NRL Grand Final 2005

Sitting high in the perch of level 6, we zoomed in below to view the biggest game of the year, by a couple of the most unlikely teams to be there. Wests Tigers and North Queensland Cowboys. The Tigers were working of a shoe-string budget - or so the saying goes - and came out on top to defeat some of their more fancied rivals.

The Cowboys were smacked 50 - 6 less than 3 weeks ago, and then came back, with an unchanged line up, to beat Melbourne and Parramatta. The Eels were also minor premiers.

So this game then, was supposed to be a tad unpredictable. How could the Tigers handle the big game pressure? What if the little moments didn't fal their way, as it did when they played Brisbane and the Dragons? These aspects did show in their game in the first 20 minutes. Scott Prince and the Tigers team seemed distracted, and disorganised. They weren't going forward, and their kicks went straight to the man. Accordingly the Cowboys took advantage and scored first.

Again, this was not part of the usual game plan for the Tigers. But they stuck it out, and scored through an error by the Cowboys. Scoring a try proved to be the magnet for their concentration. They realised they were in a Grand Final and played accordingly. From then, till half time, the arm wrestle was slowly falling the way of the Tigers.

After half time the Tigers scored immediately, and that would have killed of any team. Yet the Cowboys tried again, and brought it back to a six point difference. In what was probably a mental blow, the Tigers hit straight back and kept the difference to 12.

Eventually the final score was 30 - 16, and a fairy tale was written. I found the whole thing surreal. The crowd, in their noise reminded me I was there, but it almost didn't seem to happen, or what was happening was merely the show after numerous practices.

It was great to be there, though, and having been to many Grand Finals and struggling to recall what happened in what, this one will definately stand out.