BY MRLW

COMMENT

The 2005 season has forever been known as the fairytale to end all fairytales – some still wonder how the hell Wests Tigers won it?

A bunch of kids mixed with a sprinkling of veteran journeymen. It all happened so quickly.

One week they were throwing flick passes, the next they were smashing everyone on the way to the richest prize in our sport.

Wests Tigers smacked North Queensland twice in that finals series. The more important one came in the grand final.

The Cowboys did their best but they just couldn’t match Tim Sheens’ men.

Looking back, many remember the preliminary final at the Sydney Football Stadium just as fondly.

St George Illawarra were hot favourites.

Wests fans got short-sheeted during the week with more tickets apparently going to the Dragons.

Some say the Dragons already had ‘Grand Finalist’ t-shirts made up.

Pat Richards got up at the last second to play when others had him ruled out.

All that and it’s easy to forget that it was in fact Parramatta that lost the most in 2005.

Not the Cowboys, nor the Dragons.

It was Parramatta who claimed the minor premiership.

Yet somehow their failures have been swamped and forgotten because of the magic that continued all around them and past them after they were eliminated from the title race.

Just like 2001, the ’05 Eels were hard to like.

Parramatta seem to find a dose of arrogance every once and while and it usually comes in September.

Nobody had a problem with them in 2009. They were rank outsiders as the Jarryd Hayne machine went into overdrive.

They are poor sports as front-runners.

That’s what Wests Tigers fans will tell you.

And 2020 seems to be one of those years.

Why wouldn’t Wests Tigers be hungry tonight?

There’s more than two points on the line.

There’s a chip on a shoulder that needs to be erased.

Wests Tigers fans remember 2005.

The Eels not so much.

Parramatta’s choke has been covered up for fifteen years.

They can thank Wests Tigers for that.

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