The A to Z of the NRL – G is for The Green Machine

G is for The Green Machine

As the NRL attempts to return to on-field action, the A to Z of the NRL continues with a feature on a team that was one of the great on-field stories from the 2019 and a great rugby league story in general: the Green Machine.

Given that the Canberra Raiders captured the imagination of rugby league in the 2019 NRL finals series, and were the de facto team of so many rugby league followers in the big game, it seems like a tale that is worth telling.

In a break from TV ads, moustaches and beards, the A to Z of rugby league takes in a bit of history.

New Gurgler contributor – and massive Canberra fan – Andrew Pelechaty, is the perfect person to tell the story.

This edition of the A to Z of the NRL is brought to you by the letter G for Green Machine.

THE RAIDERS’ ORIGIN

While the nickname may have been pinched from the NFL, the Canberra-Queanbeyan community – and inaugural coach Don Furner – played a big part in the Raiders’ origin, with the Queanbeyan Blues rugby league team selected to form the Canberra franchise. The famous colours came from ‘Patricia Taylor’ (Beverley Patricia Elphick) who worked on it with her husband Don Elphick, an ACT rugby league identity. The pseudonym was used to counter accusations of nepotism and any political controversy. Her proposal was a combination of blue and gold (the ACT’s sporting colours), with the green and white of the old Hall rugby league team (also assuring there’d be no clashes with existing NSWRL clubs). The original nickname she suggested was the ‘Griffins’ (a homage to Walter Burley Griffin).

Canberra joined the Illawarra Steelers in the 1982 NSWRL Premiership, the first clubs outside of Sydney to join the competition. While the Raiders had two grounds at their disposal (Bruce Stadium in Canberra and Queanbeyan’s Seiffert Oval), they played at Seiffert for the first eight seasons before making Bruce their home in 1990. While it’s now known as GIO Stadium Canberra, the hardcore fans still call it Bruce.

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THE GRAND FINALS

Since 1987, Canberra have played in six grand finals, winning three of them.

1987

The 1986 signing of Mal Meninga turned Canberra into a premiership contender, though they had to do without Mal for most of 1987, after he broke his arm in a loss to Manly-Warringah at Seiffert Oval. The new coaching combination of Furner and Wayne Bennett took Canberra to third place and a vital double chance, which would come in handy after losing the major preliminary final 25-16 to Easts. They rebounded with big wins over Souths (46-12) and Easts (32-24), to qualify for the grand final against Manly, who were minor premiers and huge favourites. The Sea Eagles showed their class to lead 16-2 before a Chris O’Sullivan try gave Canberra a sniff, but that was a close as they got.

1989

After finishing third in 1988 (but losing to Canterbury-Bankstown and Balmain in the finals), the Raiders came from fourth in 1989 to play a heavily favoured Balmain. After losing to the Bulldogs in the 1988 grand final, the Tigers were expected to comfortably beat Canberra – even more so when they led 12-2 at halftime.

It all came together for Canberra after the break:

• Gary Belcher scored to narrow the gap to 12-8
• Five metres from scoring the game-winning try, Michael Neil was ankle-tapped by Mal Meninga; then, with an unmarked Tim Brasher ready to score, captain Wayne Pearce lost the ball.
• With Balmain leading 14-8 with 15 minutes left, coach Warren Ryan benched Paul Sironen and Steve Roach, thinking the Tigers could safely defend their lead. Back in those days, replacements were permanent, so Sirro and Blocker were forced to helplessly watch the rest of the game
• Benny Elias narrowly missed a field goal, which would have given the Tigers a seven-point lead and justify Ryan’s decision
• In a final desperate play, Chris O’Sullivan bombed for the Tigers’ tryline; Laurie Daley (a centre back then) caught it and threw an overhead pass for Chicka Ferguson to score. A pressure conversion from Meninga tied it 14-14 at fulltime.

Canberra had the momentum going into extra time. O’Sullivan’s field goal gave the Raiders a 15-14 lead, which they controlled, before that try to Steve Jackson – as Balmain desperately tried to work it from their own tryline – sealed a 19-14 win. It was Canberra’s ninth straight win as they came from nearly missing the finals to winning the whole thing. The result had consequences for both clubs: Canberra went on to win two more premierships in five seasons to become one of the elite teams of the nineties, while Balmain began a slow, sad descent: they finished fifth in 1990, never made the finals again (finishing second-last in 1993, and last in 1994), and were briefly rebranded as the Sydney Tigers. They merged with the Western Suburbs Magpies in 1999 to form the Wests Tigers, winning the premiership in 2005.

Channel Nein’s rugby league show The Greatest recently covered the top 10 grand finals, with the 1989 grand final and the 2015 North Queensland v Brisbane grand final contenders for the greatest decider. While the panel of James Bracey, Freddy Fittler, Joey Johns, and Gus Gould favoured 1989, the brainwashed Nein viewers voted for 2015.

1990

If 1989 was historic, 1990 was almost perfect. The Raiders, with a superstar team of Meninga, Belcher, Laurie Daley, Chicka, O’Sullivan, Ricky Stuart and Glenn Lazarus (to name a few), won everything infront of them (starting with the Channel Ten pre-season cup, where they beat Penrith in the final). They finished equal first with a powerful, Origin-heavy Brisbane team, but destroyed the Broncos 32-4 in the preliminary final. The grand final against the Panthers (who had comfortably beaten Canberra in the major preliminary final) was much closer, with Canberra winning 18-14.

1991

Canberra nearly made it a hat-trick of premierships, losing to Penrith in the 1991 grand final. The Panthers had dumped the Chocolate Soldiers jerseys for slicker black, red, yellow, green, and white design (probably the most drastic colour change in the game’s history), and the retiring Royce Simmons scored the first and last try in the grand final as Penrith won 19-12.

The Raiders did well to make it that far, having substantially breached their $1.5 million salary cap in the 1990 season. This would cause the Raiders to miss the 1992 finals series after being forced to offload several players (including Glenn Lazarus, Brent Todd, David Barnhill, Nigel Gaffey, and Paul Martin).

1994

Canberra returned to the grand final in 1994 (after crashing out of the 1993 finals when Ricky Stuart was injured in a penultimate round walloping of Parramatta). While minor premiers Canterbury-Bankstown were favourites, Canberra were farewelling Mal Meninga. The 1994 grand final was all but decided when Martin Bella spilled the opening kick-off. Canberra, led by Paul Osborne, tore Canterbury apart in the first half, before toasting their 36-12 win with a late intercept try to Big Mal.

2019

It took Canberra 25 years to make another grand final. While they made plenty of finals series’ (entering a strange pattern of making the finals every even-numbered year from 2004 to 2016, usually on the back of a late-season winning run), they only made two preliminary finals (Super League 1997, losing to Cronulla-Sutherland; NRL 2016, losing to Melbourne). The biggest disappointment was 1995: they finished second with a 20-2 record (Manly-Warringah finished first with a 20-2 record) and beat Brisbane in the qualifying final at Lang Park (the first NSWRL/ARL final to be played outside of Sydney). They saved their worst game for the preliminary final against the “Sydney” Bulldogs, who went on to win the grand final over the Sea Eagles.

It wasn’t all bad for the Raiders, with a NSWRL Premier League title in 2003 and winning the inaugural Toyota Cup (under 20s) in 2008. For the first-grade team, there were glorious 74-12 and 56-0 Bruce beltings of Penrith (2008) and Brisbane (2009) respectively, with Terry Campese scoring 36 on his own against the Panthers, nearly equalling Meninga’s record of 38 against Easts in 1990.

After two disappointing years in 2017 and 2018, 2019 was make-or-break for coach Ricky Stuart (who’d come back home in 2014 but had only taken Canberra to the one finals series in 2016).  Canberra hit another late-season hot streak to finish fourth, helped by exciting new signings John Bateman and Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad. They beat the seemingly invincible Melbourne – in Melbourne – twice in the space of a month, and nearly tore down Bruce Stadium with joy in the preliminary final win against Souths, to meet the Roosters in the grand final. Canberra gave it their all, only to be “six again-ed” as the Roosters won 14-8 and claimed the first back-to-back titles in the NRL era. Jack Wighton joined Brad Clyde by winning the Clive Churchill Medal in a losing side. Despite the loss, it was a brave, proud performance from Canberra, with the whole city getting behind the Raiders and ANZ Stadium witnessing an epic Viking Clap. Speaking of which…

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THE VIKING CLAP

While critics complain that it was stolen from Icelandic soccer, the Viking Clap has become part of Canberra’s home ground ritual since 2016. It’s simple: someone bangs a drum and fans clap above their heads, with the tempo gradually increasing as the Raiders run onto Bruce Stadium. It says a lot about the Clap’s success that it featured in the 2019 grand final. Past players are invited to blow the giant Huawei-sponsored horn to start the Clap (with Meninga appropriately leading the grand final Viking Clap). Raiders drummer/super fan Simon Tayoun led the Clap during the last round robin home game in 2019 (against the Warriors), again proving that Canberra are rugby league’s community team.

THE A TO Z OF RUGBY LEAGUE SO FAR

A is for Advertisements

B is for Broadcasters

C is for Cult Heroes

D is Defunct Clubs and Disused Grounds

E is for English Rugby League Players in Australia

F is for Best Rugby League Facial Hair