2005 NRL Grand Final

The 2005 NRL Grand Final was the conclusive and premiership-deciding game of the National Rugby League's 2005 Telstra Premiership season. It was played on the night of Sunday, 2 October at Sydney's Telstra Stadium between the Wests Tigers and North Queensland Cowboys, with both clubs making their grand final debuts. The Wests Tigers won the match 30–16 to claim their first premiership title, becoming the first joint-venture club to win a premiership. Scott Prince of the Wests Tigers received the Clive Churchill Medal as the official man of the match. The game set a new record for the highest television audience in Australia for a rugby league match since the introduction of the OzTam ratings system in 2001.

The 2005 NRL season was the 98th season of professional rugby league football in Australia and the eighth run by the National Rugby League. The lineup of clubs remained unchanged from the previous year, with fifteen teams contesting the 2005 Telstra Premiership. The fourth-placed Wests Tigers and fifth-placed North Queensland Cowboys had both reached their first premiership decider. The two teams had met three times during the season, with North Queensland winning by 44–20 in round six, though the Wests Tigers went in having won the previous two, including a 50–6 victory in the first week of the finals series.

The Wests Tigers played in their first grand final in their sixth season. Only centre Paul Whatuira and full-back Brett Hodgson had previously played in a grand final. Whatuira won with Penrith in 2003, while Hodgson had lost with Parramatta in 2001. The Wests Tigers had no State of Origin representative players in their team. However, their fullback, Brett Hodgson was the 2005 regular season's top point-scorer with 250 points. He would have a remarkable finals series scoring 58 points, and finished the 2005 season with 308 points in 28 matches.

The Wests Tigers went into the game as favourites to win, after comprehensively defeating the North Queensland Cowboys in week one of the finals, 50–6, then defeating the Brisbane Broncos 34–6 in week two of the finals, and then upsetting the St. George Illawarra Dragons in the preliminary final 20–12.

For the North Queensland Cowboys, their grand final debut had come at the end of their eleventh season. North Queensland five-eighth Johnathan Thurston, the 2005 season's Dally M Medallist, had won the previous year's grand final with Canterbury as a utility player and replacement player for their injured captain Steve Price. Also, winger Matt Sing lost in 2000 with the Sydney Roosters. Their fullback Matt Bowen was the 2005 regular season's top try scorer. However their Queensland State of Origin forward Carl Webb was suspended for punching Melbourne Storm's Ryan Hoffman in the final round of the regular season, so he was forced to watch the entire Cowboys' finals run from the sidelines. Airline Qantas added an extra two flights and the Townsville Bulletin newspaper chartered a Boeing 747 to take North Queensland fans to their team's first grand final.

Wests Tigers winger Pat Richards was in doubt for the match with a fractured ankle that eventually required six pain-killing injections for him to take place in the team, defying medical opinion.

The grand final was played at Sydney's Telstra Stadium before a crowd of 82,453. Television coverage of the match was provided by Nine's Wide World of Sports with commentary from Ray Warren, Peter Sterling, Paul Vautin, Phil Gould, Matthew Johns, Andrew Voss and Ben Ikin. The Veronicas and Pete Murray provided pre-match performances. A minute's silence was then held for the previous day's 2005 Bali bombings before Natalie Bassingthwaighte sung the Australian national anthem.

At 19:00 AEST, Tim Mander, officiating his second grand final, blew time on and the Wests Tigers kicked off. In the eighth minute, North Queensland had almost reached the Tigers' 20-metre line on the third tackle of the set when Aaron Payne ran from dummy half and passed inside for Paul Rauhihi to hit the ball up and stand in the tackle, offloading to Johnathan Thurston who passed to Matt Bowen. Bowen then threw a deft pass back on the inside to Justin Smith who charged toward the line and threw the ball blindly back over his head before being tackled. The loose ball was picked up by Thurtson and handed to Bowen to dash the remaining few metres to the line and touch down behind the uprights. For the third week in a row, Bowen was the first try scorer of the game. Josh Hannay converted the try so North Queensland were leading 6–0. Ten minutes later the Wests Tigers were down at the opposition's end of the field where halfback Scott Prince on the last tackle put up a kick that came down over the try line and was taken by Paul Bowman who was about to be tackled in goal and threw a speculative pass which was not caught by his teammate. Wests Tigers forward Bryce Gibbs was there to fall onto the loose ball near the goal posts. Brett Hodgson kicked the extra two points so the scores were even at 6-6. North Queensland winger Ty Williams crossed the Wests Tigers try-line in the 23rd minute, but the video referee ruled no try due to an obstruction in back play. A few minutes later, Tigers' left winger Pat Richards crossed in the corner but the video referee disallowed the try as the ball was not properly grounded.