2006 flashback: Brisbane’s last premiership and a non-Sydney grand final surprise

2006.

John Howard was still the prime minister of Australia, Australian Rugby League Commissioner Peter Beattie was the premier of Queensland, Anthony Mundine and Danny Green went at it in the ring, the Socceroos played their first World Cup since 1974, Queensland won Origin in Melbourne and Ford won at Bathurst for the first time in almost a decade.

It also marked the first time in rugby league history the grand final of the biggest rugby league competition in Australia went ahead without a Sydney team qualifying.

After the Wests Tigers' breakthrough success of 2005 in a win over the North Queensland Cowboys, it was the Broncos and Storm who worked their way through the season and finals to make the big dance.

Running out onto Sydney Olympic Park's main stadium after the Hoodoo Gurus and INXS had rocked a crowd of 79,000, the Storm, who had claimed the minor premiership by a staggering eight points ahead of the Canterbury Bulldogs, who themselves were another four points ahead of the Broncos, were supposed to be the unbackable favourites.

In what was their first minor premiership that would be later taken away due to salary cap breaches, the Storm were aiming to win their second title, having beat the then recently merged St George Illawarra Dragons for first in 1999 - that being just their second season in the competition.

The Broncos meanwhile went into the game having not claimed the premiership since 2000 following their run of success in the 90s, with premierships in 1992, 1993, 1997 (Super League), 1998 and 2000.

Brisbane, having lost both of their regular season games to the Storm, were more or less on a hope and a prayer heading into the decider, but had caught fire in the finals.

After being forced to utilise the second chance in the opening week with a loss to the St George Illawarra Dragons, the Red Hill-based outfit plastered the Newcastle Knights in Sydney during Week 2 with a 50-6 scoreline, before doing similar to the Bulldogs the week after, winning 37-20.

The Storm had been classy too, grinding out a 12-6 win over the Eels to book a week off before getting the better of the Dragons 24-10 to confirm their spot in the big dance.

Despite Melbourne's overwhelming favouritism, it was the Broncos who struck first with a penalty goal. That came from a two-on-one strip on the goal line as Shaun Berrigan attempted to cross for the opening points of the game.

With Darren Lockyer slotting the penalty goal to calm some nerves, it was Melbourne who were then able to capitalise with a young Cooper Cronk kicking a 40/20, and Scott Hill would find Steve Turner off the back of it for the first try of the game.

A missed conversion kept it at four points to two.

The game continued to ebb and flow during the first half, with a Darren Lockyer bomb and subsequent drop by Turner putting the Broncos back on the attack, with Justin Hodges scoring off the back of it.

That would be all the scoring wrote in the first half with the Broncos up 8-4, but an injury concern for Darren Lockyer was the real story to come out of the break.

He managed to play on through the minor problem, but it didn't help the Broncos immediately, with a Justin Hodges high shot leading to a Matt King try in the following set.

Matt Geyer stepped up to try and put Melbourne into the lead, but sent it wide.

Stunningly, that would be all the points Melbourne scored in the game, with Brisbane's defence turning up and time again through the final half hour.

A penalty goal - Brisbane's second of the game, this time through Corey Parker who had started the game from the bench - put the Red Hill-based side into the lead before a series of passes set up one of the great grand final tries to Brent Tate.

The conversion was missed, but Brisbane, up by six, would see off a Melbourne close call with help from the video referee, before Lockyer hit a field goal that put the game beyond doubt with just minutes to play.

Fast forward almost two decades, and it's still Melbourne and Brisbane who are the best sides that don't call Sydney home.

The only grand finals since 2006 to feature two non-Sydney teams came in 2015 (Cowboys defeat Broncos 17-16) and in 2017 (Storm defeat Cowboys 34-6).

The last four years have been a Penrith Panthers trail of destruction, but the Broncos managed to end that with a stunning preliminary final win last weekend.

Melbourne again go into this year's decider as the overwhelming favourites, but if history is anything to go by, that may not mean all that much when the two sides run out at Homebush on Sunday evening.