Manly had announced earlier in the 2016 season that they would be merging their lower grade sides with the Blacktown Workers teams to become the Blacktown Workers Sea Eagles. This game is often regarded as one of the best grand finals ever with Jonathan Thurston kicking a field goal in golden point to win North Queensland's first ever premiership. Tohu Harris 13. Canterbury who were already out of contention for the finals defeated St. George 26-20 which allowed North Queensland to get the last finals spot and finish 8th. Paul Gallen. They would meet again in the 1995 and 1998 finals series with Canterbury running out winners on both occasions. Manly and Parramatta have built a fierce rivalry since the 1970s. Sosaia Feki 3. The last time Melbourne and Cronulla had faced each other in a finals series was in 2008 when the Storm denied the Sharks with a decisive 28–0 win to claim a spot against the Sea Eagles in the grand final.

Ryan Matterson. As of the 2020 NRL season, the last time the two clubs met in a finals game was the 2015 elimination final which the Sydney Roosters won 38-12 at the Sydney Football Stadium.
The two teams traded close wins in 2017, with Cronulla winning 11-2 at AAMI Park before Melbourne returned serve with an 18-13 victory at Southern Cross Group Stadium.
Manly were admitted into the premiership in 1947 with North Sydney at the time being one of the main advocators for a team to be in Manly. [10], The Cronulla Sharks opened the scoring in the eighth minute with a penalty goal kicked by James Maloney after Marika Koroibete was penalized for a swinging arm on Chad Townsend. In 2018, both sides met for the first time in a finals match since 1984. Broncos: Meg Ward returns on the wing for Tamika Upton, who moves to the reserves in the only change to the side that was narrowly beaten by the Warriors last week. As runners-up, Melbourne were also set to participate but withdrew from the competition, claiming that travelling to England would hamper their pre-season preparations. [7] At age 35 with 278 first grade games, Sharks' captain Paul Gallen was the oldest and most experienced player to debut in a NRL grand final. This is a list of rivalries in the National Rugby League: The rivalry between Canterbury and Parramatta is one of the fiercest in The NRL. Slade Griffin 20. Interchange 14 Jarrod Wallace 15 Mitchell Dodds 16 Joe Ofahengaue 17 Kodi Nikorima 18 Dale Copley, Cowboys: 1 Lachlan Coote 2 Kyle Feldt 3 Justin O’Neill 4 Kane Linnett 5 Antonio Winterstein 6 Michael Morgan 7 Johnathan Thurston (c) 8 Matthew Scott (c) 9 Jake Granville 10 James Tamou 11 Gavin Cooper 12 Ethan Lowe 13 Jason Taumalolo Interchange 14 Rory Kostjasyn 15 John Asiata 16 Scott Bolton 17 Ben Hannant 19 Ray Thompson, COWBOYS: Thurston still troubled by injury. Due to its dramatic ending, the match has been regarded as one of the greatest grand finals in rugby league history, drawing comparisons with the 198… The last being in the 2000 season where Parramatta defeated Penrith 28-10 in the elimination final.