What better way to bring down the curtain on a stunning home and away season than by christening a shiny new stadium with an age-old rivalry.
The Rabbitohs and the Roosters. Foundation clubs steeped in tradition. Enough bad blood and good yarns to fill three books of feuds.
The rebuilt Allianz Stadium roars to life on Friday when the NRLW grand final rematch between the Roosters and Dragons is followed by the 1931 grand final rematch between the Roosters and Rabbitohs.
Remarkably, Easts and Souths have played in just one decider since grand finals were introduced 92 years ago, try-scoring machine Benny Wearing helping the Bunnies to a 12-7 win at the Sydney Sports Ground on September 12, 1931.
To coin a well-worn phrase, Mr Wearing certainly knew his way to the try-line, the Hall of Famer crossing 186 times in 228 first-class games, including 144 tries for the Rabbitohs, a club record that stood for 81 years until Nathan Merritt broke it in 2014.
Merritt would enjoy the view from the summit for a considerably shorter time, with Alex Johnston’s hat-trick against Wests Tigers in Round 12 this year taking him to the top of the cardinal and myrtle tree.
Johnston has since taken his career tally to 164 tries and this week matches motors with another try-scoring machine in Daniel Tupou, who needs just eight more four-pointers to surpass Anthony Minichiello as the Roosters’ highest ever try-scorer.
Such is their longevity and durability that Johnston and Tupou have been part of the past three finals meetings between the two arch-rivals, in 2014, 2018 and 2019.
The stakes could not have been higher in the 2014 preliminary final at Stadium Australia – the Roosters one game away from a shot at defending their title from 2013, the Rabbitohs desperate to make the big dance for a shot at breaking a 43-year premiership drought.
In the early going it was all the Roosters, with tries to Minichiello and Mitchell Pearce giving them a 12-0 lead before the Michael Maguire-coached Bunnies slipped into overdrive.
Playing the 17th game of his debut season, Johnston grabbed his 20th try, while Greg Inglis bagged a double and Ben Te’o and Lote Tuqiri also scored in a resounding 32-22 win for Souths.
The men from Redfern had booked their first grand final appearance since 1973 and ended Minichiello’s glittering career one week earlier than he had hoped for.
A week later at the same venue Johnston capped a stunning first season by scoring the first try of the grand final, the Rabbitohs going on to destroy the Bulldogs 30-6 to claim their 21st premiership, six more than the Roosters.
Come 2018 it was Tupou among the tries and on his way to a grand final when the Roosters downed the Rabbitohs 12-4 in the preliminary final while the 2019 qualifying final also went the Chooks’ way 30-6.
The average winning margin in the five subsequent clashes has been a whopping 26 points, a far cry from the Monday night miracles of 2012, when the sides traded incredible comeback victories.
In the opening round of the season, with 21-year-old Adam Reynolds launching his NRL career, the Rabbitohs looked home and hosed at 20-12 with three minutes to play.
Displaying the never-say-die attitude that has become his trademark, Roosters hardman Jared Waerea-Hargreaves carried four defenders over the line with barely two minutes remaining to set up a grandstand finish.
In the final set of the match, Mitchell Pearce slid across field and linked with Mitch Aubusson who found Boyd Cordner, the future club captain putting in a grubber for Minichiello to race onto the match-winner to send the Roosters into raptures.
The Bunnies were shell shocked but come Round 19, they would have their revenge, coming from the clouds to win 24-22 at the very ground we head to on Friday night to write another chapter in this epic rivalry.
After leading 12-4 at half-time the Rabbitohs conceded tries to Tautau Moga and Joey Leilua to fall behind by four and when Pearce finished off a superb team try to make it 22-12 Roosters with around four minutes left the game looked done.
Throwing caution to the wind the Rabbitohs found a try through Merritt with under a minute to play and then straight from the kick-off they conjured one of the most talked about and replayed tries of the past decade.
Receiving the ball with 45 seconds on the clock, giant back-rower Dave Taylor headed to the left side of the field and delivered a beautifully timed pass to Chris McQueen, who exploded into space leaving defenders strewn on the turf behind him.
When he eventually ran out of room he found Merritt looming in support, the speedster going 25 metres before a desperation tackle forced him to offload to hooker Issac Luke, who was set upon by three scrambling Chooks.
As he was heading to the turf just eight metres from the line, Luke lobbed a Hail Mary out the back where Reynolds was on hand to skip over the line and complete a length-of-the-field miracle that sent The Burrow barmy and prompted Fox Sports commentator Warren Smith to deliver this pearler – ‘you can take me now, I have seen it all’
