Magic Moments of NRL

Scoreboard

• The Gladiators, 1963 NRL Grand Final
• The Entertainers, 1980 NRL Grand Final
• The call of the millennium, 1999 NRL Grand Final
• First NRL State of Origin, 1980
• Australia v England Women's Rugby League Test, 1996
• Brisbane vs Melbourne, 2006 NRL Grand Final
• Rugby league in the snow, 2000
• Brisbane Broncos enter the NRLW, 2018
• Earliest rugby league game footage in Australia, 1922
• Earliest international rugby league game footage in Australia, 1932

The Gladiators, 1963 NRL Grand Final 

A muddy walk into immortality  

Western Suburbs Magpies v St George Dragons. 1963. A clash for the ages. The closing moments reveal an extraordinary mud-bath. Sliding all over the ground, the ball slipping from their hands, the players' colours are reduced to a uniform muddy brown. St George’s win (8 points to 3) was controversial because of a winning try that many fans and commentators thought should have been disallowed. But the game’s most famous moment came after the final whistle.  

A photograph shows two legends of the game, Norm Provan and Arthur Summons, members of opposing teams exiting the field arm-in-arm and covered in mud. The photograph became known as 'The Gladiators' and was later cast in bronze by Alan Ingham for the premiership trophy awarded from 1982 to 1995. This clip, from the Nine Network special The Great Grand Finals: The St George Era (1976), captures the exceptional conditions in which the photo was taken. 

The Entertainers, 1980 NRL Grand Final 

Gearin scores a try for the ages 

A spectacular try for the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs makes for a memorable 1980 Grand Final. This was the moment when the young, enthusiastic and free-running Bulldogs truly earned their nickname, ‘The Entertainers’. The defining moment came when Greg Brentnall, with no one to pass to, kicked the ball high from 30 metres out. Steve Gearin raced through, never taking his eyes off the ball. With three defenders converging on him he caught it on the full and scored, much to the delight of coach Ted Glossop. Bulldogs halfback Steve Mortimer maintains it was the best try he has ever seen in a grand final. Gearin had a great game, scoring this try and kicking six goals from six for an 18–4 win over the Eastern Suburbs Roosters. 

The call of the millennium, 1999 NRL Grand Final 

No sophomore slump for the Storm 

In 1999, the Melbourne Storm were competing in the NRL for only their second season. They won 8 of their first 11 games but were defeated in the quarter finals. They managed to scrape through to the grand final where St George were red hot favourites to take the title. The score at half-time was 14–0 to the Dragons. But early in the second half, momentum started to swing the Storm’s way. With the score now 18–14 to the Dragons and only minutes left in the game, one of the most dramatic moments in any grand final occurred.  

Ten metres out from the Dragons' try line, Storm halfback Brett Kimmorley kicked high to the opposite corner. Storm winger Craig Smith caught the ball on the full over the try line. As Smith went to place the ball on the ground to score the winning try, Dragons centre Jamie Ainscough took him in a head high tackle and Smith fumbled. The video ref reviewed the footage and declared, 'This is going to be the call of the millennium'. The Storm were awarded a penalty try and, effectively, the premiership. 

First NRL State of Origin, 1980 

A brutal encounter between bitter rivals 

Legendary Queensland players Arthur Beetson, Wally Lewis, John Lang, Kerry Boustead, Chris Close and a young Mal Meninga (then only 20 years old) played in the first State of Origin game, held on 8 July 1980 at Lang Park in Brisbane. The Queensland Maroons beat the NSW Blues 20-10. The voice-over accurately describes it as a ‘brutal encounter’. The game footage, covered brilliantly from several different angles, backs up that statement with plenty of aggro on the field. The original commentary sums it up best: ‘It’s on for young and old now!’ 

The annual State of Origin series continues to promote itself as Australia’s greatest sporting rivalry. Even from this first match it was controversial, with players representing their ‘state of origin’ rather than the state where they currently played. Many of Queensland’s best players had been lured by the higher paying New South Wales clubs, so it made for a tense match. This excerpt comes from a Seven News Brisbane special marking 150 years since Queensland formally separated from New South Wales in 1859, a reminder that the NSW-Queensland rivalry goes back a long way. 

Australia v England Women's Rugby League Test, 1996  

The Jillaroos win a tightly contested game 

This clip is noteworthy for the fact that women's rugby league in Australia in the 1990s was only played in parts of NSW and the ACT and barely made headlines. To have footage of an international match in a nightly news bulletin was a breakthrough for the women's game.  

In 1996, Australia was hosting the English women's rugby league team on their first tour to this country. The English side played seven games, including three test matches. They only lost to an Australian team once on the tour. This short news story from WIN News Canberra shows Australia taking the win in the first test match (16–14). 

Brisbane vs Melbourne, 2006 NRL Grand Final  

NSW is shut out of the grand final  

The first rugby league premiership games in Australia date back to 1908 and were played in New South Wales (see below for the earliest surviving footage of league in Australia). From 1910 onwards, rugby league has been the premier winter sport in NSW. It took an incredible 98 years – just short of the Australian game’s centenary – for a grand final match to be contested by two teams originating from outside the game’s NSW heartland. 

This clip records a clash between two cities that would have seemed incomprehensible 100 years earlier. The Brisbane Broncos celebrate back in their home city after a memorable premiership victory against the Melbourne Storm. The Melbourne team had gone into the final as heavy favourites but Brisbane took the win 15 points to 8. We see the Melbourne players dealing with the disappointment of defeat after the match. Another sign of the changing times? The grand final television ratings in Melbourne topped those in Sydney. 

Rugby league in the snow, 2000 

The big freeze benefits the home side 

The snowstorm that hit Canberra on 28 May 2000 will live on forever in the minds of Canberra Raiders and West Tigers rugby league supporters. No NRL game had ever been played in the snow before. It’s possible some players had never even seen snow. While no one wanted to be out there in the freezing conditions, players took to the field in their shorts and short-sleeved jerseys. Just over 7,000 dedicated fans watched as the Raiders narrowly defeated the Tigers 24-22. Not surprisingly this made for a curious segment on the news that evening, opening with an amusing shot of the West Tigers mascot striding ahead of the team into driving snow.  

Brisbane Broncos enter the NRLW, 2018  

National Women’s Rugby League continues to grow 

This short Nine News story has the Brisbane Broncos women’s team playing their first ever match against the Sydney Roosters and winning convincingly. It’s notable for showing how the new competition was being reported and received positively so soon after its launch. While women had been playing organised rugby league for decades, especially at an international level (see Australia v England Women's Rugby League Test clip), the official NRLW competition did not start until 2018. It was announced following the conclusion of the 2017 Women's Rugby League World Cup, which Australia's Jillaroos won. The first competition was played among just four teams – Sydney Roosters, Brisbane Broncos, St George Illawarra Dragons and New Zealand Warriors – throughout September 2018. Since 2018, the NRLW has steadily expanded with 12 teams competing in the 2025 season. 

Earliest rugby league game footage in Australia, 1922 

NSW triumphs over NZ at the SCG 

This is believed to be the oldest existing footage of rugby league in Australia. It shows part of a game between the New Zealand Maori and New South Wales Seconds teams, played at the Sydney Cricket Ground on 5 June 1922. The Metropolis (Sydney) team had defeated the New Zealanders 77-13 two days beforehand. Organisers feared another landslide victory so decided to play the Seconds instead. Nevertheless, NSW won the game 23-14. New Zealand fared better the following weekend, beating Queensland 23-22 in a thrilling match. 

The clip begins with the NZ team performing a traditional haka before the match, which is now a feature of both international rugby league and rugby union competition. New Zealand rugby league teams performed pre-match hakas as early as 1884 when a team visiting NSW gave what a Sydney newspaper described as a ‘Maori war cry’. According to the paper, ‘The NSW men declared it was hardly fair of the visitors to frighten them out of their wits before the game began’. By the 1922 and 1923 tours, however, the haka was an expected part of the proceedings, and the NSW line-up looks more bemused than intimidated here. 

Earliest international rugby league game footage in Australia, 1932 

A record crowd see England take victory  

In the earliest footage of an international rugby league game in the NFSA collection, a record crowd sees England defeat Australia in the first rugby league test in Sydney. The match was played at the Sydney Cricket Ground on a Monday, 6 June 1932, before over 70,000 spectators – with thousands more watching from other vantage points after police closed the gates. It was the biggest crowd yet seen for an international game, a record that was held for 60 years. England scored first and eventually won 8-6. While Australia won the second test, England wrapped up the series with a victory in the third match. 

Looking for more? 

• Explore more classic rugby league moments in our online curated collection
• Take a look back at the Raiders' first NRL premiership victory in 1989 
• See footage of First Nations sporting stars like Artie Beetson and Anthony Mundine

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Main image: Football goals, iStock. Credit: THP Creative