Canberra’s 15-year absence from holding top position is by far longest of any NRL side
Some clubs are regulars out in front, while it’s a novelty for others. One club in particular has a sorry record. When did your team last reach the summit, and did it stay there?
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They were the ragtag bunch of misfits led by two relics brought back from England, one of whom loved sucking down a dart as much as he did putting on a try, but 2005 Canberra Raiders still own a unique slice of history.
The Raiders have turned themselves into an NRL powerhouse in recent years, but they’re yet to match the 2005 side - led by veteran Jason Smith and boasting luminaries like Kris Kahler, Alan Rothery and Matt Gafa - who were the last Canberra team to occupy first place on the ladder.
Despite making three preliminary finals in the past five seasons, with a grand final appearance to boot, the Raiders have never sat in top spot and their 15-year drought is by far the longest of any NRL side.
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They were led to first place by Smith, who returned to the NRL at 33 and dazzled with his cunning playmaking skills, as well as his commitment to the gaspers.
“We had some young, exciting players coming through, the likes of Todd Carney and Michael Dobson, and I really thought we needed some experience, some players who had tasted success,” said Matt Elliott, who coached the Raiders in 2005.
“Smithy was a player I’d always really admired because of his understanding of footy.
“What I didn’t know, and everyone talked about Smithy loving a smoke and a beer, and that was all true, but what they failed to see was that he trained harder than anyone else. People don’t talk about that.
“He had that full scope of footy understanding and nous and he worked really hard on his game, I was quite surprised to be honest.
“His influence on the other 12 players on the field was as profound as any I’ve ever seen.”
The Raiders have only recently become major players in the free agent market - back in 2005, they were forced to track down first graders wherever they could find them.
Smith, fellow Super League star Matt Adamson and star fullback Clinton Schifcofske were ably supported by players like David Howell, Marshall Chalk, Adam Mogg and Troy Thompson.
“That was early days for players like Josh Miller, Kris Kahler from that Baby Broncos team, Alan Rothery, guys like that, we were able to get some of the best out of them,” Elliott said.
“That was one of the things that was very satisfying, we would do well with a lot of names people didn’t recognise.”
Elliott’s Raiders were adept at flying under the radar, but had a lack of depth that made them vulnerable.
Despite leading the competition early in 2005, they eventually crashed to 14th after injuries ripped through the roster.
It marked the only time between 2002 and 2006 they missed the finals and for everything more impressive Canberra have achieved since then, they’re yet to get back into first place.
“We just didn’t have the depth in our roster once we got a few injuries,” Elliott said.
“It happened a couple of times at the Raiders - we were alright when we kept everyone on the park, but once we lost a few it got tough.”
The fall of the 2005 Raiders was certainly dramatic, but it was nothing compared to what Newcastle endured in 2016.
The Knights, under new coach Rick Stone, looked to have left the bad memories of the Wayne Bennett era behind when they also led the league after four rounds.
From there it was a trip straight from the penthouse to the outhouse - the poor old Novocastrians only won three games for the rest of the season and finished stone motherless last.
The Knights haven’t held first place since, but for most clubs the wait is nowhere near as long - Penrith and Parramatta were the only two teams to hold top spot in 2020 and four sides traded first place in 2019.
Three of those teams - South Sydney, Melbourne and the Roosters - are perennial contenders. The fourth was the Wests Tigers, who managed to sneak into first after two rounds for the first, and so far only, time in their entire history.
At the other end of the spectrum, the Storm have spent 126 weeks in first place, easily the most of any side since 1998 with Brisbane coming in second with 95 - but the Broncos haven’t reached the front of the pack since 2016.
St George Illawarra surprisingly round out the top three with 64 weeks in first place while the Knights (28) have spent the most rounds in first place without winning the minor premiership.
The Warriors haven’t managed to occupy first since 2009, the second-longest streak in the league, and they have just three weeks in first place overall since 1998.
But a twist of fate also means they have a minor premiership to their credit - in 2002, they were propelled into first place after Canterbury were relegated to last following a salary cap scandal.
Penrith
Last time they were first: Round 20, 2020
Weeks that season: 11
Ladder finish: 1st
Coach: Ivan Cleary
Notable players: Nathan Cleary, Jarome Luai, Stephen Crichton, Api Koroisau, Isaiah Yeo
Penrith put together a historically dominant season in 2020, capturing first place on the ladder in Round 10 and refusing to let go as they ran up 17 straight wins and went all the way to the grand final before going down to Melbourne 26-20. Did they peak too early? Maybe, but what a peak it was.
Parramatta
Last time they were first: Round 9, 2020
Weeks that season: 8
Ladder finish: 3rd
Coach: Brad Arthur
Notable players: Clint Gutherson, Mitchell Moses, Maika Sivo, Junior Paulo, Reagan Campbell-Gillard.
The Eels looked like the real deal to begin 2020 and were the only team to lower Penrith’s colours in the regular season. They led the competition for eight weeks before a mid-season slump put them back to third, where they stayed until the finals before suffering another straight-sets exit.
Melbourne
Last time they were first: Round 25, 2019
Weeks that season: 18
Ladder finish: 1st
Coach: Craig Bellamy
Notable players: Cameron Smith, Cameron Munster, Ryan Papenhuyzen, Josh Addo-Carr
Melbourne are modern rugby league’s most consistent winning machine and the fact they won the premiership in 2020 without topping the ladder for a single week feels like a sick joke. They led much of the way in 2019 before falling down in the finals, but such gaudy regular-season results are par for the course for Craig Bellamy - 2020 marked the first year since 2014, and just the fifth season in Bellamy’s tenure, where they didn’t spend at least one week in top spot.
South Sydney
Last time they were first: Round 11, 2019
Weeks that season: 2
Ladder finish: 3rd
Coach: Wayne Bennett
Notable players: Damien Cook, Sam Burgess, Dylan Walker, Adam Reynolds
Winning ten of their first 11 matches under Wayne Bennett was enough to propel South Sydney to first place, which they enjoyed for a fortnight before a four-match losing streak brought them down a peg. They steadied in the lead up to the finals, finishing third, and made it to the preliminary final where they fell 16-10 to Canberra. Despite evolving into one of the NRL’s powerhouses in recent years, South Sydney haven’t spent much time at the top - their 22 weeks in first place since 1998 is the fewest of any Sydney club.
Sydney Roosters
Last time they were first: Round 9, 2019
Weeks that season: 3
Ladder finish: 2nd
Coach: Trent Robinson
Notable players: James Tedesco, Cooper Cronk, Luke Keary, Boyd Cordner, Latrell Mitchell
The Roosters became the first team in almost 30 years to win back-to-back premierships and they did it without touching top spot past Round 9. What Trent Robinson worked out after the club won three straight minor premierships, but only one grand final from 2013 to 2015, was how to time his run into the finals, sacrificing a regular season game here or there with an eye on the more important prize in October. In 2018, it worked like a charm and in 2019 it worked again.
Wests Tigers
Last time they were first: Round 2, 2019
Weeks that season: 1
Ladder finish: 9th
Coach: Michael Maguire
Notable players: Luke Brooks, Ryan Matterson, Benji Marshall, Moses Mbye
A 20-6 win over Manly in Round 1 and a 34-6 belting of the Warriors in Round 2 put the 2019 Tigers in unfamiliar territory. For the first time in the club’s history, they were top of the ladder. Kings of the castle! Lords of the manor! Black, white and gold gods, staring down at the puny mortals from the heavens! Benji Marshall was running around like it was 2005, Ryan Matterson was the club’s next great forward, everything was going right. What a time to be alive, what a time to be a Tiger! Of course, good things never last and the Tigers lost to Canterbury the very next week, relinquished top spot and never got close to it again, finishing the season in their natural habitat of ninth. It remains the only week in Tigers history they occupied first position.
St George Illawarra
Last time they were first: Round 16, 2018
Weeks that season: 13
Ladder finish: 7th
Coach: Paul McGregor
Notable players: Gareth Widdop, Ben Hunt, Matt Dufty, Tariq Sims, Jack de Belin
There was a time when you could set your watch to the Dragons starting the season fast and imploding as the year went on. It was a tradition unlike any other, and 2018 was one of the best examples. Just three losses in their first 15 games had the Red V sitting pretty and their fans could have been forgiven for tentatively booking some grand final tickets. But things fell apart, as they so often do for Saints, and they lost six of their last nine to plummet to seventh, with an injury to Gareth Widdop robbing the side of their best and most important player. Widdop returned for the first week of the finals, got hurt again in the win over Brisbane and the Dragons were bundled out the next week by South Sydney.
Cronulla
Last time they were first: Round 21, 2016
Weeks that season: 10
Ladder finish: 3rd
Coach: Shane Flanagan
Notable players: Paul Gallen, Wade Graham, James Maloney, Ben Barba, Michael Ennis
Cronulla ripped off a ten-match winning streak that put them at the top of the tree for much of the season before a late season slump (one win, a draw and four losses in their final six matches) brought them back to the pack. They lost a minor premiership showdown with Melbourne in the final round and slipped down to third but got their revenge by knocking off Canberra, North Queensland and the Storm to claim the first premiership in the club’s history.
Brisbane
Last time they were first: Round 10, 2016
Weeks that season: 5
Ladder finish: 5th
Coach: Wayne Bennett
Notable players: Anthony Milford, Ben Hunt, Darius Boyd, James Roberts, Corey Parker
There didn’t seem to be much of a hangover from the 2015 grand final defeat as Brisbane began the next season in powerful fashion, winning eight of their first ten including an epic golden point victory over the Cowboys that must have atoned for the grand final defeat a little. Then Origin hit, as it always does, as Brisbane were on shaky legs for much of the rest of the season - they still made the finals, but ran into North Queensland in the second week and went down in another extra time classic. Things haven’t been so good since for the league’s richest club.
North Queensland
Last time they were first: Round 9, 2016
Weeks that season: 1
Ladder finish: 4th
Coach: Paul Green
Notable players: Jonathan Thurston, Michael Morgan, Jason Taumalolo, Matt Scott
For all their talent and success under Paul Green, North Queensland spent just one week in top spot since 2007 and it was this brief window in 2016. Unlike the season before, when the Cowboys snatched victory from the jaws of defeat on seemingly a weekly basis, they had a target on their backs as defending premiers and even though Thurston and Scott were still at the height of their prime - and Taumalolo and Morgan were just entering theirs - the ravages of being at the top proved too much for them and they didn’t get back to first place again.
Canterbury
Last time they were first: Round 4, 2016
Weeks that season: 1
Ladder finish: 7th
Coach: Des Hasler
Notable players: Moses Mbye, Frank Pritchard, James Graham, David Klemmer
Three wins from their first four games was enough to get Hasler’s men to first place for a week. This was well before the acrimonious split between Hasler and the Bulldogs, when they were one of the worst attacking teams in the history of the NRL. Back in 2016, Moses Mbye looked like he’d be one of the best halves in the NRL one day, Frank Pritchard unlocked plenty of the good stuff down a dangerous left edge and Kerrod Holland made a rollicking debut against the Panthers in Round 2 where he kicked the winning goal after the siren. It was something of a false dawn - a 22-8 loss to Canberra in Round 5 put them all the way down to seventh - but it’s nice to enjoy these things while they last.
Newcastle
Last time they were first: Round 4, 2015
Weeks that season: 1
Ladder finish: 16th
Coach: Rick Stone
Notable players: Trent Hodkinson, Dane Gagai, Kurt Gidley, Akuila Uate
Life after Wayne Bennett started so well for the Knights. They won their first four games under Rick Stone and after the opening month of the competition they would have reckoned the road to the premiership definitely ran through Newcastle. It would be fair to say things went a little south afterwards - they won four of their next 20 matches and finished dead last, the first of three wooden spoons in a row for the Novocastrians as they embarked on a hellish descent to rugby league’s lowest depths. They fell so low and so fast it was always going to hurt, but starting from the top - even if it was just for a week - was perhaps the cruellest blow of all.
Manly
Last time they were first: Round 25, 2014
Weeks that season: 10
Ladder finish: 2nd
Coach: Geoff Toovey
Notable players: Daly Cherry-Evans, Kieran Foran, Jamie Lyon, Brett Stewart
There was no way of knowing at the time, but the juice was coming out of the Sea Eagles by the time 2014 rolled around. From 2007 to 2013 they played in four grand finals, won two of them and didn’t miss the playoffs once. Geoff Toovey summoned one last effort from his ageing playing group and for much of the season they were once again in the running - the Roosters only beat them to the minor premiership in the final round of the regular season - but it all caught up with them in the finals and they were bounced in straight sets by South Sydney and Canterbury.
Gold Coast Titans
Last time they were first: Round 6, 2014
Weeks that season: 2
Ladder finish: 14th
Coach: Neil Henry
Notable players: Aidan Sezer, Albert Kelly, Dave Taylor, Greg Bird, David Mead
Albert Kelly is trying to resurrect his NRL career on a train and trial deal with Brisbane and Aidan Sezer has become one of Super League’s best players with Huddersfield, but back in 2014 the duo looked like the rock the Titans could build their future around. Kelly’s dynamic running game and Sezer’s slick passing and kicking helped steer Gold Coast to five wins in their first six games, including a win over the Broncos. Because nothing ever seems to work out the way the Titans want, things quickly fell apart - Kelly got injured, then Sezer did as well and they lost 13 of their last 16 to finish 14th.
Warriors
Last time they were first: Round 2, 2009
Weeks that season: 1
Ladder finish: 14th
Coach: Ivan Cleary
Notable players: Simon Mannering, Stacey Jones, Manu Vatuvei, Denan Kemp
The Warriors hold the very distinctive record of least weeks spent in first place in the NRL era while still managing to win a minor premiership, which they pulled off in 2002 after the Bulldogs were relegated to last following a salary cap scandal. They next got into first in 2009 when they beat Manly in Round 2 on the back of some Stacey Jones magic - the legendary halfback made a comeback after two years in retirement - and a sideline conversion from new recruit Denan Kemp. They squandered their good start with another year of classic Warriors underachievement and haven’t been close to top spot since.
Canberra
Last time they were first: Round 6, 2005
Weeks that season: 3
Ladder finish: 14th
Coach: Matthew Elliott
Notable players: Jason Smith, Clinton Schifcofske, Jason Croker, Simon Woolford, Adam Mogg
What you need to understand about Canberra in the early 2000s is they couldn’t simply go out and buy star players like some other clubs - they had to dig up guys from anywhere they could find them. Many scoffed at bringing back 33-year old duo Jason Smith and Matt Adamson from Super League, but both turned out to be excellent signings early on with Smith’s effortless playmaking skills helping the Raiders win each of their first four games. The injuries struck, age caught up with Smith a little and Canberra dropped their bundle completely, only avoiding the wooden spoon by the skin of their teeth. Apart from a brief dalliance with second spot in 2016, the Raiders haven’t been all that close to first place since.
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