The 1999 NRL Grand Final was the conclusive and premiership-deciding game of the 1999 NRL season. It was contested by the competition's two newest clubs: the Melbourne Storm, competing in only its second year (having finished the regular season in 3rd place); and the St. George Illawarra Dragons, in their first year as a joint-venture club (having finished the regular season in 6th place), after both sides eliminated the rest of the top eight during the finals.

A new rugby league world record crowd of 107,999 was at Stadium Australia for the game. The attendance, which saw 67,142 more people attend than had done so for the 1998 NRL Grand Final at the Sydney Football Stadium, broke the record attendance for a Grand Final, eclipsing the previous record of 78,065 set in 1965 when St. George defeated South Sydney 12–8 at the Sydney Cricket Ground. It was the last time that the Clive Churchill Medal was presented in a case before it was changed the following season where it is presented separately with a ribbon being worn around the neck. Due to its competitive nature, It has been regarded as one of the greatest NRL grand finals of all time.

Pre-match entertainment featured Hugh Jackman's rendition of the Australian national anthem.

Background

The 1999 NRL season was the 92nd season of professional rugby league football in Australia, and the second to be run by the National Rugby League. With the exclusion of the Adelaide Rams and Gold Coast Chargers, and the merger of the St. George Dragons and Illawarra Steelers, seventeen teams competed for the NRL Premiership during the 1999 season, which culminated in the first grand final to be played at Stadium Australia.

Melbourne Storm

The 1999 Melbourne Storm season was the second in the club's history. Coached by Chris Anderson and captained by Glenn Lazarus, they competed in the NRL's 1999 Telstra Premiership, finishing the regular season in 3rd (out of 17).

St. George Illawarra Dragons

The 1999 St. George Illawarra Dragons season was the first in the newly formed joint-venture club's history. Coached by David Waite and Andrew Farrar, and captained by Paul McGregor, they competed in the NRL's 1999 Telstra Premiership, finishing the regular season in 6th place (out of 17).

Teams Melbourne named an unchanged team from their preliminary final win against Parramatta. The injured Robbie Kearns and utility Brad Watts were named as the travelling reserves. In a bid to prove his fitness in recovering from a torn quadriceps muscle, Kearns admitted "if I was to play, it would break someone's heart in taking his spot, so I will really have to weigh things up before making a final decision." Three Storm players — Robbie Ross (corked thigh), Craig Smith (shoulder and knee) and Ben Roarty (shoulder) all spent time in recovery in the week leading up to the Grand Final, missing some training sessions, but made it through to take their places in the team. Kearns ruled himself out of the Melbourne team in the lead-up, making the call to sit out of the match due to his persistent thigh injury. Melbourne had two players with Grand Final experience — Tawera Nikau (Cronulla, 1997) and Glenn Lazarus, who had won twice before with Canberra (1989, 1990) and Brisbane (1992, 1993).

St. George-Illawarra were also unchanged from their win over the Cronulla Sharks. The Dragons resisted the urge to change wingers, keeping Rod Wishart on the bench. There was also no room in the team for the retiring Mark Coyne, who had not played for more than two months due to a neck injury, despite resuming training during the finals series. Prop forward Corey Pearson was also ruled out by the Dragons after he injured his shoulder in the club's qualifying final win earlier in the month. It was reported in the lead-up that Anthony Mundine had been suffering from a bout of tonsilitis, but was in no doubt of missing the match. The Dragons had six players with past Grand Final experience — Wayne Bartrim, Nathan Brown, Brad Mackay, Anthony Mundine, Lance Thompson and Colin Ward. Of those players only Mundine had been on the winning side with the Brisbane Broncos in the 1997 Super League Grand Final.

The Dragons would start favourite with the bookmakers, Melbourne given a 5.5 points start on FootyTAB, with the head-to-head odds of $1.45 for the Dragons, with the Storm at $2.55.

Officials Bill Harrigan was appointed as the referee for the match, the sixth time he was appointed for a Grand Final match. Harrigan got the appointment ahead of fellow referee Steve Clark. The touch judges were John McCormack and Colin White, while Chris Ward was appointed as the video referee.

It was reported that Clark was disappointed to be overlooked for the appointment, enquiring with NRL CEO Neil Whittaker and NRL operations manager Graham Annesley whether death threats issued by a Dragons fan played any role in the decision to appoint Harrigan.

Entertainment Before the match an "entertainment spectacular" was staged featuring Jay Laga'aia, Thelma Houston, John Swan, Mark Gable, Angry Anderson, Rick Price, Genevieve Davis, Hugh Jackman, and Vanessa Amorosi who sang her then latest single Have a Look.

Houston was in Australia playing in the lead role in a production of the musical Fame.

Jackman would sing the Australian national anthem prior to kickoff.

Broadcast On television, the match was broadcast live in Australia on the Nine Network under their Nine's Wide World of Sports branding. The Grand Final was, uniquely for commercial free-to-air television in Australia, broadcast without advertisements during the match itself. Subscription television channels Fox Sports and C7 Sport also had live coverage of the match.

Radio broadcasters included 2UE, whose Continuous Call team led by Ray Hadley broadcast more than 12 hours of coverage from the venue; while ABC Radio Sydney (then known as 2BL) also provided coverage from 1pm through 6pm local time. Youth broadcaster Triple J also provided coverage of the match with Roy & H.G. commentating.

Match details St. George Illawarra were up 14–0 at half time, with a converted try and penalty goal to Craig Fitzgibbon, and a converted try to Nathan Blacklock. However, an Anthony Mundine knock-on over the try line early in the second half proved to be a major turning point in the match, with Melbourne running in tries through Tony Martin and Ben Roarty and winger Craig Smith kicking two penalty goals. An unconverted try to Dragons captain Paul McGregor couldn't stem Melbourne's momentum, with Craig Smith kicking the Storm to within four points of the Dragons at 18–14.

In the 77th minute the Storm forced the Dragons to a goal line dropout. Melbourne's halfback Brett Kimmorley then bombed to Craig Smith's wing. Dragons Jamie Ainscough, anticipating a Melbourne try, caught Smith in a head-high tackle over the try-line,The consequences of a later, similar, head-high tackle would eventually cost Ainscough his career (see Gleeson, Martin, "On this Day: 26 August 2002: Wigan player has tooth removed – from arm", The Guardian.com, 22 August 2009). resulting in Smith being knocked unconscious and, in the process of falling to the ground, Smith knocking on. Referee Bill Harrigan requested video referee Chris Ward adjudicate on the decision. The Melbourne Storm were granted a penalty try, drawing them level with the Dragons. Being a penalty try, the subsequent conversion was taken from directly in front of the posts. Matt Geyer was successful in the conversion and the Storm, for the first time in the match, pulled ahead of the Dragons and took out their first grand final 20–18.

The Melbourne side thus became the quickest expansion team to win a premiership, eclipsing the Canterbury side who won the 1938 premiership in just their fourth season. It was the last game of champion prop and captain Glenn Lazarus, who retired after a remarkable fifth grand final victory (having won premierships with the Canberra Raiders in 1989 and 1990 and with the Brisbane Broncos in 1992 and 1993).

For traditional St. George fans the loss was hard to take. The club were unsuccessful in their four previous visits to the grand final (1985, 1992, 1993 and 1996) and had not won a premiership since 1979. It would not be until 2010 that they would return to another Grand Final, in which it would win its first premiership as a joint-venture.

The grand final attracted a peak television viewership of over 600,000 in Melbourne, a traditional Australian Rules football stronghold. Across Australia according to AC Nielsen figures, the match was watched by 2,440,500 viewers on television, an increase of 34% from the previous year.

Melbourne's 14-point comeback set the record for the largest successful comeback in Grand Final history, until it was surpassed by Penrith's comeback in the 2023 NRL Grand Final.

Scoreboard

Opening matches Two opening matches were played on the ground prior to the Grand Final — the Jersey Flegg Cup final between Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs and Newcastle Knights, followed by the First Division final between Balmain Tigers and Parramatta Eels.

Canterbury won the Jersey Flegg Cup final 18–12 over Newcastle, while Parramatta won the First Division final 44–8 over Balmain.

See also 1999 Melbourne Storm season 2000 World Club Challenge

References

External links 1999 NRL Grand Final at NRL.com Match replay at NRL.com