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Grand Finals & What They Meant To You...

horrie hastings

First Grade
Messages
7,290
2000 Grand Final, it was just great being there after a long hiatus for the Roosters, going back to the club after the game the atmosphere was like we had won, a great night.

2002 , fabulous being at the game and had to admit I teared up a few times but the ecstasy sank in when we got back to the club.

2003, got very wet but wasn’t unhappy as Penrith were the better side overall, it was a great game.

2004, was truly gutted, didn’t go and watched it at the club, knew if Easts didn’t win this one it was going to be a few lean years with the retirement of Brad Fittler, would have been great winning the first after the Roosters after they won both lower grades matches but it wasn’t to be :(

2013, absolute magic, seeing Daniel Tupou destroy the Wolfman was a highlight as was
Michael Jennings being millimetre perfect in grounding the ball for the match winner then seeing James Maloney’s son fall off the podium during the presentation.

2018 problably one of the most complete Grand Final performances I have seen, the Roosters did not give the Storm an inch, probably the most perfect first 40 mins I have ever seen from a football side. I rate it as the most satisfying Roosters Grand Final that I have experienced.
 
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flippikat

Bench
Messages
4,379
Well, as a Warriors fan both Grand Finals we've made & lost are different, but have things in common too.

In 2002, our regular season form was great - yes we only won the minor premiership because the Bulldogs were stripped points for salary cap breaches.. but there was a feeling the Daniel Anderson had done what no other Warriors coach had, and forged a squad that could win a title. Unfortunately a combination of stagefright & a Roosters team with far more big game experience dashed our hopes. I was hopeful we could build on that, but Anderson parted ways with the club soon after & we fell back.

2011 was a solid enough season, but we had some good momentum going into the finals, and we just rode that to an unexpected GF. Again, we came up against a club with a lot more big game experience, and were found wanting under that pressure.. and again I really thought we'd build on it, but alas no - club and coach parted ways again.

One of those old cliches is "you have to lose one to win one", but one of the real frustrations is that we've never kept the coach and squad from those GF losses to follow-through on that experience!
 

some11

Referee
Messages
23,314
2015 - I just knew it was over when three players missed tackles on JT near the end.

It didn't matter that he missed the goal or that hunt dropped the kickoff - the Cowboys had the attitude to get it done whereas the Broncos stopped playing at the 50 minute mark or thereabouts - Bennett deserved that loss.

My cowboys supporting mates were good sports all night after that :)

The only gripe I had was sitting up in the nosebleeds at that god awful stadium really sucks the life out of the spectacle.
 

butchmcdick

Immortal
Messages
49,084
Did you run a hot bath that night?

f**king gold :joy: that was the only time I’ve been to the grand final and it was so worth it. Got to climb the harbour bridge the next morning and it had a big Cronulla flag on the top.



It’s why the Cowboys fans will always take the rivalry so much more seriously. They hate the Broncos with a passion and love nothing more than beating them. So many Broncos fans see the Cowboys as their BFF and want them to win every game. I watched that grand final in the leagues club and there was this bloke there cheering every point scored waving a QLD flag and after the game he went on about how happy he was for the Cowboys and everybody should be proud and happy for the state.

f**k off

The north remembers

f**k the broncos
 

Whip Whitaker

Juniors
Messages
808
Sitting in the nosebleeds watching the 2015 grand final..... no view of the scoreboard and terrible internet signal.... point being, I had no idea how long left the Cows had to win the grand final, and had many times just assumed the buzzer would ring and the Broncos would start celebrating.

To make things more interesting, when Kyle Feldt scores in the corner (then I hear the buzzer!!!), I actually had my maths wrong and thought that would have won the game had it been a try. Fortunately before the video ref confirmed it was a try, I worked out that it would only tie the game. How stupid would I have looked cheering the premiership when the game was still alive... lol

JT's conversion from the sideline was so low and with no hook that I expected it to miss, but then somewhere along the way, I thought it was coming back and could go in, but then he misses.

Watching Ben Hunt drop the ball at the stadium seemed to happen so fast that we didn't know what was going in, especially as Thaiday (?) tried to run as if it wasn't a knock on.

Finally, JT kicks it, and again, hard to see much from the nosebleeds except those on that side of the feel are already going up as if he has nailed it. The next 20-30 minutes was just absolutely mayhem and hugs with so many randoms in the crowd :)
 

Rhino_NQ

Immortal
Messages
33,045
Feldts last 3 steps on the video ref replay before he grounded it seemed like 10minutes. I was sitting at the opposite end so I didn’t know what happened
 

carcharias

Immortal
Messages
43,120
The 2016 grand final was the greatest grand final of all time.
The perfect result.
Nothing else has come close
 

The Rosco

Bench
Messages
2,867
See, I would have thought that if you suffered multi personality disorders, that at least a few of em would follow different footy teams. You know, just to make it fun up there during the season.
Huh . . . I was wrong, eh ?
They all go for the Roosters.
 

Changa

Juniors
Messages
447
2010 gf - best night of my life.

Felt like barr saints fans, everyone was riding the chooks to win as the team with finals momentum and to continue to lap up the 'choke' tag more.

Then to put on a 32-8 scoreline was especially sweet against easts and that smug prick Brian Smith after his 'smells like Newtown' comments mid-90's.

Smith was completely outcoached by the master with a switch in attack to our right side catching easts completely off, and exposing an inexperienced Joey Leilua on the wing. 2 bad reads on both Nightingale tries.

Fox commentary still makes me laugh to this day when watching the replay - had a distinct melancholy feel with the fact we had won it with 15m to go and they couldn't run their choker jibes next year.
They were still carrying on about the Morris foot into touch well into the 2nd half, when the game was dusted!


Best of all, was the fact a big chunk of the team were home grown juniors who had experienced the shit times for close to a decade prior - would have been extra sweet for the likes of Cooper, Creagh, Young, Gasnier and Hornby.

Then the scenes of the Princes Highway lockdown and Kogarah Oval hysteria after the game will be burnt into my brain forever.
 

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