Gutsy Manly halfback Craig Field booted Manly into its third consecutive Grand Final with a 78th minute drop-goal, giving the Premiers a 17-16 victory over the Sydney City Roosters. Field, who played his best match in a Sea Eagles jersey, knocked over the one-pointer after Shannon Nevin had missed with two previous at tempts. Earlier, the Roosters recovered from a 16-6 deficit to tie the game at 16-16.
The mind games between Phil Gould and Bob Fulton continued prior to kickoff, with both coaches making interesting changes to the scheduled line-up. Fulton elected to start with Field, who had not been in the run on side since mid-season. Anthony Colella was also promoted to the backrow, with Neil Tierney going to the interchange bench. For the Roosters, Jack Elsegood was a surprise starter, while Sean Garlick began the game at hooker.
The game had been built up in the Sydney press as the true Grand Final, with most people assuming the winner of this match would be victorious the following week against Newcastle or North Sydney. That prediction had a fair degree of justification behind it, considering that Sydney City had won eight games in a row and Manly had been successful in all but one of their seven finals games since 1995.
Sydney City gained the upper hand in the early stages of proceedings, resulting in a Brad Fittler bomb which almost saw Shane Rigon, who was replacing Brandon Pearson, score for the Roosters. Once the play settled down, however, it was Manly who gained control of the game. A Field bust in the 7th minute showcased weak Sydney City defence around the play the ball, and when Andrew Walker clobbered Geoff Toovey, Shannon Nevin put first points on the board through a penalty kick.
Manly dominated the next twenty minutes of play, but bombed three great try scoring opportunities. Either the last pass went missing or the ball was dropped wi th a clear passage to the line by Terry Hill (12th minute), John Hopoate (16th minute) and Craig Innes (23rd minute). The first twenty-five minutes of the game saw a 100-63 tackle count in favour of the Sea Eagles, and it was only scrambling Sydney City defence that saved the Roosters from being down two or three converted tries. Interestingly, it wasn't until the 28th minute that Cliff Lyons entered the fray, due to the fact that Field and Toovey were playing so well.
As so often happens in Rugby League, a try was scored against the run of play. A Brad Fittler kick which seemed to have nothing going for it popped out of Danny Moore's hands, allowing Jack Elsegood to pounce on the ball and score a try. It was another case of a freakish try, something which has happened so often in the ARL Final Series in 1997. A Shannon Nevin penalty goal in the 36th minute narrowed the gap to 6-4, and the Roosters maintained the two point advantage until half-time.
Manly had 57% of possession in the first half, and despite being a fantastic attacking unit, were unable to cross the line. The tackle count was an amazing 135-97, with Luke Ricketson making 26 tackles by half-time. Field's break early in the game was the only time either team had broken the defensive line, which showed the quality of the defence from both sides. For Sydney City, it was similar to last year's finals encounter with Manly, where Adrian Lam and Brad Fittler provided the only two line breaks for the whole game for the Roosters. In that particular game, Daniel Gartner was outstanding, making many breaks. However, one year later, he seemed to make numerous half-breaks, but the Roosters defence held on every time. Steven Menzies was also in the same boat for the Sea Eagles .
A frantic start to the second half saw both teams with great attacking opportunities. Danny Moore made a try saving tackle in the 41st minute, and Fittler dropped the ball over the line on the ensuing play. In the 45th minute, Andrew Walker made a tremendous 60m burst from his own goal-line, although Dale Shearer knocked on, turning possession over. One minute later, Manly centre Craig Innes scored out wide, after excellent lead-up work from Jim Sedaris and Anthony Colella . Nevin missed the conversion attempt, but the Premiers were in front, and they were never headed from then on.
A nasty clash between Andrew Walker and Terry Hill in the 49th minute forced Walker off the field. He returned some three minutes later, though, and played out the rest of the match.
Jim Sedaris and Neil Tierney were placed on report for lifting in the 50th minute, but will probably not have to face the judiciary. The definition of a spear tackle is when the defensive player puts his hands in between the legs of the player with the ball. Sedaris certainly didn't do this, and would be unlucky if he was summoned to Phillip Street on Monday night.
The Eastern Suburbs' defence began to tire midway through the second half, which allowed Manly's Geoff Toovey to scurry out of dummy half a number of times. Toovey, who has proved to be a terrific dummy half runner for Manly and NSW, made several 15m gains and one clean 30m break, paving the way for a Nevin penalty goal in the 54th minute.
An exchange between Mark Carroll and Brad Fittler in the 57th minute resulted in a Manly penalty, which was surprising considering that Carroll threw the first punch.
Manly returned to its attacking best in the 62nd minute with a try that had classic Sea Eagles written all over it. Cliff Lyons held up a pass beautifully for Terry Hill on the Manly 30m line, and Hill got outside Adrian Lam before passing to Moore. Moore moved back infield and gave the ball to Menzies who sprinted 50m to score for Manly. With 18 minutes to go, the Sea Eagles held a imposing 10 point lead, and it was assumed by many that the season was over for Sydney City .
It took another freakish incident to bring the Roosters back into contention. An Andrew Walker kick in the 67th minute bounced horribly for Manly defenders, Moore, Nevin and Field, and Elsegood was the man on the spot once again to take th e ball and score for the Roosters, bringing them to within six.
Shannon Nevin had his first field goal attempt in the 71st minute, which hit the uprights, causing all sorts of chaos. Daniel Gartner picked up the ball and scored, but he was 15-20m offside, and David Manson rightly disallowed the try.
In the 73rd minute, Scott Gourley scored the softest try Manly has conceded in three years. Taking the ball one off the ruck ten metres out, Gourley strolled through weak Mark Carroll defence to score under the posts. Ivan Cleary's conversion locked the game up at 16-16, and the scene was set for the second ARL thriller in two days following the North Sydney v Newcastle epic.
Nevin had another field-goal attempt at the 76th minute, which was hooked to the left, giving Sydney City possession. With Walker, Fittler and Lam all capable of kicking 40m+ field-goals, the Roosters would have been favourites at this stage of the game. However, a Sean Garlick dropped ball and a subsequent 40m run from Craig Field gave the Sea Eagles another chance at sealing victory. Craig Field stepped up and kicked the field goal from 10m out, giving Manly the victory and the right to play Newcastle next Sunday in the ARL decider.
There were a number of fantastic players for Manly, but the backrowers and halves were simply sensational. Gartner, Menzies and Colella did a mountain of work at both ends of the field, while Field and Toovey made more breaks between them than the entire Roosters outfit.
Luke Ricketson completed a phenomenal amount of work for the Roosters, and was clearly their best player. Gourley was alos strong in the forwards. The attacking trio of Fittler, Lam and Walker never really fired for the Roosters, which was probably the key to the game considering how well Toovey and Field played for Manly. David Manson had an average game as referee, and Kelvin Jeffes would be favourite to be in charge of first grade next Sunday.
This report ©1997 by Nick Leonard
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