Rugby league’s greatest hoodoos

AS the Warriors look to end the longest active hoodoo in the NRL this weekend, take a look at the game’s other massive droughts.

Can the Warriors end the hoodoo against the Dragons on Sunday?

THE Warriors are on the wrong end of the longest active hoodoo in the NRL, going down to the Dragons in the clubs’ past 11 meetings.

The Saints’ only defeat in the past 17 encounters was at Mt Smart in 2007, while the Auckland outfit are winless away in the rivalry since 2003.

The Warriors have come up empty in all 12 of their trips to Wollongong to take on the Dragons — including a then club-record 54-0 drubbing in 2000.

This Sunday, the Warriors get another chance to break the drought.

But before that, take a look at the other great hoodoos in the history of rugby league.

PARRAMATTA v PENRITH

Parramatta’s emergence as a force during the mid-1970s was to the detriment of their western Sydney rivals, Penrith. The Panthers failed to win a match against the Eels between 1975 and 1983; the only competition point they yielded in 18 derbies was from a 19-all draw in 1980. Under the tutelage of Tim Sheens, Penrith took advantage of an Origin-depleted Parramatta side to break the drought in 1984, chalking up a 22-10 victory while five Eels stars were in camp with the NSW squad. The Panthers were crushed 38-6 by their neighbours in their finals debut the following season.

BRISBANE v SOUTH SYDNEY

Souths won their first two encounters with premiership newcomers Brisbane in 1988-89, before enduring a 17-year drought against the heavyweights from north of the border. The Rabbitohs were unable to record a victory in 16 straight games against the Broncos and suffered 50-point drubbings in 1993 and ’95. After escaping with a 34-all golden point draw in 2004, the Broncos finally succumbed in 2006. Souths took advantage of a Brisbane line-up missing seven Queensland Origin guns to carve out a 34-14 win.

MANLY v NORTH SYDNEY

From 1966-90, during which time Manly won five premierships while North Sydney competed in just one finals series, the Sea Eagles won 39 of 51 clashes with the long-suffering Bears. The bitter rivalry ramped up in the 1970s as the rich Sea Eagles lured several big-name Bears across The Spit, including legendary winger Ken Irvine, Bruce Walker, John Gray and Mick Healey. Manly won 17 of 18 derbies from 1970-78, before Norths stopped the rot with their first win at Brookvale in 16 years, a 20-17 boilover against the defending champs in ’79.

SOUTH SYDNEY v WESTERN SUBURBS

Souths enjoyed extraordinary dominance over fellow foundation club Wests during the competition’s formative decades. The Rabbitohs won the first 17 matches against the “Fruitpickers” – including a 67-0 rout in 1910, the biggest win in South Sydney’s 108-year history and the heaviest defeat in Western Suburbs’ 92 seasons. After a brief period of respite that started with a landmark 16-11 win over their tormentors in 1917, Wests could muster just one victory over Souths in 17 clashes from 1920-29. There was a happy ending to the Magpies’ pioneering tale of woe: Wests claimed their maiden title in 1930 to break Souths’ five-year streak of premierships.

EASTERN SUBURBS v NORTH SYDNEY

Norths were no strangers to lengthy losing streaks to rival clubs, but their inability to topple Easts in the 1920s and ’30s rivalled the hapless Washington Generals’ efforts against the Harlem Globetrotters. The “Shoremen” managed a solitary draw in 22 encounters with the Tri-colours from 1926-38, conceding 10 or more tries on four occasions. In 1935, Easts legend Dave Brown twice bagged four tries at Norths’ expense. The Bears endured another lean trot at the hands of the Roosters in the limited-tackle era, notching just three wins in 24 games from 1967-78.

CANBERRA v ST GEORGE ILLAWARRA

Arguably the most notorious bogey of the NRL era, the Raiders had the Dragons’ number for a decade. A 56-18 win at Wollongong in 2007 was the Saints’ only success against the Green Machine in 17 games between 2002 and ’13. Despite the Dragons rubbishing any notion of a hex, the Raiders invariably came up with the goods regardless of where the teams were placed on the ladder and last-gasp wins in Canberra in 2011-12 only added to the narrative. St George Illawarra broke a 14-year, 11-match drought in the capital in 2014 and have buried the hoodoo by winning the clubs’ past three showdowns.

ST GEORGE v NEWTOWN

The record-breaking St George dominance over Newtown ranks as the longest and most emphatic in the code’s history. The Bluebags won seven straight games against the Saints in the mid-1950s — including post-season victories that propelled them into the 1954-55 grand finals — before the Dragons won 33 of 34 derbies from 1956-72. St George, premiers for 11 consecutive seasons (1956-66), crushed Newtown by a record 65-9 at Kogarah Oval in 1961 and racked up 21 wins in a row in the rivalry from 1962. Newtown’s breakthrough triumph was an iconic 1-0 result in 1973 and the Jack Gibson-coached side bounced St George out of the finals in the minor semi replay later that year.

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Originally published as Rugby league’s greatest hoodoos