Miracle on the redtrack: Souths Bulls come from behind to win first Townsville A Grade rugby league title since 1988

Souths’ near four-decade wait for A Grade glory appeared certain to stretch into another season when Western Lions raced to a 24-4 lead. What happened next will live forever in local footy history.

Souths Bulls win 2024 Rugby League Townsville and District premiership. Picture: RLTD

Souths Bulls have completed an unthinkable comeback to win the Rugby League Townsville and District A Grade grand final, erasing a 20-point deficit to raise the division’s trophy for the first time since 1988.

Souths’ near four-decade wait for A Grade glory appeared certain to stretch into another season when Western Lions raced to a 24-4 lead at the half-hour mark.

What followed was as close to a rugby league miracle as Townsville Sports Reserve’s red track has ever seen.

Two 90m runaways from former Blackhawks speedster Michael Carroll and the gutsiest of football from backrower Jordon Ah-One Remfrey spun Souths from certain defeat to victory in the final 18 minutes of the match.

Souths Jordan Ah-One Remfrey. Picture: Evan Morgan

The Western Lions had one hand on the newly-christened Cowboys Cup with a 24-10 lead and Souths mired deep in their own territory.

Carroll - dubbed ‘The Ferrari’ - raced the length of the field in a match-saving runaway try to keep his side’s grand final dream alive.

With eight minutes to go Souths backrower Jordon Ah-One Remfrey dragged four defenders over the line to draw within two points.

Moments later another powerful Ah-One Remfrey charge hauled Souths into position to hit the lead for the first time.

Veteran halfback Shaun Nona showed incredible poise when the Bulls ran out of ideas late in the tackle count.

Rugby League Townsville and District 2024 grand final captains Shaun Nona of Souths Bulls and Daniel Buckland of Western Lions. Picture: Nic Darveniza

With static bodies around him, Nona somehow unlocked the defence for fullback Declan Dowson to break the line and score, securing the lead 28-24 with four minutes to play.

There were more theatrics to follow.

A Souths error from the kick-off gifted the ball back to the Lions for one final raid.

Halfback Addo Waianga, the man of the match in last year’s grand final, would have secured those honours again had his bullet cut-out pass on the right edge found a man in space.

In a sliding doors moment Waianga’s pass bounced out of the hands of Lions captain Wade Jonsson and into the path of Carroll, who ran off into the sunset to seal the most remarkable of comebacks.

Bulls supporters flooded the field to celebrate a premiership 38 years in the making, made all the sweeter for having fallen short in their comeback season one year ago.

The year of the Bulls is now complete, in the most magical of fashions.

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Western Lions captain Daniel Buckland has brushed aside claims his side only overcame Souths in the first week of finals due to complacency from the minor premiers.

Souths captain Shaun Nona said his team had turned up to the preliminary final a fortnight ago with the wrong attitude, placing the blame for the team’s first loss of the season on its own shoulders.

On the eve of their rematch in the 2024 grand final Buckland pointed out their head-to-head record reflected one win, one loss and one draw.

“Them being ‘complacent’ is water under the bridge for us,” Buckland said.

“On that day we turned up the better team, we were ready to go.

“‘Complacent’ is something they can say, but … we’re even: one win, one loss, one draw each, so it’s game on for the decider.”

Though Souths is leaning on the club’s grand local history as it fights towards its first premiership since 1988, Western Lions is taking the opposite tact.

Lions have inherited the WEAs colours of old and past greats have been part of their grand final preparation but Buckland said the club was striving towards its first premiership under its own Lions banner.

“It’s our first as the Lions which we are all really proud of but obviously the WEAs came before us,” Buckland said.

“We had some of the Old Boys down on Thursday to chat to us about the history. The WEAs’ last grand final was 1986, so that’s the history of the club, but we’re looking to write our own history this weekend, creating this new chapter as the Lions in our first grand final.”

Bulls captain Nona, fresh off winning the Dr Rod Ward Medal as Townsville’s best-and-fairest player, said his side would channel the hurt of last year’s defeat to Brothers in the decider to ensure they did not arrive ‘complacent’ against the Lions once again.

“We showed up that day (the preliminary final) expecting the win, we’d been so good all year and Western Lions showed up that day with the right attitude and caught us off guard,” Nona said.

“We were just going through the motions, we didn’t take it like we had to win that game.

“We’ve learned from that and it’s made us stronger – and we won’t be taking them lightly again.”

There is much at stake for Townsville’s oldest surviving rugby league club. For more than 20 years the proud Bulls lay dormant before their resurrection in 2023, riding a fairytale all the way to the grand final.

It ended in heartbreak, a fate Nona is determined to avoid repeating.

“Ninety per cent of our squad were in this position last year so we do have that burn and hunger driving us this year. he said.

“All we can do is show up Sunday and give it our best.”

Originally published as Miracle on the redtrack: Souths Bulls come from behind to win first Townsville A Grade rugby league title since 1988