Sydney Roosters pulled off a win for the ages when they came from eight points down with 90 seconds left to snatch the UNE SG Ball Cup (Under 19s) Grand Final 33-26 over the Parramatta Eels.
Fans of both teams were left with little of their voices left after the action-packed ending that unfolded in the final two minutes.
The Eels look destined for a 15th SG Ball premiership, when they led 26-18 after winger Dom Farrugia acrobatically placed the ball over the tryline in the south-west corner of Leichhardt Oval.
Parramatta had led for the majority of the match and had come through the regular nine-round club season unbeaten with eight wins and a draw. But the Roosters did give them their first hiccup of 2025 with a 32-12 win in Week One of the finals.
Today Roosters lock Josiah Fesolai emerged the hero. His try in the 68th minute for a 26-22 scoreline left his team 90 seconds to manufacture a miraculous win.
The Roosters declined the kick but then the mayhem took another turn when Eels halfback and goalkicker Lincoln Fletcher was sin-binned for foul play.
Barely seconds left on the clock and Roosters centre Brooklyn Heath scored out wide (26-26) forcing the match into 10 minutes of extra time.
Fesolai scored again alongside a Tyson Walker conversion and a Toby Rodwell field goal and golden point wasn’t needed as the Roosters were home by seven points.
“We were never in that game, not even close until the end,” coach and True Blue Boyd Cordner said.
“For these young boys coming through there’s going to be a few champions in our team for sure – they just never gave up.
“It was a bizarre end – but that’s grand finals. These kids will never forget that,” Cordner said.
“I don’t think they realise how special this is, even for me as a coach it’s extremely special.
“I’m just so grateful to have this opportunity. They are great kids and they deserve it.”
NSWRL Board member and Roosters Chief Executive Joe Kelly and Roosters Chairman Nick Politis were both present to offer their congratulations.
Rodwell (pictured below, Photo: Bryden Sharp) as named Player of the Match with Eels five-eighth Lorenzo Talataina awarded the Player of the Series.
The 16-12 half-time score to the Eels gave promise that this match was going right down to the wire even though it was Parramatta firing from the whistle to put two tries on before the game was 10 minutes old.
Second-rower Christopher Petrus had an angled run to the line in the fifth minute to open the Eels scoring followed by halfback Lincoln Fletcher.
Two conversions by the No.7 and it was 12-0.
Roosters second-rower James Finegan started the fightback crossing in the 13th minute off a Tyson Walker kick, but the Eels replied through their athletic No.12.
This time Petrus flew above the defenders to retrieve a high ball, popped it up in the air and then regathered to fall over the line for his double.
Continuing the tit-for-tat tries Walker put a grubber in for his right winger EJ Mahu-Delamere, who got the bounce in the 24th minute, to put Parramatta back in the hunt (16-12).
The second half started with a dashing run by utility Eddy Cayliss but he was rolled over in-goal and unable to ground the ball.
But the Roosters wouldn’t be denied with Rodwell sending a pin-point kick towards the right-hand corner, which found the arms of a leaping Finegan for his second. The Walker conversion put the Roosters into the lead (18-16) for the first time in the match.
Again Parramatta countered with a set play off the scrum for winger Aidan Kebourian to score in the left corner and regain the lead despite Fletcher missing the conversion (20-18).
Then came the fabulous Farrugia put-down and a Fletcher sideline conversion to set up the Lazarus-style finish.
It is the Roosters fifth SG Ball title, but their first in more than a decade with the last win in 2014.
