The 2003 NRL season was the 96th season of professional rugby league football in Australia and the sixth run by the National Rugby League. Fifteen teams (14 from Australia and 1 from New Zealand) competed for the Telstra Premiership, with the top eight teams entering a play-off finals series to determine the grand finalists.
The 2003 Penrith Panthers season was the 37th in the club's history. Coached by John Lang and captained by Craig Gower, they finished the regular season in 1st place.
The 2003 Sydney Roosters season was the 96th in the club's history. Coached by Ricky Stuart and captained by Brad Fittler, they finished the regular season in 2nd place.
Teams
Of all the Penrith players, only Luke Priddis had grand final experience, having played for the Brisbane Broncos in the 2000 NRL season's decider. It was Scott Sattler's last game with Penrith, having signed with the Wests Tigers for the following season.
Rain started falling only a few minutes into the match and continued throughout. After thirty minutes of play, the Roosters' defence was the first to give when Penrith hooker Luke Priddis, still within his team's side of the field, ran from dummy half and into open space, finally passing to winger Luke Rooney coming through in support to cross untouched on the left for the opening try.[7][8] Ryan Girdler kicked the conversion so the Penrith side were leading 6–0.[9] No more points were scored for the rest of the half so this remained the score at the break.
Second half
In the eighth minute, and after repeat sets of six had brought the Sydney Roosters close to Penrith's try-line, forward Jason Cayless crossed it beneath the uprights, but the ball was held up by the defence. On the very next play, the ball went through the hands out to Shannon Hegarty to score on the left hand side of the field. Craig Fitzgibbon's conversion, which bounced through off an upright,[10] evened the scores at 6–6. Eight minutes later Sydney winger Todd Byrne received the ball on his own forty-metre line and ran into open space along the left edge of the field. Penrith lock forward Scott Sattler was chasing and twenty metres from the try-line tackled Byrne, pulling him out of the field in what would become one of the most famous plays in grand final history.[11][12][13] In the sixty-sixth minute the Penrith side had made their way up to within five metres of the Roosters' try line where Luke Priddis again ran from dummy half and scored, stretching out of the tackle to touch down beside the uprights.[14] Preston Campbell kicked the extra two points so Penrith were now leading 12–6. In the seventy-third minute, Penrith halfback Craig Gower attempted a field goal but it was charged down. Penrith re-gathered the ball and continued towards the Sydney Roosters line and four tackles later had reached perfect field-goal kicking position. Priddis, at dummy half again, instead decided to dummy and run left, throwing a long cut-out pass to Rooney on the wing to score untouched in the corner.[15] Campbell converted the try[16] and Penrith lead 18–6 with six minutes left to play, but no further points ensued so this remained the score at full-time.
Luke Priddis was awarded the Clive Churchill Medal as man-of-the-match[17] before the Prime Minister of Australia John Howard presented Panthers captain Craig Gower with the premiership trophy. At the Penrith Leagues club approximately 10,000 people celebrated the victory with the Panthers.[18] The grand final attracted a bigger audience in Melbourne than the AFL grand final did in Sydney the previous weekend.[19]
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