Top 5 Prelim Finals

[Valheru]

Inspired by the GF thread, it got me thinking of the great games in the penultimate week of the competition. Generally at least one of the PFs is better than the GF itself.

Again I will stick to NRL era only.

1. Roosters V Knights (2000) - Obvious bias here but it was an incredible comeback by the chooks and the image of Joey having a tantrum still brings a smile to my face.
2. Saints V Wests (2010) - Probably all round the best quality PF of the NRL era just without the come back above. The true GF that year.
3. Parra V Dogs (2009) - Top quality game with an epic crowd
4. Wests V Saints (2005) - See above
5. Storm V Raiders (2016) - A true nail biter. You thought the Raiders would pip them on the post but it wasn't to be. Much like the 2019 GF

Honourable mentions to (in chronological order) Dogs V Parr (98), Knights V Sharks (01), Broncos V Dogs (06), Warriors V Storm (2011) and Manly V Souths (2013)

EDIT:

I am sticking to NRL era only as everything else is before my time. That's not to say the thread is restricted to that though

 

[The Mad Hatter]

Roosters vs Souths 2014

The Rabbits beat the old enemy and neighbours to waltz through to the GF for their gifted Premiership.

 

[Sonny83]

Roosters vs Souths 2014

The Rabbits beat the old enemy and neighbours to waltz through to the GF for their gifted Premiership.

it's cool you acknowledged the GF win was gifted

One prelim finals game stuck in my head was 2013 Chooks vs Manly, both team really exhausted and gave absolute it all.

 

[Tommy Smith]

1. 2005 Saints vs Tigers was epic. Insane atmosphere and a great game. Peak rugby league.

2. 2003 Roosters vs Bulldogs. The build up to this game was absolutely immense. It felt like the de facto 2002 GF. The atmosphere and game itself were next level intense and it felt like the Roosters expended all our energy that night. We played a blinder and Freddy was King once more that day.

3. 2000 Roosters vs Knights. Great game. Great atmosphere. 20 year GF draught broken. Epic comeback. Two legends colliding with Freddy playing the 2nd half of a lifetime. The game had it all.

Hard to pick after this... I like the draught breaker and historic first GF moments...

Raiders 2019
Eels 2001
Warriors 2002
Cowboys 2005

Then there's the great upsets...
Warriors def. Storm 2011
Manly def. Rabbits 2013 (and comeback)

And some great games...
2010 Dragons-Tigers
2006 Broncos-Bulldogs
2009 Eels-Bulldogs

But the 2005 Tigers-Dragons semi was all of the above. A great game, a great upset, and an historic draught breaker for the underdog.

 

[The Mad Hatter]

The 2005 PF weekend was awesome.

1 & 2 bundled out.

That Cowboys Para game was awesome.
Watching Saints get out enthused on Saturday night and seeing so many despondent Saints fans was gold. Lifeline had to treble their phone staff.

All those Para fans chortling at Saints.

Then comes the 29-0. I rate this above the 40-0 GF for glee. I was there. The amount of smug Para fans pre-match was nauseating. I trolled Para for years trying to get a refund on the tickets.

The most delicious weekend of footy ever.

Lol.

 

[The Marshall]

1. 1998 Dogs v Eels - The drama of the Parra meltdown led by Paul Carriage is a choke that will never get matched. Craig Polla-Mounter taking the game by the scruff of the neck and putting Parra to the sword in extra time was something to behold.

2. 2005 Dragons v Tigers - Just a great game that was close and underdog getting up. There's something about a full house at the old SFS that just made good games great.

3. 2006 Broncos v Dogs - The second half onslaught from the Broncos was immense.

4. 1999 Dragons v Sharks - Choc Mundine was huge and almost single handedly knocked out the Sharks.

5. 2009 Eels v Dogs - The atmosphere alone at this one was enough to get it into the top 5.

I know it's only post 98 but a special mention to Dogs v Raiders in 1994 it would have been my number one all time.

 

[2 weeks]

The Cowboys with their under 12's team beating the Roosters in 2017 was a crazy good game .

Lead changes , Latrell kicking 2 kickoffs dead in goal, Morgan and Lolo going nuts .

But 2010 Saints beating Tigpies is my personal favourite.

 

[The Mad Hatter]

The Cowboys with their under 12's team beating the Roosters in 2017 was a crazy good game .

Lead changes , Latrell kicking 2 kickoffs dead in goal, Morgan and Lolo going nuts .

Esp when Dogs and Saints kicked off in the final round, the Cowboys were on Mad Sunday.
Nek minnit...

 

[Bring back John Fifita]

Top 5 of NRL era.

1 - 2005 Dragons Tigers.

I was there, it was all of what has been said above by others. Never seen in on TV but if even 10% of the atmosphere level came through the screen it would have been immense. Remember calls for it to me moved to Homebush before the game but as said, a full SFS is unbeatable for atmosphere. I rate this number one even though my team lost.

2 - 2010 Dragons Tigers.

Again I was there. Best atmosphere at Homebush I’ve been to, even accounting for the Dragons GF win a week later. I had a broken hand from cricket earlier in the day, which blew up like a Christmas ham. Epic game, and with a minute to go when Saucehead Galloway started bumping his way downfield to give the tigers the numbers out wide and a chance of victory I was beside myself. But the Dragons held on.

For the two games above I always have a fondness for the Tigers and their fans. After both games the respect between the fans I saw and experienced was really incredible and humbling.

3 - 1998 Dogs Eels

Just an incredible game of football that came alive in the last 15 minutes when the Dogs looked shot. I watched it again on reply a year or two ago, and what struck me is that for all the talk of Paul Cariage, i thought that the only real brain snap he had was the kick on the siren. The other dramas he had in the last part of the game were more a case of bad luck and just human error. Sadly for him they all came in a short period and with a spot in the grand final on the line.

4 - 2011 Warriors Storm

Maybe because it was the Warriors beating the Storm after the salary cap dramas of 2010. But I just loved watching this game and seeing the much maligned Warriors team finally playing at their potential. They were brilliant in this finals series, beating the Tigers the week before in an epic match. Sadly didn’t win in the GF.

5 - 2009 Bulldogs Eels

The game was great but that it was between two of the big Sydney clubs in front of an enormous crowd in Homebush really made it memorable.

So 4 of mine are between two Sydney clubs. It’s not anything against the other interstate teams but in terms of an atmosphere in Sydney semi finals, it’s hard to beat two of the bigger Sydney teams in a full house. And a big crowd brings so much atmosphere at the ground which transfers through onto the screen in your living room.

 

[TheDalek079]

1 2018 Easts defeat Souffs. Roosters were missing Latrell and Big Papi. All week souffs fans were strutting around, believing that they were destined for a grand final. Then in one of the greatest, gutsiest defensive efforts, the Roosters kept souffs tryless to eliminate the arch rivals. Gets bonus points for Cooper's bravery

2 2000 Easts defeat Newcastle. Unbelievable comeback, one of Freddy's best games, our first grand final in 20 years and the sight of Joey chucking his mouth guard. Classic!

3 2002 Easts defeat Brisbane. A prelim for the ages. Roosters prove too good for Bennett and his star studded broncos. Classic armwrestle of a match.

4 2019 Easts defeat Melbourne. The true Grand final. A bit like 2002. Two Heavyweights fighting it out. Wow

5 2004 Easts defeat North
Queensland. Cowboys riding the wave of public support, everybody hating on the Roosters. A classic good v evil, David v Goliath storyline. And right at the end it looked like the cowboys would produce the ultimate upset ... But the Roosters hang on to win. Lol

 

[King hit]

The Roosters V Knights 2000 preliminary final is one of the best finals games ever. Newcastle 16-2 ahead and charging but Freddy inspires the Roosters with a remarkable comeback. If you want to see a game that demonstrates the greatness of Brad Fittler look no further then this.

 

[Valheru]

1. 1998 Dogs v Eels - The drama of the Parra meltdown led by Paul Carriage is a choke that will never get matched. Craig Polla-Mounter taking the game by the scruff of the neck and putting Parra to the sword in extra time was something to behold.

2. 2005 Dragons v Tigers - Just a great game that was close and underdog getting up. There's something about a full house at the old SFS that just made good games great.

3. 2006 Broncos v Dogs - The second half onslaught from the Broncos was immense.

4. 1999 Dragons v Sharks - Choc Mundine was huge and almost single handedly knocked out the Sharks.

5. 2009 Eels v Dogs - The atmosphere alone at this one was enough to get it into the top 5.

I know it's only post 98 but a special mention to Dogs v Raiders in 1994 it would have been my number one all time.

Feel free to post games pre 1998.

I just personally can't remember them as it was before my time.

 

[Reflector]

If we're talking just the NRL era:

1) 1998, Eels v Dogs

Watching this one back, Parramatta's attack had consisted largely of the forwards hitting the ball up then looking for the offload. A better team could've taken advantage of this earlier in the game. Parra were lulled into a false sense of security and the likes of Blocker and Rabs made the fatal mistake of gushing over the Grand Final with 10 minutes still to play. Carige had a perfect storm of player blunders in the most crucial minutes of the game, but I blame those two bozos in the commentary booth for blowing their respective loads early and putting the hex on Parra

2) 2001, Sharks v Knights

Both sides made their respective GF's in 1997 and since then, both had squads good enough to make another decider. Yet for a variety of reasons (injuries, bad luck in key matches) that promise hadn't been fulfilled. Sharks were still reeling from '99 when they were Minor Premiers and then let the preliminary slip against the Dragons, and for 12 months the Knights had been keen to avenge 2000, when full of emotion and bravado they got too cocky at h/t and Freddy capitalised on it. Both sides had defeated the all-conquering Parramatta that season and both sides had quality across the park. The Knights had Joey calling the shots while the Sharks had the most dangerous player of the moment in Presto- who could score from anywhere. Then you ad their respective rep quality backlines and damaging forward packs and this proved to be a nail biter that lay in the balance until late, when Kennedy crashed through and sealed the game. Considering how Parra played the first 40 minutes of the GF, Sharks could think themselves unlucky because they were a side who (like the Knights) could lay on a big points tally in one half of footy...

3) 2005, Tigers v Dragons

The game itself didn't an edge of your seat finish, yet there was good quality footy on display. But the game (as an event) was incredible. Wasn't there at the SFS that night unfortunately but the atmosphere was amazing coming through the telecast. In hindsight, knowing there was 0 chance of the Storm, Broncos or Roosters playing in the GF made it a pretty special occasion as well and one worth drinking to.

4) 2009, Eels v Dogs

Again, this wasn't a game with an incredible finish or a stirring comeback, but as an event it was an amazing night between two traditional rivals, 75k making noise at ANZ and ultimately the farewell of El Masri. Considering the Telegraph's "they're locking the fans out!" campaign that soured the opening week of the finals, to see a near sell-out in the competitions' biggest stadium was a fitting response.

5) 2010, Tigers v Dragons

As somebody else alluded to, this was arguably THE Grand Final match. For the second year in a row had a full ANZ between two clubs that had both have widespread support, especially when their respective teams are on a finals charge. The Dragons were determined to finally make their first Grand Final after a decade of falling below expectations and tumbling out of the finals 12 months earlier having been Minor Premiers, while the Tigers looked to capitalise on one of their rare good seasons. This was a gripping contest and regardless of who you supported, it was tense right up to the last 30 seconds when Darius made himself useful. Remember when Darius was a key player?

 

[Rhino_NQ]

Chuck in nathan hindmarsh being "rested" for the GF and gordo sitting behind him in the stands reminding they need to win the days game first made 2005 so much better

 

[Vic Mackey]

2005 was an amazing Prelim mainly due to the atmosphere. Phil Gould recently said he rates this as the most intense atmosphere he's ever been to at a rugby league game. There's a bit of history behind it everyone might not remember:

The venue was locked in prior to the finals commencing. When Saints beat the Sharks in Week 1 they are locked into the SFS on Saturday night, to play the winner of Tigers/Broncos. The other Prelim was Eels V winner of Storm/Cowboys at ANZ.

It was a bit of a shit fight but for some reason only members of teams who were playing could buy tickets that week. So Tigers/Broncos fans were effectivley locked out. Prior to the Broncos semi the Tigers went to the NRL and asked if the Prelim venues could be swapped as a possible Tigers/Dragons final would likely get 60k+ whereas the Eels V either Storm/Cowboys would fit inside the SFS easily. So the NRL went to the Dragons and they refused to move the game. Fair enough, they'd finished higher then Wests.

A member of the WTF (Wests Tigers Fan Group) then approached the apparent Dragons Army Leader and asked if they would kindly leave Bays 12 & 13 for Wests Tigers fans on the chance we made the Prelim. The Dragons Army laughed him off and then told the Drgaons Army to buy tickets in those bays.

Somehow by the time the Tigers had qualified there were only 15,000 scattered tickets available. So at the time of kick off it was estimated only about 10-12,000 Tigers fans were there compared to 30,000 Saints fans. There was a huge amount of bad blood between the fans in the week prior and Ive never experienced a game like it. It was weird, there wasnt a huge amount of shit going on, it was like both sets of fans completely ignored the other one. Saints fans seemed edgy and nervous. Tigers fans treated it like a fesitval and were as loud and boistrous as you could ever imagine. You could certainly feel the anomosity though.

Benji scoring in the 3rd minute seemed to set the trend for the night. It came from a Drgaons knock on and the Tigers threw the ball wide from the scrum to score. Saints were jittery for the entire 80 whilst the Tigers played the free flowing footy they'd played all year.

In terms of quality it doesnt come close the 2010 Prelim, which is close to if not the best game of footy Ive ever seen, however from a dramatic and atmosphere point of view I doubt 05 will be beaten.

 

[mongoose]

4 - 2011 Warriors Storm
They were brilliant in this finals series, beating the Tigers the week before in an epic match. Sadly didn’t win in the GF.
.

Good list but isn't that the year the Warriors got hammered by the Broncos in week 1 ?
Exposed how flawed the McIntyre system was considering the Warriors finished 6th on the ladder that year.

 

[Bring back John Fifita]

Good list but isn't that the year the Warriors got hammered by the Broncos in week 1 ?
Exposed how flawed the McIntyre system was considering the Warriors finished 6th on the ladder that year.

It was. Good memory and yes I wasn’t a fan of the McIntyre system at all either. Glad they changed it.

And re my quote, I meant to say this final. But yes as for the series, they lost 2 games in a finals series out of 4.

 

[axl rose]

In terms of quality it doesnt come close the 2010 Prelim, which is close to if not the best game of footy Ive ever seen

Was the real GF that year. That one stings more than 89. Todd Payten was ruled out during the week, he fell over a ball at training or something. What a Tigers thing to do. We didn't lose many with him in the side. Drags though were rewarded for a couple of consistent seasons. They should have been playing Raiders really, after Croker missed a goal from in front the week before. We should not have been playing on that side of the finals draw, as we choked against Roosters despite being a 20 point better team. Good finals series.

 

[The unknown]

Was the real GF that year. That one stings more than 89. Todd Payten was ruled out during the week, he fell over a ball at training or something. What a Tigers thing to do. We didn't lose many with him in the side. Drags though were rewarded for a couple of consistent seasons. They should have been playing Raiders really, after Croker missed a goal from in front the week before. We should not have been playing on that side of the finals draw, as we choked against Roosters despite being a 20 point better team. Good finals series.

If we don’t completely shit bricks against the roosters we end up playing in the GF against saints I reckon, and i’m with you on week 2, we got very lucky against the raiders

Our 2010-2011 side was weird....basically a bunch of battlers with Lawrence, Ellis, Lote, Benji and Farah thrown in

Also I’m not a stat man but the amount of time’s we blew a 12-18 point lead those years was unbelievable

 

[PARRA_FAN]

Feel free to post games pre 1998.

I just personally can't remember them as it was before my time.

Well pre NRL there were some good ones.

From 1995 onwards we've always had two prelims on the same weekend but before that there was only one. Before that you had the Grand Final qualifier between the minor premiers who used to have the week off and the team that either finished 2 or 3. The loser in that game and the winner in the other semi would face off the week after.

A lot of people would say Eels Vs Dragons in 1984 was a classic, Grothe scored the match winner a few minutes before full time. However I wasn't born then

One preliminary final I'll mention after is 1993, Brisbane Vs Bulldogs. The Broncos got away to a good start, tries to Hancock and Renouf who made a surprise comeback but the Dogs came back to lead at half time. It was fairly close until Langer's magic got the Broncos home and it was Alan Cann's busting through about 6 defenders that put the icing on the game, I think they won 23-16.

Probably one of the best ones Ive seen was Newcastle vs Norths 1997. Both teams had never played in a Grand Final. There were terrible conditions but didn't damper the game itself. I remember the Knights leading at half time but Andrew Johns didn't return because of injury, and the momentum changed a bit. The Bears clawed their way back. I could sense that their drought maybe broken but when Matt Seers was tackled close to the line by Darren Albert, maybe it wasn't to be once again. Poor Norths. Although about 10 minutes to go the scores were locked up at 12 all. Taylor missed the conversion, Matty Johns kicked the field goal, Knights into the Grand Final. Good game though.

Anyway my top 5 of all time (not in any order):

1993 Brisbane Vs Bulldogs
1997 Newcastle Vs Norths
2000 Roosters Vs Newcastle
2005 Tigers Vs Dragons
2009 Eels Vs Bulldogs