In a decade at the Mercury, there’s only been one pure fan moment covering rugby league.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
It was back in 2009, when on assignment for the Dragons under 20s team, who suffered a shock loss to Wests Tigers in the preliminary final at ANZ Stadium.
As the under-card to the NRL game, here I am standing in the tunnel metres from a man I idolised as a kid, the man, the mullet, the great Terry Lamb. Baa is there with Parramatta greats Ray Price and Brett Kenny, about to walk on to the field, as part of the pre-game build-up to the Bulldogs prelim against the Eels.
It wasn’t so much just seeing one of your childhood heroes, more being right there, on such a huge occasion, soaking it all in.
A lot of footballers talk about the atmosphere at a preliminary final is better than any other game, outside of the State of Origin cauldron.
The crowds are raucous and undiluted by the corporates, who will get their wealthy hands on the best grand final tickets next weekend. The smell of spring brings with it the sniff of a premiership for the teams still standing.
Dragons fans may remember it differently, given their past finals pain, but when Jamie Soward snapped that field goal which sealed a 13-12 preliminary final victory over the Tigers in 2010, this columnist had no doubt they’d win the premiership.
Even when Darius Boyd had to scramble to scoop the ball over the dead ball line in the dying seconds to snuff out a last-ditch Tigers raid.
Even when the Roosters led 8-6 at half-time in the grand final. Sometime the stars can align – and usually the signs are there on preliminary final day.
Like Soward in 2010, Helensburgh’s Damien Cook and Souths teammate Adam Reynolds controlled the really big moments in last Saturday night’s semi-final. Three field foals ensured the Rabbitohs would survive and the Dragons finals resurgence was short-lived. And if Cook is the latest Illawarra rugby league player to become an NRL premiership winner, he will most certainly have earned it.
After beating Melbourne in round 20 to announce themselves as true contenders, Souths lost three in a row – including to the Roosters – then beat the Tigers to finish fourth on the ladder
Their thrilling 29-28 qualifying loss to the Storm has forced them to do it the hard way, starting with outlasting the Dragons.
Now they have to beat the Roosters and win the grand final for the title, a huge ask. But for a late bloomer – offloaded at the Dragons and Bulldogs, the 27-year-old NSW Origin winner and soon-to-be Australian hooker – a premiership would complete a perfect season for Cook. One day the kids might look at him like I once did Lamb.