogs both sides were awful, they dropped the ball about 50 times I reckon. 1990 was a pretty good one too. 2017 was boring, one sided. No one can beat the glorious 2008 GF 40-zip to the Mighty Sea Eagles.
This is the best Grand Final of the last 40 years; a great era 1980 - 1996. Canterbury-Bankstown, Parramatta, Canberra, Manly, Brisbane, Penrith were the champions in this time.
Notice Souths, being the most successful team as far as winning premierships is concerned, isn't mentioned. South have won one(2014) GF in over 40 years, that's one of the poorest records in the modern game, Cronulla's record is second to that, then Canberra, Warriors, you can't include the Tigers and Dragons they aren't the same teams anymore. Wests Magpies had one of the worst records with 4 premierships, the last in the 1940's I think, Norths as well, with 2 in the 1920's, which brings me back to Souths, their greatest successes were in the 1920's and 50's. You wonder why Souths were booted out of the comp for awhile, I don't. Their non existent fans finally came out of the woodwork aided by some deep pocketed celebs, plus a bit of lawfare, got them out of trouble, still took them ages to form a competitive side, took Russel Crowe to lead them in the right direction.
Unlucky for Junior. He suffered a serious eye injury in the early eighties which left him without vision in the far side of his left eye. If you add to this the setting sun in the second half, you will understand why Junior dropped the ball a few times on the second half.
Balmain led the Grand Final until the last 20-30 seconds of normal time!!. Unbelievable!!. So heartbreaking for Balmain after extra time when Canberra scored the winning try. Anyway what an brilliant Grand Final 1989 was.
@MUFC Hello Muppet good to see you on here with your usual gaff. Just glad your mom let you use the internet again. Say hi to all up there in Sunny England.
Tigers centre Andy Currier & Tigers fullback Gary Jack's failed near simultaneous attempt to catch the last tackle high bomb kick by Raider's five eighth Chris O'Sullivan at the end of regular time cost the Balmain Tigers the 1989 NSWRL Premiership. A single fundamental error by the Tigers duo changed rugby league history.
@@ash80510 Well then please watch both again cos 1989 was great all match. 2015 was a dour game with negative kicking by the Broncos to protect their lead. Was only close at the end with some Morgan Magic. Golden Point to finish a Grand Final is also a disservice to the game. Play 10 minutes a half extra-time like the 1989 boys had to.
@@briansergeant Yeah mate I have good memories watching the Illawarra Steelers, St George Dragons, North Sydney Bears, Western Magpies and Balmain Tigers. Gary Jack one of my heroes when I was a young runt playing full back in the 80's
What’s so cool about this game is these are regular guys. One guy is a police officer. A bunch of local guys. This is what sports should be. Money may make the quality and athletes better. But there just isn’t any heart as is the case here.
Wayne Pearce had an absolute shocker but so did Warren Ryan by taking off Blocker and Siro, stupidest coaching decision ever. Your two strongest forwards off the field, very silly.
True Dat, nailed it, not just the strongest, but the most feared in the game, when they got replaced, the Raiders forward grew in confidence and rumbled thru the ruck without any problem.
Balmain did not make one clean break in this game except for the lead up to Sironens try, and even then they needed an outrageous bounce to capitalise. It was only close on the score board
Too much made of Tiger's coach replacing Roach & Sironen, they looked done, I guess the replacements were just tackling machines, especially Hardwick who just tackled, didn't know how to do anything else, would've been better having big guys come on who could march the team up through the middle with big runs, different game back then obviously in hindsight. Stuart's kicking game forced the Tiger's back all game forced them to play out of their corners. The 2 tries they scored were very lucky ones. The Tigers otherwise had nothing in attack, plenty in defence, Warren Ryan's style.
Roach was doing nothing in the 2nd half, so fair call. But given he'd left Sironen on so long that he was still on the field when Ferguson scored, he shouldn't have replaced him.
Was there no offside during a kick back in 1989? at 6:00 the bloke kicks it with people 30 metres ahead of him but they were never called offside. Confused - Jonah
Bruul619 only had to be behind the play the ball not the kicker, but you werent allowed to touch the receiver until he had moved 10 yards or so, so basically it was an unchallenged catch unless the chaser was behind the ball.
Give todays players a leather ball to play with and they'd spill it every six tackles, you have no idea how hard they were to handle, a bit of sweat on them and they became soap. Btw this todays athletes bit is overblown, out of curiosity i looked up the playing weight of the QLD backline this year after i saw the combined weight of the QLD backline from 1984 , guess what, the 2020 backline averaged 2kg heavier per player. There were big boys back then and they didnt get a rest from the interchange, todays players skill level would drop drastically if they had to tough it out for 80min
If today's players had to hold down a normal job plus train for the game they wouldn't be able to handle it! The players of today only need to concentrate on the sport and yet still carrying on like soccer players when they get tapped. The 'Real men' back then played with broken bones, got cuts stapled and still held full time jobs. I'd like to see a player of today do that! This was a time when were Men!
“[Arthur] Beetson, in his recent autobiography Big Artie, said, "there is one club which has no doubt whatsoever that it was beaten by a steroids-fuelled team in a Grand Final, and the players of that club will never come to terms with their belief that they were beaten by a team that had cheated".
Yeh, you do realise the raiders had the advantage of the institute of sport to rely on for training. And anyway he'd have a point if steroids helped you catch a ball, Wayne Pearce dropped the ball 4 times in this match.
I tend to regard such accusations as true. I'm a Victorian AFL fan but got obsessed with NSWRL during the 'channel 10 era'. The players have not spoken up, though; so it remains what it is until they do. What I hate is that one of the clubs doesn't even exist now. AFL did that to Fitzroy, but the NSWRL does it so haphandedly.
If they knew how to catch the ball (Jack, Pearce), how to kick the ball (Elias, Currier) how to coach (Ryan) , how to hold a lead (the whole team) they might have got the money. Just like my Dragons in 99, the reason they lost could be found in the mirror, not in the officiating. Some of my fellow Saints were like you after 99, constantly blaming the referee and not the multiple blown chances and weak defending that characterised our collapse from a totally won position.
