The Newtown Jets and North Sydney Bears are up against each other in the New South Wales Cup Grand Final on Sunday — it doesn’t get much better than that. It’s the first time the two proud foundation clubs will play each other in a grand final since 1943. Newtown won that 34-7 in front of a 60,000-plus crowd at the SCG. That was, of course, back in the NSWRFL days when the first-grade competition consisted of eight Sydney-based teams. 81 years on and the Jets and Bears are still very much a key part of rugby league, albeit in NSW’s reserve grade competition.
North Sydney, who now feed to the Melbourne Storm following the end of a long partnership with the Roosters, were crowned minor premiers for the second year running and will play in back-to-back grand finals. Newtown have been affiliated with the Cronulla Sharks since 2015 with the likes of Will Kennedy, Blayke Brailey and Briton Nikora among those who have spent a season or two in the famous jersey before becoming household names in the NRL. Sunday’s game, which kicks off at 3pm at CommBank Stadium, will also feature some familiar Sharks faces like Sam Stonestreet, Billy Burns and Braden Hamlin-Uele.
There’s also up-and-coming fullback Liam Ison, who got a taste of the NRL this year when he made his debut in Round 21. The 19-year-old has been a revelation for Newtown this season with 10 tries and 11 try assists in 16 appearances. He’s also been averaging six tackle busts and over 130 running metres per game. But Ison wasn’t really a big part of coach George Ndaira’s plans coming into this season given the No.1 jersey belonged to Kade Dykes. Ison spent the first two weeks of this season playing for the Sharks’ Jersey Flegg side. He received a call-up from Ndaira in Round 3 when Dykes was out, retained his spot in Round 4 with Dykes playing five-eighth upon his return but dropped back out of the 17 after that.
As Ndaira told foxsports.com.au this week, he thought that was probably going to be it for Ison this year unless any unexpected opportunities opened up. And one did — when Dykes was ruled out for the season after undergoing knee surgery. It was a devastating blow for Dykes, who has had rotten luck with injures, but it was an opportunity for Ison to declare himself a week-in, week-out Cup player and push for an NRL debut.
“Everyone talks about Ison’s pre-season and how good it was,” Ndaira said. “When you’re looking at your potential side at the beginning of the year you try to find a spot for him but with Kade Dykes in the side and some of the senior guys I thought he was only going to play a handful of games. But opportunity always arises and it’s up to the individual to make the most of it. He’s definitely done that and now I probably couldn’t see him not being in the side. He just always keeps delivering. His support play is outstanding and his kick returns, he brings the ball back with plenty of enthusiasm. He doesn’t die wondering, he doesn’t surrender on any play and he’s always looking to be involved and put himself in the play. I think when you watch him you just notice how enthusiastic he is… he’s always putting himself in the picture to take advantage of any half-opportunity.”
Ison is a Penrith junior and was a member of the Panthers’ premiership-winning Jersey Flegg side in 2022. He arrived to the Sharks ahead of this season on a development deal and made an immediate impact. Just like an opportunity opened up for him in NSW Cup, another came about in July when Will Kennedy was suspended for one game. Ison travelled up to Townsville to line-up against the Cowboys’ Scott Drinkwater and didn’t look out of place, finishing his debut with a try assist, a linebreak assist, seven tackle busts and 18 runs for 146 metres.
While he might be stuck behind Kennedy and Dykes in the fullback pecking order, Ndaira believes regular NRL isn’t too far away for Ison. “He’s one of those (players) that if he’s not playing consistent NRL footy next year it’s probably not too far down the track for him,” he said. “The Sharks have one (fullack) in waiting (in Ison)... they’ve got a couple because of ‘Dyksey’ as well. It’s a good position for the Sharks to be in.”
Sharks fans can also expect to see powerhouse prop Tuku Hau Tapuha have an impact on Sunday’s game with Ndaira declaring the hulking 22-year-old “has taken his game to another level this season.” Then there’s lock Blake Hosking and second-rower Kyle Pickering, who are part of Newtown’s part-time squad. Ndaira wasn’t sure if they’d fit into the 17 coming into this season but said they’re now “two of the first picked” and they’ve both “really earned their spots” in the side. That’s the beauty of reserve grade — it’s a combination of players training full time with an NRL squad and players who juggle their footy with full-time jobs.
Take North Sydney’s Kurt De Luis and Regan Hughes as an example. De Luis is a concreter by day, while Hughes is a civil engineer during the week before taping up his head and running it off the back fence for the Bears on weekends. And that juggle extends to plenty of coaches in the competition too with Ndaira currently juggling the pressure of preparing the Jets for a grand final with his full-time job at a train logistics company.
Ndaira, who played for Newtown in 2007, joined the coaching staff in 2017 as assistant to the long-serving Greg Matterson, which means he was a part of the club’s last premiership in 2019. It was sealed with an iconic matchwinning play by Billy Magoulias, who became an overnight cult hero. In the final three minutes of extra time against the Wentworthville Magpies, Magoulias produced a perfectly-weighted chip-kick, which was caught by Tyrone Phillips, who then set up Will Kennedy for a try. The following week he repeated the exact same play to set up the matchwinning try in the final 10 seconds of Newtown’s clash with Burleigh in the State Championship.
“(The 2019 grand final) always brings backs good memories… I think Billy still gets a free dinner out of it every now and then. One he’ll never forget, that’s for sure,” Ndaira laughed. “He’s got all the skill in the world. He definitely hasn’t lost that.” Magoulias played 16 NRL games for the Sharks between 2019 and 2021 before a stint in the Super League. He returned to Newtown in the back half of 2022 and has been a key part of the Jets ever since.
Five years ago, Billy Magoulias produced two amazing rugby league feats in the same week when he orchestrated victories for the Newtown Jets in the NSW Cup and the State Championships. With Newtown behind in the dying seconds of both games, Magoulias put a chip kick over the top for a runaway teammate to score the game-winning try. After an NRL debut with Cronulla, a stint in England’s Super League and the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic, Magoulias is back playing for the Jets, who take on the North Sydney Bears in this weekend’s NSW Cup grand final, the first time the two foundation clubs have met in a grand final since 1943.
“A lot has happened for me since 2019,” Magoulias said. “I debuted for Cronulla, then I went overseas and played for Warrington in the Super League, and then I’ve come back and had my daughter.” Magoulias describes those two crucial plays as “just moments”, but they’re still the two things Jets fans love to remind him about. “I think they’re just two moments that kind of happened back-to-back,” Magoulias said. “Yeah, it is pretty crazy when you look back at it to think how did you do that? But, for me, I don’t sit there and talk about it personally – that doesn’t really [play] on my mind – but every time I talk to a Newtown fan, they always remind you of it. I guess it’s good when the fans are getting enjoyment, because the Newtown fans, it’s not just like a feeder club to an NRL club, they’ve got their own set of fans, and they’ve got their own club and their own culture, their own sponsors, so they run their own show. I guess that’s probably the coolest part, is them enjoying that experience where we did win the competition and then go on to win it the next week. For me, that’s probably the best thing that comes out of it.”
That 2019 team was particularly fruitful for Cronulla – whose feeder club is Newtown – with Braydon Trindall, Will Kennedy, Blayke Brailey, Ronaldo Mulitalo, Siosifa Talakai, Sione Katoa, Toby Rudolf, Teig Wilton, who are all part of the Sharks semi-final team playing the Panthers this weekend, a part of that Jets side. If the opportunity to play in the NRL again came up, Magoulias would not turn it away, but with a thriving rugby league academy off the field, he is content with his football career, and believes he can still be the game-breaker this weekend that he was five years ago.
“I hope it doesn’t get that close; I hope we win by a lot of points,” he said. “None of that stuff is planned, it’s just kind of off the cuff and whatever you see you’ve just got to react. We never practiced that initially at all; I probably wasn’t meant to kick the ball [back in 2019] but, again, that’s something that just happens. We just hope on the day everybody is in the zone, and we’re reacting to things like that if need be.”
Newtown Jets won their ninth title in The Knock-On Effect NSW Cup but were made to fight for every centimetre of CommBank Stadium in today’s Grand Final, by fellow foundation club (1908) the North Sydney Bears. As a measure of the tightness between these two, scores were locked up four times with four tries apiece as the game headed into its final 15 minutes. But the circuit breaker came from Jets and Cronulla-Sharks front rower Braden Hamlin-Uele, who capitalised from a bust upfield by his No.7 Niwhai Puru – the Player of the Match – to score at the southern end and send the 10,385 crowd into raptures.
“We knew we were going to be in for a tough game – the Bears just kept turning up – and we had that understanding going into the game and we prepared for it,” said Jets coach George Ndaira. “We wouldn’t be anything without our supporters and our fans, and obviously our partnership with the Sharks – it showed today how much that’s working. You always hope, you always wish at the start of every year you might get the big one. It means so much for Newtown as a club – we heard the chants and that was just so good.” The Jets last won the NSW Cup in 2019 but it’s been a longer wait for the Bears – their eighth and last was in 1993.
“We tried really hard but there was a couple of areas where we weren’t good enough, we didn’t complete well and they did,” said Bears coach Kieran Dempsey. “I thought we were coming home well using our speed through the middle. But it wasn’t to be.” The Bears have used 40 players this year and also lost head coach Pat Weisner towards the back end of the year. “I’m very proud of this group. They’ve been through a lot and the resolve they showed today and all year was remarkable,” Dempsey said.
With Melbourne Storm and the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks finishing their NRL Preliminary final duties this weekend, that brought fullback Sualauvi Faalogo back to the Bears and Hamlin-Uele to the Jets in as last-minute changes. Newtown snatched a 16-10 halftime lead through a 39th minute try to centre Mawene Hiroti. The opening 15 minutes was your archetypal Rugby League grind giving an indicator this would be a close match. The scoreboard was locked at 6-6 and 10-10 during the first half – twice again in the second (16-16, 22-22).
But after the Jets were denied twice by the video referee – winger Sam Stonestreet was held up and fullback Liam Ison ruled a double movement – momentum seemed to swing towards the Henson Park team. In the final minute of the half, Hiroti busted through two tacklers and dragged a third with him for a fine individual effort. Puru’s conversion and the Jets had the six-point lead at the break. The Jets other two tries came from winger Tom Rodwell and right centre Chris Vea’ila. Bears hooker Bronson Garlick collected a Matt Stimson offload for North Sydney’s first points in the 20th minute, and then Faalogo showed why he’s scored eight tries in 14 games for Storm this year. Using that Melbourne connection he ran off his back-rower Joe Chan and despite taking a heavy tackle right on the line, he was able to force his way over.
Three minutes into the second half and scores were locked up for a third time (16-16) after Bears winger Allan Fitzgibbon zipped down the left touchline to score his 21st try of 2024. Hayman converted from the sideline with Jets supporters ringing in his ears, but he held his cool. The tit-for-tat nature continued with Billy Magoulias passing short to put Jordin Leiu over near the uprights for the Jets. But the six-point lead (22-16) didn’t last long as six minutes later the Bears replied through try halfback Harradyn Wilson stepping and straightening (22-22).
Hamlin-Uele’s try sealed the win despite the Bears frantic play on the Jets’ line in the final two minutes. “This is 10 months worth of work that has gone into this,” Jets captain Billy Burns said. “I just couldn’t be more proud – we said it so many times before. We said we could do it, we earmarked the day and we finally did it. I felt we were on our try-line the whole second half. But we just kept saying to each other ‘One more, one more’ and we got there.”
The NSWRL has announced that all three Grand Finals will be streamed live and free on 9Now from Commbank Stadium on Sunday, September 29. These finals will determine the champions of the state's top competitions: The Knock-On Effect NSW Cup, the Harvey Norman NSW Women's Premiership, and the Jersey Flegg Cup (Under 21s). In the Knock-On Effect NSW Cup Grand Final, the historic matchup between foundation clubs North Sydney Bears and Newtown Jets will take place. This is the first time these two teams have faced off in a Grand Final since 1943, when the Jets triumphed 34-7 in front of 60,992 fans at the SCG. The Harvey Norman NSW Women's Premiership will see the Newcastle Knights take on the Illawarra Steelers, while the Jersey Flegg Cup will feature a clash between the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs and Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks.
“The NSWRL Grand Final Day is always a tremendous occasion and I welcome the decision by 9Now to televise the deciders from three of our prestigious competitions,” NSWRL Chief Executive David Trodden said to NSW media. “This season was hard fought in The Knock-On Effect NSW Cup with the North Sydney Bears only claiming the Minor Premiership in the final round of the regular season. I am confident both foundation clubs will enjoy their fair share of support from their passionate fan bases which will only add to the atmosphere of the day.”
Simon Fordham, Head of Partnerships and Strategy at Nine Wide World of Sports, stated: “September is all about Footy Finals, and what better way to celebrate the pinnacle of the season than with the nostalgia of a Newtown Jets versus North Sydney Bears clash in The Knock-On Effect NSW Cup Grand Final. It's an exciting conclusion to what has been a highly competitive season.”
2024 NSWRL Grand Final day schedule:
11am: Jersey Flegg Cup 1pm: Harvey Norman NSW Women's Premiership 3pm: The Knock-On Effect NSW Cup
