So the other day was officially 20 years after we were crowned minor premiers when we defeated Brisbane in the final round of the 2005 regular season. It almost feels like yesterday 2005 and in some ways with Canberra winning the minor premiership this season it reminded me a lot of 2005. Last year Canberra didn't make the finals and this year nothing was really expected of them. Same with us, in 2004 we missed the finals, in 2005 we recruited some good players like Tahu, Morrison, Riddell, Marsh but I don't think many would have predicted we finish first.
We also had Tim Smith who probably had the best rookie season in modern times where he recorded 40 try assists which nobody has achieved before or since. I remember when we were on the Footy Show and Peter Sterling handed him a jersey and annointed him as his successor. I also look at the top 8 that year and we basically beat all the teams around us, sometimes twice. I remember the top of the table match against St. George where we put 40 on them at Parramatta Stadium. 2005 was the last year that I truly believed in this club and their ability to win a premiership. Ever since I have had doubts in my mind whether we could win, especially in 2009 and 2022, I had doubts but with 2005 I believed in the team 100% and I thought it was our moment, our time. Of course I respected the opposition but when I watched the preliminary final between Wests and St. George the night before I said to myself "Well St. George were meant to make it to the grand final and be our opponent and now their gone". We had beaten Wests Tigers twice that year and we were one of the only teams who seemed to work out how to stop them.
I remember attending the preliminary final against North Queensland and there was 45,000 people in the stadium. 44,500 were Parramatta fans, maybe only about 200-300 NQ fans were in the ground. I knew that it would be a tough game but I thought to myself "These were beaten by 50 two weeks ago by Wests". I remember the game pretty well, nothing worked at all, the team looked flat on the pitch. Tim Smith even tried one of his cross field kicks which usually worked but it went over Grothe's head and into touch. I remember after the game and leaving the stadium, I saw one or two people saying they were going to burn their jersey. The train ride home was the quietest train ride I have ever expierenced in my life, it were like someone had died, nobody said a word. When I got home I listened to the radio and there were a few angry Parramatta fans that phoned up who wanted the team hung, drawn and quartered. The following week I watched the grand final and it was hard to watch at times because I thought "That should be us" and then I rememebered that we beat Wests twice that year.
I think as a club we have missed a lot of opportunities at winning more than four premierships, 1976, 1977, 1984, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2009 were some of the other ones, probably in more modern times 2001 obviously but 2005 gets overlooked by the casual rugby league fan, I think it was a seriously missed opportunity. There were some good memories from that year like beating Canterbury-Bankstown by 50 points which is the biggest ever win by either club over the other but it will always be a what if year.
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Some good points there Steele. One of the things we need to get right as a club is to be able to perform at out best each week, but especially the big games. We have consistently failed in that respect over the ages, and that's not something we have been tested in this year. Hopefully Ryles is onto that and will work it into the overhaul plan. We can expect big things from the club moving forward, but it's up to everyone to ensure we get to where we should be, and to stay there.
Normally I'd say we're gonna choke when the time comes, but I have feeling that with this squad we''ll be good. We have enough quality experience with the older guys to keep things cool in the heat of battle.
Have a look at those recruits , established NRL players . Well what'ddya know. It's like Brian Smith knew we could only do so much with young inexperienced juniors. It's going to be a long way to the top at the rate we are going. 5 year plan is optimistic.
I was at that NQ game , tough night. Bought a new Guernsey and all.
Our recruitment for 2005 was PJ Marsh, Glenn Morrison, Mark Riddell, Chad Robinson, Paul Stringer, Timana Tahu, Tim Smith. We also gave debuts to Joel Reddy and Brett Delaney.
Yes 2005 was a wasted opportunity. I often say this on here.
People will say 2001, but if you actually look at that Newcastle side their line up on paper was very strong (incl arguably the best player ever. In the years that followed many became established rep players unkike our lineup.
People will say 2009, but that was just a freakish run from the biggest wasted talent in the history of the game. We also had a lot of luck with injury helping momentum. Sure melbourne were cheating but in their absence I am not 100% we win it that year. Just my opinion.
People will not say 2022, i think penrith were just the better side.
People will say 2021 when the trainer cheated and luai should have been penalised during that blindside break. I agree with this and think we would won this game. I watch a lot of footy and I am convinced Penrith were shot and a try was coming until the trainer cheated. BUT i think souths would have beat us a week later. Ttey are our boggy team and we cannot beat them.
Some will say 1998. Obviously without paul carriage we go to the GF, but I think we get beat by Brisbane a week later.
So that leaves 2005, what happened? Well, we just did not turn up. Hindmarash being out was a huge out. He was at his absolute best that year and his absence was huge. We just did some crazy stuff, like wagon (a great defender) decided to run out of the line, stuff like that. Things just didnt go our way. But this was the year we should have won it. We should have turned up against the cowboys. We were better. Hindmarsh should have been injury free. We would have beat the tigers. Heck, you could even argue dragons should have beaten tigers too and again, i still think we beat dragons and win the comp. 2005 was 100% there for the taking.
I think you're missing 1999. That, to me, was the year the (then only a 13 year) drought should have been broken. We had such a strong team and led Melbourne 16-6 at halftime in the prelim. Winning that and I think we go on to win 2001 as well and probably 2005.
Im think it's going to be a Canberra storm grand final Canberra to win
Yep 2005 still haunts me as a 12 year old kid that game was heartbreaking.
I was at that NQ game. Terrible. I was also at Lang Park earlier in the season when we were 42-0 down at halftime to Brisbane. At least the weather was good that day. I was also at that Wests vs NQ semi where NQ got flogged. How they managed to turn it around still amazes me.
You are right though, as the season unfolded, it became more and more likely the premiership was ours to lose, although I think St George Illawarra had a better side. As soon as Wests beat St George in the porelim, we should have gone on to win it.