The grand final moment you didn’t see

WAYNE Bennett doesn’t miss much. But the Supercoach was one step behind everyone during one of the biggest moments.

Jonathan Thurston shows his frustration after missing a conversion that would have won the Cowboys the game during the NRL Grand Final between the Brisbane Broncos and the North Queensland Cowboys at ANZ Stadium, Homebush. pic Mark Evans

WAYNE Bennett doesn’t miss much.

But the Brisbane Broncos coach was one step behind everyone else at ANZ Stadium on Sunday night during one of the biggest moments of one of the greatest grand finals of all time.

As Johnathan Thurston took an agonisingly long time to line up on the sideline for what could have proven the match-winning conversion, Bennett chose not to watch the kick live.

Instead, the Supercoach watched from the monitor in the coaches’ box as Thurston moved in and struck his attempt low, firing it into the upright, leaving the scores level at 16-all.

Bennett, though, was among the last to realise.

“It was deadly silence,” Broncos assistant Kevin Walters explained on Triple M’s Marto and Ed Kavalee for Breakfast on Tuesday.

“Wayne was watching the monitor and heard the roar but it’s about a four-second delay so he didn’t know in live time that the ball had hit the post.

“He thought the game was all over.”

Unfortunately for Bennett, the reprieve was short-lived as Thurston went on to kick the winning field goal in golden point extra time on the back of a now-infamous Ben Hunt knock-on from the kick-off.

Wayne Bennett consoles Jack Reed after the demoralising loss.

“I feel for the players more than anybody, particularly Ben Hunt, they just didn’t deserve to go out that way,” Walters said.

“[Hunt] was alright, he was obviously in a fair bit of distress like the rest of them but he was OK, he’s a good young kid and resilient.

“Ben Hunt catches that 99.999 times out of 100.”

Another Broncos legend, Gorden Tallis, said the stunning finale was “probably the greatest moment I have witnessed and been on the field for”.

“Being a north Queenslander and growing up and knowing what rugby league meant to that region and watching my dad play for north Queensland and my uncles and playing as a young kid, we had a go in the state league, when we had Colonel Sanders on our jersey’s I’d watch north Queensland go all around Queensland and get flogged,” Tallis told the program.

“To look 30 years later and they’ve got a side in the National Rugby League … north Queensland is buzzing at the moment and I’m pretty proud to say I’m from there.”

With debate raging over where Sunday night’s grand final rates on the all-time list, Walters argued it was not No. 1.

Walters opted instead for the 1989 epic in which the Canberra Raiders defeated the Balmain Tigers 19-14. Walters started on the bench in an all-star Raiders line-up that day that included legends Mal Meninga, Laurie Daley, Ricky Stuart, his brother Steve Walters, Glenn Lazarus, Gary Belcher and Bradley Clyde up against the likes of Garry Jack, Steve Roach, Benny Elias, Paul Sironen and Wayne Pearce.

“I reckon that [’89] was the greatest grand final ever, not this one,” Walters said.

Originally published as The grand final moment you didn’t see