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Biggest Upsets since 1980

Rhino_NQ

Immortal
Messages
33,050
1989 GF - Raiders beating Balmain
1997 GF - Knights beating Manly
1999 GF - Storm beatting St George-Illawarra
2001 GF - Knights over Parramatta
2003 GF - Penrith over Roosters

Other Parra ones
1998 Prelim losing to the Dogs
1999 Prelim losing to the Storm
2005 Prelim losing to the Cowboys

2009 Semi beating St George Illawarra (think it was 1 v 8)
Recently read hindeys book. You can feel the tears drip out of the pages going over those parra ones
 

King hit

Coach
Messages
14,090
Johns was very confident about winning the 2001 grand final. He watched Parramatta play in the preliminary final and when he saw them at the grand final breakfast he thought that the occasion was getting to them. Newcastle showed up in a very jovial mood cracking jokes whilst Parra looked really on edge the whole time. I recently watched the Eels 2001 preliminary final win, its easy to see Joey's point after watching it.
 

Reflector

Bench
Messages
2,541
Final round of the 2002 regular season, Northern Eagles (Manly) were at Brookvale, and to make the finals for the first time since 1998, all they needed to do was beat a Penrith side that finished equal second last on points with Wests, above only Souths.

Nek minnit: Penrith 68, Eagles 28. Apparently Peter Sharp went into the dressing room at h/t, said "You can all get f**ked!" and stormed out again.
 

t-ba

Post Whore
Messages
59,844
Final round of the 2002 regular season, Northern Eagles (Manly) were at Brookvale, and to make the finals for the first time since 1998, all they needed to do was beat a Penrith side that finished equal second last on points with Wests, above only Souths.

Nek minnit: Penrith 68, Eagles 28. Apparently Peter Sharp went into the dressing room at h/t, said "You can all get f**ked!" and stormed out again.

At the start of the round we were in 7th and Saints and Canberra had tough opposition to beat to leapfrog us.

Lol.
 
Messages
15,499
1995 ARL Season, Round 16, 16 July 1995, Brookvale Oval, Manly Warringah Sea Eagles v Sydney City Roosters.

Coming into the match Manly were on a 15 game winning streak on 30 points, and lead the competition by 4 points from Newcastle and Canberra (who were both on 26 points). Manly had a +311 points differential

The Roosters came into the match on a 4 game losing streak, 16 points behind Manly on 14 points (which was 11th overall on the ladder). They had a +12 points differential.

Despite being complete outsiders, the Roosters beat Manly 21-16 behind 2 tries to Peter Jorgensen, a try to Jason Hudson, 4 goals from 5 attempts by Andrew Walker, and an Andrew Walker field goal.

This was the famous match where Phil Gould wanted the Roosters to leave the field in protest at the refereeing late in the game.

Match Summary - https://www.rugbyleagueproject.org/...6/manly-warringah-vs-sydney-city/summary.html
 

horrie hastings

First Grade
Messages
8,021
1995 ARL Season, Round 16, 16 July 1995, Brookvale Oval, Manly Warringah Sea Eagles v Sydney City Roosters.

Coming into the match Manly were on a 15 game winning streak on 30 points, and lead the competition by 4 points from Newcastle and Canberra (who were both on 26 points). Manly had a +311 points differential

The Roosters came into the match on a 4 game losing streak, 16 points behind Manly on 14 points (which was 11th overall on the ladder). They had a +12 points differential.

Despite being complete outsiders, the Roosters beat Manly 21-16 behind 2 tries to Peter Jorgensen, a try to Jason Hudson, 4 goals from 5 attempts by Andrew Walker, and an Andrew Walker field goal.

This was the famous match where Phil Gould wanted the Roosters to leave the field in protest at the refereeing late in the game.

Match Summary - https://www.rugbyleagueproject.org/...6/manly-warringah-vs-sydney-city/summary.html

That was a great game to be at. Easts up 19-4 then Manly get 7 penalties in a row and get back to 19-16, that's when Gould came to the sideline and wanted the Roosters to come off. Easts held their nerve and held on and posted a late penalty goal to Andrew Walker to win 21-16.
 

Illawarra Tiger

Juniors
Messages
75
Two games with same teams teams competing spring to mind. (Yes the Gold Coast did have differing logos and colours for both of these matches)

Gold Coast Giants def Brisbane 25-22 at the Chris Cunningham Field in 1988
Gold Coast Seagulls def Brisbane 25-12 at Carrara in 1994.

The latter game was a rare FNF game for the Seagulls and I can vividly remember Peter Gill scoring a great diving try!!

Looking at both teams on the Rugby League Project website the Broncos would have been raging hot favourites for both
 

Danish

Referee
Messages
32,019
2006. The last placed Souths break a 13 game losing streak to defeat the then 1st placed Broncos 34-14. Souths won only 3 games that year. It was a goddamned miracle.

I was at a pub for a 50th bday, and the entire party was watching the game getting more and more hyped with every try the bunnies scored.

It was also the first time Souths had beaten the Broncos since the f**king 80s.
 

PARRA_FAN

Coach
Messages
17,713
I was going through some old videos on YouTube and saw 200 magic memories of the Winfield Cup.

One particular game was in 1988, Wests Vs Manly.

Manly won the comp the previous year in a good position, still had most of their GF players, while Wests were struggling in a wooden spoon contention with Gold Coast and Newcastle and sacked their coach earlier in the year.

Manly would've sealed a finals spot but were beaten by Wests 23-20 in a huge upset.

A lot of people described it as one of the biggest upsets in history.
 
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