The Newcastle Knights have upset defending Premiers, Manly, by defeating the Sea Eagles 22-16 in front of 42,482 people at the Sydney Football Stadium. A try with six seconds on the clock to winger Darren Albert broke a 16-all deadlock and brought the city of Newcastle it's first ARL Premiership.
Manly made the predicted replacements before kick-off. Anthony Colella and David Gillespie started instead of Cliff Lyons and Neil Tierney. Newcastle's Brett Clements was ruled out, leaving Bill Peden starting at hooker.
The game began rather unexpectedly, with Manly looking shaky and Newcastle attacking early. The much anticipated battle between Manly's Mark Carroll and Newcastle's Paul Harragon erupted in the seconnd minute after Carroll took offence to a Harragon high shot on Geoff Toovey. The Manly defence was opened up in the third minute by Andrew Johns and Bill Peden, who made the first line break of the match. Toovey made a mistake inside the 20m line on Manly's next set, but the defence held firm and Newcastle were unable to score. In the seventh minute, Andrew Johns had a penalty attempt from 40m out, but missed to the right.
Manly made its first break of the game through John Hopoate, who brought the ball back after the missed kick. Hopoate made another blind side break on the next tackle, giving Manly its first attacking opportunity. A drop ball followed, but rookie hooker Anthony Colella won a scrum against the feed. John Hopoate scored on the ensuing set of six, exposing a weakness in Newcastle's right side defence. Darren Albert and Mark Hughes had been opened up three times in the space of three minutes by the same player. Nevin's sideline conversion gave the Sea Eagles a 6-0 lead.
The Sea Eagles had begun to play well after the initial Newcastle onslaught. Geoff Toovey was playing dummy half, making good metres and setting up the play. Nik Kosef was acting as first receiver more often than not, with Craig Field playing five-eighth.
In the 13th minute Manly suffered a blow when Geoff Toovey got steamrolled. Toovey fell over as he was about to make a tackle, and was concussed. He was forced to leave the field and Cliff Lyons came on.
The kicking game of Newcastle had been talked about all week as one of the major factors of the game, considering the success that Sydney City had the previous week against Manly with the high ball. The first bomb of the match came in the 13th minute through Andrew Johns, but Shannon Nevin was equal to the task and took the bomb magnificently. Craig Field suffered what looked to be a game-ending leg problem a few minutes later, but he returned in the 29th minute and played out the remainder of the match.
Newcastle came incredibly close to the Manly line in the 24th minute, when Andrew Johns ran down the blindside from dummy half on the last tackle. He was stopped inches short by John Hopoate. Johns appeared to be hurt after the incident but played on courageously.
Craig Innes scored Manly's second try in the 25th minute. The movement started 55m out and will be remembered as one of the greatest Grand Final tries in recent memory. Hopoate made the initial break down the left-hand side again, and Lyons, and particularly Toovey, backed up well before Innes crashed over to give Manly a 10-0 lead. Nevin was unsuccessful from out wide.
Newcastle's first points came through an Andrew Johns penalty goal in the 30th minute. Four minutes later, they scored their first ever Grand Final try. A clever kick just metres out from Matthew Johns was taken by Hopoate, but he was bundled into touch by Darren Albert. From the scrum win, Robbie O'Davis got outside Terry Hill, who fell for the inside run from Owen Craigie, and scored out wide. Andrew Johns converted, bringing Newcastle within two points.
Manly hit back in the 38th minute after some magical work from the maestro, Cliff Lyons. Lyons, taking the ball 10m out from Newcastle's line after a dropped ball from Paul Harragon, spun around to find Shannon Nevin on the inside for a four-pointer. The Newcastle forwards simply did not get across to cover the extra man in the backline quick enough, which saw a large gap present itself for the Manly fullback. Nevin converted his own try, which brought the score to 16-8 at half-time.
The half-time score was a true indication of the way each team had played. After piling on initial pressure, Newcastle's offence became confused and dropped balls resulted. Andrew Johns, who was clearly hurt entering the game and after lunging to try and score midway through the half, was passing and kicking from second receiver most of the time, leaving the organisational and running duties to older brother, Matthew. The few times Andrew had run, however, he caused havoc for the Manly defence. Harragon had started the game at 100 miles per hour, which affected his play late in the half. The Knights had tried many last tackle options in Manly's danger area, including the bomb, grubber and chip kicks, as well as running the ball, but had come up empty until O'Davis scored.
Manly had, by contrast, taken full advantage of all the opportunities they had received. Many breaks to Hopoate and Innes down the left-hand side opened up the Newcastle defence, and three tries resulted. Even though Toovey and Field spent time on the bench due to injury, their attack was more orderly than Newcastle's, due to Nik Kosef and, when he came on, Cliff Lyons.
Immediately after the resumption of play, it was obvious that Andrew Johns was going to involve himself more for the Knights. He ran the ball on the first few opportunities he had early in the second half, having likely received some sort of treatment at half-time.
It was Manly who had the first chance in the second stanza, however, through Craig Field. Field found an opening 20m on the last tackle in the 43rd minute, and went through before chipping over O'Davis' head. Newcastle were forced into a line drop-out.
There was more concern for captain, Geoff Toovey, in the Manly camp after he was stomped on by Adam MacDougall in the 46th minute. It is doubtful as to whether the boot was intentional or not, but MacDougall stayed behind to help Toovey even though the play was still going, indicating that it was accidental.
Manly almost put Newcastle away in the 51st minute when Steven Menzies powered through, but Troy Fletcher came up with a try and game saving tackle for Newcastle, who were scrambling well in defence. Andrew Johns booted a penalty goal in the 57th minute in the set after David Manson ruled Cliff Lyons to have knocked on when the ball clearly came off his knee. Nevertheless, Newcastle had clawed their way back to within a converted try.
In the 61st minute Adam Muir almost tied up the contest but dropped the ball after a great pass from Andrew Johns only a metre out from the Manly line. However, it was a sign that Newcastle were well and truly back in the game.
The way Manly approached and played the final 18 minutes lost them the game. In the 63rd minute, Manly received a penalty from Paul Harragon's third high tackle, and elected to kick at goal 32 metres out and 15 in from touch with a swirling breeze. Nevin missed the attempt, and Darren Albert returned the kick with a 40 metre run. The Sea Eagles would have been better off to kick for touch and work for a one-pointer, but this was not to be.
Manly continued to pile on the pressure for the next ten minutes but continually came away empty handed due to poor decisions and lack of organisation. Anthony Colella (67th minute) and Nik Kosef (70th minute) both dropped balls inside Newcastle's 30m line while trying to off-load, when they should have been taking the hard yards and playing mistake free football while working for a field-goal. A 69th minute last tackle raid ten metres out by Manly also fell short, when a field-goal would have once again been preferable.
After withstanding all the pressure, Newcastle made a long break down the touchline with Owen Craigie and Adam Muir featuring prominently. Craig Innes made a try-saving tackle on Muir metres from the line. However, a poor last tackle kick from O'Davis gave Manly possession, and Craig Innes made another long break down the left-hand side of the field. Manly simply had to work back towards the centre and give the ball to Craig Field or Shannon Nevin for a field-goal, but they were unable to do so. Field was tackled on the fourth play, and Cliff Lyons took it upon himself from first receiver to boot the one-pointer. Lyons was standing as he normally would, rather than a few metres behind the ruck, so he received no protection from his team mates and had Newcastle defenders rushing at him. He sprayed the kick to the right and Newcastle survived. Waiting another tackle for Field would have been the better option, considering that he has kicked drop-goals in both of Manly's semi-final games this season, while Lyons has not kicked a field-goal for a number of years.
A forward pass from Adam Muir which went undetected led to a large break from Fletcher, and Robbie O'Davis scored three tackles later. Andrew Johns received the ball from Matthew, and stood in a tackle before handing to O'Davis, who spun brilliantly in a Shannon Nevin tackle before planting the ball on the line. Johns converted from in front, levelling the scores at 16-16 with only five minutes remaining.
Newcastle had been outplayed for the majority of the match, but were clearly the better side in the last five minutes. It would be expected that the Knights, playing in their first Grand Final, may crack under the pressure, and the Johns brothers would perhaps try a risky play which would not come off. However, it was Manly who took the poor options down the stretch. In only five minutes, Newcastle managed to get in three field-goal attempts, to last week's hero Matthew Johns (in the 77th and 78th minutes) and brother Andrew in the 80th. This was due to the Knights' forwards running the ball straight and hard and not looking to off-load. The Sea Eagles, on the other hand, did not attempt one field-goal in the same period. Just 90 seconds out from full-time, Manly elected to run the ball on the last tackle on the half-way line, a bad decision. It gave Newcastle the ball and one last chance at a field-goal, given that the Johns brothers can kick from anywhere up to 40m out. Andrew Johns' attempt was charged down by Craig Field, and the Knights regained possession with 20 seconds on the clock. Andrew Johns took the ball from dummy half and ran down the blind side before giving the ball to Albert who crossed for Newcastle, putting them in front for the first time in the match. The Manly defence, most likely expecting a long spread to the left, did not cover the blindside move, and paid the maximum penalty for it. Newcastle had won the game 22-16.
Robbie O'Davis was awarded the Clive Churchill medal, but there were at least two players in this reporters opinion that deserved it more. The medal was judged with the score at 16-16, so it could have gone to either team. Newcastle's Matthew Johns directed the play brilliantly for his side all day long, and although he didn't attempt one bomb, his chip and grubber kicking was spot-on. He also ran the ball on many occasions, keeping the defence guessing. For Manly, Craig Field was simply outstanding. Although he missed 10-15 minutes in the first half, he came back on and was the most dangerous player for the Sea Eagles. He broke the line a number of times, and gave Manly many options in attack. Other fine performances include Andrew Johns, Adam MacDougall, and Troy Fletcher for Newcastle, while Nik Kosef, Shannon Nevin, and Craig Innes all played well for Manly. Manly only have themselves to blame, as they could have put Newcastle away many times in the second half. It would be expected that a Premiership winning team playing in their third straight Grand Final would be more focused and would show more composure at the end of the game than the Sea Eagles did. However, it was not to be. When given the opportunity, Newcastle came storming home, and played better, smarter footbal l at the end of the game. They fully deserved their victory and title as ARL Premiers.
This report ©1997 by Nick Leonard
Back to the Sea Eagles home page.