The 2015 rugby league grand final?
Loved it. Was there.
Compelling from first to last. Like two boxers going toe-to-toe for 15 rounds, the most staggering thing was not just the fury of the blows thrown, but how the other side could take those blows and still come back to throw their own! And then, how regularly they threw off their gloves, and took up epees, to become dancing fencers instead, before taking up the gloves once more . . .
The pace! The skill! The sheer sporting theatre of it all!
And of course, the denouement, the double climax ...
I refer, of course to the stunning try in the corner just as the siren sounded; the kick from Thurston hitting the stick; the pathos of the Broncos half-back knocking-on from the kick-off of extra time; and Thurston – again, him – slotting the winning field goal, all as the crowd roared.
Still, sports fans, the question before us is: was it indeed the best ever rugby league grand final? For my money, there are two basic groups who maintain it was. They are the young'uns who don't know any better. And the professional commentators, whose job in life it is to claim that everything is the best ever!
But the rest of us, who are older, wiser, and have seen a thing or two, and have no skin in the game to claim one way or t'other? What do we say?
I say we know better. We know the truth. We know that though the 2015 grand final ran it close, and though the 1997 grand final woulda and shoulda been a contender if not for the fact that it was in a split competition, there remains just one Grand Final – in the red corner – that is still the heavyweight champeen champion of all grand finals . . . and that is the 1989 grand final!
Oh you whipper-snappers, you young 'uns, you littlies, you shoulda been there! We were.
Balmain Tigers v Canberra Raiders.
At the Sydney Football Stadium. Beautiful September day. This was sporting theatre like the other night, but, somehow, there were so many characters that were all just a little larger than life, characters we all knew, and are still revered to this day: Mal Meninga, Bradley Clyde, Ricky Stuart, John "Chicka" Ferguson Laurie Daley were standouts for the Raiders, while Balmain boasted the likes of Garry Jack, Paul Sironen, Benny Elias, Wayne Pearce, Steve "Blocker" Roach, all with the redoubtable Warren Ryan as coach.
Hail Mary play: The Raiders celebrate the try by John Ferguson that sent the 1989 grand final into extra time. Photo: Steve Christo
With just 15 minutes to go, the Tigers holding onto a 12-8 lead, Warren Ryan decides to replace his big prop, Roach, with a faster, fresher, defender. Roach doesn't want to go but has no choice, and leaves the field grumbling fiercely. (Something that has continued for the next 26 years, seeing as you ask, but I digress.)
A penalty to the Tigers to make it 14-8 puts the Tigers in a strong position, but still the Raiders keep doing exactly that, launching raid, after raid, after raid. As the minutes ebb away and the seconds tick down everyone has one eye on the field and one eye on the clock. The Raiders are throwing EVERYTHING at them. Can the Tigers hold on?
Amazingly, Elias is twice able to move himself into position to make field-goal attempts – either one of which would have sealed the deal – but both just miss. (One bounced back from the cross-bar.)
The Raiders ... They're still going! And now, look there!
With just 90 seconds to go, the Raiders' kick goes up – a swirling up and under – and a slew of Raiders and Tigers go up for it. It comes down the Raiders' side. Daley has it! He hoicks it into the arms of Ferguson, on the fly. Chicka says he's 35 years old, but others reckon he's older than religion. Who cares?
He jinks, he jives, he jinks three more times and scores the try! With a conversion by Meninga, it is all locked up, 14-14, and extra time is upon us. Using the same logic that has taken Roach from the field, Ryan now also removes Sironen.
Just three minutes into extra time, Canberra five-eighth Chris O'Sullivan kicks a field-goal to take it to 15-14! But, see, back then that is not enough. With 10 minutes each way there are 17 minutes to go. Balmain can strike back at any time, and they threaten to, for most of it.
Unbelievable: The Canberra Raiders celebrate winning the 1989 NSWRL grand final. Photo: Getty Images
Now, there are just three minutes left, as the crowd croaks out its cheers – just about all cheered out, but still making whatever noise it can.
And now it happens. Out on the right wing, it's the most unheard-of footballer we'd never heard of, Steve Jackson! No. 20 on his back, a 23-year-old reserve who has just come off the bench. We'd never seen him before. We've never seen him since.
But this, this is his moment. He's got the ball, 25 metres out! He shimmies! He shakes! He bumps off one of the Tigers! Two of the Tigers! THREE of them. He twirls, somehow, without really slowing down . . . even as three Tigers close in on him.
They nail him just before the line, hitting him as one. But that bastard is still going!
He reaches out his right hand, and plonks it down for the biscuits, the victory, the 1989 premiership!
Still the most stunning and exciting try I've ever seen – the incarnation of the try of our dreams, the one we imagined as kids we might one day score, but never did. Meninga cries tears of joy. Pearce, tears of anguish.
Yes, I repeat, Sunday night's match was fabulous, but the 1989 vintage is still the Grange Hermitage of the collection. We old-timers get that.
Pass me my pipe, and I'll tell you about it again.
Twitter: @Peter_Fitz
