The Sporting Day: Parramatta-Canterbury, NRL Semi-Final 1

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The Sporting Day: Parramatta v Canterbury, NRL Semi-Final 1

To Canterbury and Parramatta fans alike, there is no bigger hatred than there is for each other. The river of bitterness that divides the two sides runs deep, the flames of detest that exist in both the blue and white camp and the blue and gold camp burn intensely. When these two teams come together on the football field you are transported back to a time when rugby league was suburban and the game meant so much more than it seems to today. It was about passion, glory, violence and pride. When the Eels and the Bulldogs go at it, it still is.

This rivalry dates back to the eighties when these were the only two teams that mattered. Prior to then, both sides had floundered in mediocrity. The Bulldogs had a glory period not long after their 1935 birth but the fifties, sixties and seventies were very dry times indeed. For the Eels, those times were barren. Then, come the late seventies and respective Grand Final defeats (Parramatta in ’77, Canterbury ’79) and the two teams who would come to define the eighties had arrived at the party. Canterbury would open the decade with their first Premiership in nearly forty years. Parramatta would win the next three. Canterbury the next two and then Parramatta in 1986. Canterbury would win it all in 1988. Of the ten Premierships decided in the eighties, eight were won by the Bulldogs and the Eels. Two of those Grand Finals were played against each other, the Dogs winning in ’84 and the Eels taking the tryless ’86 decider.

It was not only Premiership glory that saw the two teams come to represent the eighties. It was diametrically opposed styles: the Bulldogs, only seasons earlier known as the Entertainers, winning battles on a backbone of heavy defence while the Eels played a razzle-dazzle brand that culminated in some tremendous displays of attacking football. There was also the personnel battles, Bulldogs and Eels players squaring off against each other both on the field and in the selection meetings. It was the decade of Lamb against Kenny. Of Sterling and Mortimer. Langmack squaring off with Price. Peter Wynn and David Gillespie.

The hatred was reignited during that great period of rugby league division, Super League. Parramatta stayed firm with the ARL. Canterbury looked to the future with Super League. But not all of Canterbury. International stars Jim Dymock, Dean Pay, Jarrod McCracken and Jason Smith were all lured to Parramatta and after a period of court action, actually went. The fury at Belmore lives on to this day and only sought to escalate an already intense rivalry.

It was after the game was reunited that the Bulldogs landed the return blow. Parramatta led the Bulldogs 20-4 with eleven minutes on the clock in the 1998 semi-final series but blew it to lose 32-20 in extra-time. It is considered one of the greatest comebacks of all-time and set in motion the theory that Parramatta could not win when it counted.

For the first time since then, the Bulldogs and the Eels will go at it in a final. If anything, that last encounter has only fuelled the fire. But these days the names are not Lamb and Mortimer and Kenny and Sterling. They are Sonny Bill Williams and Nathan Hindmarsh, Willie Mason and Nathan Cayless, Reni Maitua and Feleti Mateo, Brent Sherwin and Tim Smith, Luke Patten and Jarryd Hayne. Though the names are different, the colours are the same and so is the passion. This game will be as intense as any over the last decade with what fate will surely bestow a classic finale.

I wouldn’t miss this one for the world.