Greatest upsets of all time?

[TheFrog]

How can you mention the word Bradbury and not include the Wests Tigers of 2005

They were in 12th place in round 16 and went on to win the comp

They didnt reach the finals in the 5 years prior, or the 4 years after!

At round 16 they'd won 7 from 15, but had a poor for and against. They had exactly the same number of wins as the 8th placed Roosters, who had a game in hand. So they were by no means out of the running. From there they went on a run of seven straight wins, and into minor premiership contention, before losing to the Storm and Panthers in the last 2 rounds and finishing 4th. Then they won 4 straight finals, which gets you a premiership. Nothing whatever Bradbury about winning 11 from 13 at the business end, mostly against teams in contention. They were deserving premiers.

All the Wests premiership, and Parra's 2009 run for that matter, shows is that what happens in the first two thirds of the comp is largely irrelevant.

 

[Diesel]

At round 16 they'd won 7 from 15, but had a poor for and against. They had exactly the same number of wins as the 8th placed Roosters, who had a game in hand. So they were by no means out of the running. From there they went on a run of seven straight wins, and into minor premiership contention, before losing to the Storm and Panthers in the last 2 rounds and finishing 4th. Then they won 4 straight finals, which gets you a premiership. Nothing whatever Bradbury about winning 11 from 13 at the business end, mostly against teams in contention. They were deserving premiers.

All the Wests premiership, and Parra's 2009 run for that matter, shows is that what happens in the first two thirds of the comp is largely irrelevant.

Warriors 2011 as well

 

[Munky]

Linnett putting his foot out at the death probably hurt just as much. But looking back im surprised he caught it in the first place

A good outside back would have been odds on to score.

 

[Life's Good]

Not a regular season game but what about Souths beating Brisbane in the 1994 Preseason comp?
Souths were pretty dire from 1990 onwards & Brisbane were about to start their premiership defence with a fairly stacked team.

 

[Pedge1971]

Referee sin binning Cam Smith at Shark Park last year.

I mean when have you ever seen an employee openly defy their boss and win.

 

[Whino]

Round 20 1996 Penrith beating Manly.
Fielding one of youngest backlines in the clubs history we beat Manly who were running 1st 18-14.
We lost 5 on the trot heading into the match and about 15th on the ladder.
It was a mighty win when you had Bobby Thompson, Fred Petersen, Garen Casey and Andrew Hinson in that backline.

 

[Bring back John Fifita]

I'm thinking upset games - not premierships etc etc.

This one is an absolute Standout.

1989 Panasonic Cup Semi Final.

Illawarra 40 - Cronulla 0.

For context - in the Comp that year, Illawarra were stone-motherless last all year, and finished the competition on only 5 points - 2 wins and a draw from 22 games. On the other hand, the Sharks finished the year in the top 6.

I was doing work experience for the Illawarra Mercury the following week - leading into the final against the Broncos, which the Steelers narrowly lost to the Broncos 22-20. They went close to topping the epic upset of the semi against the Sharks. Wollongong had a buzz to it that week like none other I'd experienced. Even when they made the finals in the early 90's.

https://www.rugbyleagueproject.org/...ying-final/illawarra-vs-cronulla/summary.html

I'm sure there have been other epic upset games in regular season / Semi final games but none come to mind that I can recall even close to the above - but I'd love to be enlightened if others here remember some.

Cheers,

 

[Dogs Of War]

Bulldogs 1998. Just to get to the finals we needed to win the last 4 games of the season. So every game was sudden death. Then to beat the Dragons, Knights and Eels (last 2 in overtime with big comebacks). Even lead the Bronco's in the grand final at half time 12-10 up. Then ran out of gas. But it was an awesome couple of months.

 

[some11]

All the Broncos fans talking down the Cowboys chances the week of the decider in 2015

Revisionist history.

That was a hard game to pick and I don't recall many Broncos fans crowing except for the fact that they beat them in FW1, the Cowboys were the comeback kings that year - produced some nice upsets including this one:

https://www.rugbyleagueproject.org/...3/parramatta-vs-north-queensland/summary.html

Down 30-6 at one point and scored 30 unanswered points to win.

I'd also add the Cowboys run in 2017 from 8th - they were set to miss out altogether if Round 26 games had gone the way of the favourites, however they get in and Morgan proceeds to have one of the most dominant finals campaigns I've ever seen knocking over the Sharks by a point and pummeling the Eels and Roosters before running out of gas against one of the best teams the NRL has ever seen.

 

[Bring back John Fifita]

Not a regular season game but what about Souths beating Brisbane in the 1994 Preseason comp?
Souths were pretty dire from 1990 onwards & Brisbane were about to start their premiership defence with a fairly stacked team.

Yes I was trying to remember when that game was. Was another game (just posted the Steelers vs Sharks Panasonic Cup semi upset) I'd thought of. Was it played in a regional area also, up in Qld somewhere possibly?

 

[TheFrog]

Round 20 1996 Penrith beating Manly.
Fielding one of youngest backlines in the clubs history we beat Manly who were running 1st 18-14.
We lost 5 on the trot heading into the match and about 15th on the ladder.
It was a mighty win when you had Bobby Thompson, Fred Petersen, Garen Casey and Andrew Hinson in that backline.

As far as the Panthers go, nothing will ever surpass the 1967 Round 4 24-12 win over the Dragons, premiers for the past 11 years, a side containing three, or was it four immortals. And I was there screaming my 11 year old head off.

 

[Whino]

As far as the Panthers go, nothing will ever surpass the 1967 Round 4 24-12 win over the Dragons, premiers for the past 11 years, a side containing three, or was it four immortals. And I was there screaming my 11 year old head off.

A bit before time there
Still sounds like a good experience.

 

[Whip Whitaker]

The Sharks 7th tackle try against the Cowboys upset alot of people

Cowboys eliminating the Sharps in 2017

 

[mongoose]

2001 origin game 3 i think it was. The Alfie comeback plus a bunch of nobodies like john doyle, buttegeig, chris walker, daniel wagon... 40-14

 

[Frank Discussion]

Listing grand finals is kinda weird. You've gotta have a decent team to make the big dance, even if you are out gunned by the opposition.

That Cronulla team that rolled the Roosters and Broncos in subsequent weeks in 2014 was flat out pathetic due to the bubbler effect and half the team being rubbed out for peptides. Robson, Gagan, Nu Brown, T Arona, Tim Robinson etc etc. James Shepherd was the coach.

Was a good night in the Caringbah Pub!

 

[Yorrick Hunt]

How about Western Division winning the Amco Cup in 1974?

https://www.nrl.com/news/2014/07/31/rugby-leagues-last-great-fairytale/

 

[The unknown]

2011 semi Tigers v Warriors should rate a mention

Tigers came off a pretty good win week 1 and Warriors got belted like 44-4 in the first week nobody giving them a hope in hell against the Tigers

Fast forward to the game, Tigers up 22-4 halftime and Warriors end up playing out of their skins in the 2nd half winning 24-22 or something. That game still haunts me

 

[PARRA_FAN]

This one gets mentioned a lot but when the Broncos first played at QE2 stadium in 1993 against Parramatta.

The Broncos were full of Origin and test players and came off their first premiership.

Whilst we were 2 from 2 to start the year off it was a huge ask considering we had only one player with rep experience, Paul Dunn.

The rest of the players you had Scott Mahon, Joe Bartolo, Michael Erickson, Cameron Blair, Shane Flanagan

You had a halves combination of Speechley and Stu Gailbraith up against Walters and Langer.

Final score 12-8 to Parramatta in a massive upset.

Michael Buettner scored Parramatta's only try and kicked 4 goals, while O'Neill score the other try for Brisbane.

It stunned the crowd of over 51,000 that day.

 

[Rhino_NQ]

i remember that tigers game, with the blokes with the whistle the only way the tigers weren't going through is if the warriors pulled an absolute miracle out of their asses.

Up comes Inu with his seemingly double jointed elbows

 

[King hit]

State of Origin 1 2014 ranks highly for me

It was the 100th game, it was in Brisbane, the Maroons had won 8 straight, NSW were ridiculed and taunted by QLD media and Wally, NSW born Billy Moore revved the crowd up before the game, the Maroons all got a touch of Artie's jersey and it was the last thing they saw before they ran out onto the field. It all pointed to another story of Maroon magic but the Blues would defy everybody with one of the most courageous, gutsy and bravest efforts of pain and strength ever seen in Origin to pull of a truly thrilling victory in a superb battle.

St George's charge through 1996 hasn't been mentioned yet so I'll add that in