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The 2013 NRL Grand Final was the conclusive and premiership-deciding game of the 2013 NRL season. Played on Sunday, 6 October at Sydney's
ANZ Stadium ANZ may refer to: People * Anz (musician), a British DJ and electronic musician Banks * ANZ (bank), Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited, the fourth-largest bank in Australia ** ANZ Bank New Zealand, the largest bank in New Zealand ** ...
between the minor premiers
Sydney Roosters The Sydney Roosters are an Australian professional Rugby league, Rugby League Football Club based in the Eastern Suburbs (Sydney) and parts of inner Sydney. The club competes in the National Rugby League (NRL) competition. The Roosters have won ...
and the
Manly Warringah Sea Eagles The Manly Warringah Sea Eagles are an Australian professional rugby league club based in Sydney's Northern Beaches. The team colours are maroon and white, while their namesake and logo is the sea eagle. They compete in Australia's premier rug ...
. The Roosters won the match 26–18 to claim their 13th premiership title, and became the first team since the
St George Illawarra Dragons The St. George Illawarra Dragons is an Australian professional rugby league football club, representing both the Illawarra and St George, Sydney, St George regions of New South Wales. The club has competed in the National Rugby League since NR ...
in 2010 to win both the minor premiership and the premiership in the same season.


Background

The NRL premiership for the 2013 season was decided between two Sydney based clubs, the minor premiers
Sydney Roosters The Sydney Roosters are an Australian professional Rugby league, Rugby League Football Club based in the Eastern Suburbs (Sydney) and parts of inner Sydney. The club competes in the National Rugby League (NRL) competition. The Roosters have won ...
and the 4th-placed
Manly Warringah Sea Eagles The Manly Warringah Sea Eagles are an Australian professional rugby league club based in Sydney's Northern Beaches. The team colours are maroon and white, while their namesake and logo is the sea eagle. They compete in Australia's premier rug ...
. It was the first time in 41 years the two sides played for a premiership title, Manly being victorious on the previous occasion, claiming the 1972 title 19-14 in the then NSWRL competition. Both the Roosters and Manly-Warringah had featured prominently in grand finals since the turn of the new century, with the Roosters making the grand finals in 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2010, whilst the Manly club had featured in 2007, 2008 and 2011 deciders. Despite making the most appearances in the past 14 seasons the Roosters had only been successful in one of their six previous appearances, when they defeated grand final debutants
New Zealand Warriors The New Zealand Warriors are a professional rugby league football club based in Auckland, New Zealand that competes in the National Rugby League (NRL) premiership and is the League's only team from outside Australia. They were formed in 1995 as ...
30 points to 8 in 2002. Manly's last premiership victory was also against the
New Zealand Warriors The New Zealand Warriors are a professional rugby league football club based in Auckland, New Zealand that competes in the National Rugby League (NRL) premiership and is the League's only team from outside Australia. They were formed in 1995 as ...
when they defeated them in the 2011 decider 24 points to 10. It marked the first time since 2005 that neither Wayne Bennett, Craig Bellamy or Des Hasler will not coach a side to a grand final, as each had claimed a grand final victory during the previous seven seasons. Both
Trent Robinson Trent Robinson (born 15 March 1977) is an Australian professional rugby league coach who is the head coach of the Sydney Roosters in the NRL and a former professional rugby league footballer. He has previously held coaching positions at Tou ...
and Geoff Toovey were debutant grand final coaches in their first and second respective years in the NRL.


Team lists

Note: Both Boyd Cordner and Luke O'Donnell were late inclusions to the Roosters squad with Cordner replacing Frank-Paul Nuuausala at lock and both Nuuausala and O'Donnell replacing
Isaac Liu Isaac Liu (born 26 April 1991) is a professional rugby league footballer who plays as a and forward for the Gold Coast Titans in the National Rugby League (NRL). He is both a Samoan and New Zealand international. He has previously playe ...
and Dylan Napa on the interchange bench.


Milestones

*Long standing Roosters fullback Anthony Minichiello played his sixth grand final for his club after having previously featured in every premiership decider they have reached since 2000, although his only victory came from
2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains independence from Indonesia and ...
. Were the Roosters to lose the game he would have been the first player in the history of Australian rugby league to lose five grand finals. * Jamie Lyon, Brett Stewart, Glenn Stewart, Steve Matai, Brent Kite and Anthony Watmough all played their fourth grand final together, after having previously appeared in their past three appearances for Manly in
2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto ...
,
2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing ...
and 2011.


Match details


1st half

Manly began strongly and had control early on. Pressure led to Roosters five-eighth James Maloney kicking out on the full, and a tackle from his opposing number Kieran Foran on back-rower Sonny-Bill Williams led to a dropped ball and possession for the Manly side, which quickly led to their first try, scored by winger Jorge Taufua. Captain Jamie Lyon missed the conversion, making it 4–0 to Manly-Warringah, however a penalty a few minutes later led to a scoreline of 6-0 by the 17th minute. The Roosters came back to score through winger Daniel Tupou on the back of a cross-field bomb from Maloney, and the 's sideline conversion brought the scoreline to 6–6. A few minutes later a contentious penalty to the Roosters gave them another two points, and they took the lead into the halftime break, 8–6.


2nd half

In only the 43rd minute, Manly were in scoring position, with halfback Daly Cherry-Evans grubber-kicking for Lyon, however he was tackled without the ball by Roosters substitute Mitch Aubusson, leading the video referees to rule a penalty try. Lyon converted it to bring Manly-Warringah back to the lead at 12–8. A forced drop-out conceded by the Roosters put Manly into attacking position quickly and they capitalised, Matai scoring and Lyon again converting to push the score out to 18–8 with only 30 minutes remaining. Roosters back-rower Aiden Guerra next scored however, and a conversion brought the Roosters back into the game at 18–14, before a line-break and offload from Williams to Maloney opened Manly's defensive line. Maloney sprinted downfield and gave a pass to Minichello. The Roosters captain then put centre Shaun Kenny-Dowall in to score which, along with a conversion from Maloney, put the Minor Premiers back in the lead at 20–18 with 18 minutes to go. An error from the Roosters put Manly back into contention, but a knock on from winger David Williams and a lack of capitalisation on a Roosters mistake brought them back to the Manly end of the field following another line-break from the Roosters' Williams. A grubber kick from Maloney led to a freakish try to centre Michael Jennings, who grounded the ball only centimetres inside the dead ball line. A final conversion to Maloney took the score to 26–18, and even a short kick-off attempt from Manly couldn't crack the Roosters' defence in the last six minutes of play.


Post-match

Sydney Roosters captain Anthony Minichiello became the first fullback to captain his team to a Grand Final victory since Frank 'Skinny' McMillan in 1934. Manly halfback Daly Cherry-Evans was awarded the Clive Churchill Medal for best and fairest in the Grand Final, the first awarded to a player from a losing side since 1993, and only the third time this had happened, at the time. Jack Wighton, from the
Canberra Raiders The Canberra Raiders are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the national capital city of Canberra, Australian Capital Territory. They have competed in Australasia's elite rugby league competition, the National Rugby ...
, later achieved this, coincidentally against the Roosters, in 2019. Roosters coach Trent Robinson became the first coach to win a premiership in their first year of coaching in the NRL since Ricky Stuart in 2002. The
premiership ring A championship ring or premiership ring is a ring presented to members of winning teams in North American professional sports leagues, and college tournaments. Championship rings are mostly confined to North American sports. Since only one ...
s awarded to the members of the winning team were worth AU$6,000.


Opening Games


Aftermath

The Roosters' premiership victory qualified them for the
2014 World Club Challenge The 2014 World Club Challenge was the 15th consecutive annual (and 22nd overall) World Club Challenge and was contested by Super League XVIII champions, Wigan Warriors and 2013 NRL Premiers, the Sydney Roosters. The 2014 World Club Challenge mar ...
, to be played in the 2014 pre-season against the winners of the 2013 Super League Grand final,
Wigan Warriors The Wigan Warriors are a professional rugby league club in Wigan, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in the Super League. Formed in 1872 as Wigan Football Club, Wigan was a founding member of the Rugby Football League, Northern Rugby ...
.


See also

* 2013 NRL season * NRL Premiership winners


References

{{NRL grand finals NRL Grand Finals Sydney Roosters matches Manly Warringah Sea Eagles matches
Grand Final Primarily in Australian sports, a grand final (sometimes colloquially abbreviated to "grannie") is a game that decides a sports league's premiership (or championship) winning team, i.e. the conclusive game of a finals (or play-off) series. Sy ...