[Classic 1991] SF Panthers v Bears - Game Thread

Penrith Panthers NRL
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Classic Match - 1991 Semi Final Panthers v Bears
:rugby_football: Match Penrith Panthers v North Sydney Bears
:stadium: Venue Sydney Football Stadium, Moore Park NSW
:calendar: Date Sunday 8th September 1991
:triangular_flag_on_post: Crowd 38,635
:tv: Game Link Match Link

:rugby_football: Winfield Cup | Full Time

⚠ SPOILERS! Click to reveal
Penrith Panthers 16 Tries Greg Alexander. Graham Mackay
Goals Greg Alexander (4/5)
North Sydney
Bears		 14 Tries David hall (2), Daryl Halligan
Goals Daryl Halligan (1/5)
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Teams

Penrith Panthers North Sydney Bears
TEAM TEAM
Greg Barwick 1 Fullback 1 Paul Conlon
Paul Smith 2 Wing 2 Les Kiss
Brad Izzard 3 Centre 3 Greg Florimo
Brad Fittler 4 Centre 4 Peter Jackson
Graham Mackay 5 Wing 5 Daryl Halligan
Steve Carter 6 Five-Eighth 6 Jason Martin
Greg Alexander (c) 7 Halfback 7 Mark Soden
Paul Clarke 8 Front Row 8 Pat Jarvis
Royce Simmons 9 Hooker 9 Tony Rea (c)
Paul Dunn 10 Front Row 10 Adrian Toole
Mark Geyer 11 Second Row 11 Mario Fenech
Barry Walker 15 Second Row 12 Gary Larson
Colin Van der Voort 13 Lock 13 Billy Moore
INTERCHANGE INTERCHANGE
Ben Alexander 14 Bench 41 John McArthur
Anthony Xuereb 17 Bench 40 David Hall
Col Bentley 16 Bench 42 Gavin Jones
Bench 43 Peter McPhail
COACH COACH
Phil Gould Coach Steve Martin

Match Official

Telstra Premiership
Referee Eddie Ward
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Gee we took a risk with that bench with no forwards.

My memory a bit foggy, but Cartwright a late injury and Barwick under a cloud?

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My memory also a bit hazy but I seem to remember it being a Greg Alexander master class.

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That was very nearly undone by Anthony Xuerub from memory!

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Watched the game yesterday.

What was remarkable in hindsight was that Xuerub actually won us the grand final.

Had he not had a shocker, and been hooked in the second half, we probably would have had Izzard on the field rather than Bentley, and B.Alexander rather than Simmons.

For all the praise Gould got at the time, he certainly didn’t have his team selection set by the finals, and could have costed us the GF with the wrong selection. One of the factors in my mind to our ‘90 loss.

Quite the contrast to ‘03 when the side was picked all bar the choice of one bench spot.