Party like it's 2005: How Tim's Tigers stunned the world

Even after 20 years, it’s still one of the most baffling mysteries in rugby league history.

How exactly did a team quoted as 150/1 midway through the season manage to claim the game’s greatest prize?

In 2005, Wests Tigers stunned the league world by shuffling, side-stepping and flick-passing their way to grand final glory over the North Queensland Cowboys.

While the code has seen numerous underdog stories unfold in the ensuing two decades, none have quite managed to knock the Class of ’05 off their perch.

With Wests Tigers celebrating their maiden premiership by donning 2005 heritage jerseys this Sunday against the Cowboys at Leichhardt Oval, NRL.com revisits the remarkable story of the game’s most unlikely champions.

The Tale of Wests Tigers' 2005 Glory Run

In the Beginning

In many ways, Wests Tigers had a rougher start to life than Oliver Twist.

Following the merger of Balmain and Western Suburbs at the end of 1999, the joint venture struggled both on and off the field for their first three seasons. Then along came Tim Sheens.

After an unhappy stint with the Cowboys, the three-time premiership winning coach arrived at Camp Concord in 2003 and immediately set about blooding promising youngsters.

Into the top grade came names like Dene Halatau, Liam Fulton and Robbie Farah, as well as a fleet-footed Kiwi teenager named Benji Marshall, who was still studying at Keebra Park High School when he made his NRL debut against the Knights in Round 20, 2003.

The Tigers would finish 12th in 2003, the same position as the previous year, but the seeds for success had already been planted.

Boosted by the addition of former Broncos halfback Scott Prince, the club came within a whisker of making the play-offs in 2004, however, there were still plenty of doubts about their credentials heading into 2005.

Yes, they had arguably the game’s best prospect in the effervescent Marshall, but the rest of the squad was dismissed as a ragtag bunch of rookies, no-hopers and cast-offs.

One such cast-off was fullback Brett Hodgson, a former Magpie who joined the Tigers in 2004 after being cut by Parramatta the previous season – just 12 months after playing for NSW.

“I knew that if I got an opportunity, I could play good football,” Hodgson told Daniel Lane in the 2009 book, “Forever Brothers”.

Lanky (yet injury-prone) winger Pat Richards would also arrive from the Eels in 2004, and both he and Hodgson would prove vital to the Tigers’ premiership charge.

Up Next / Cancel Replay Play Next A look back at the 2005 Grand Final

“No one externally expected us to do anything,” Hodgson says.

“But the bond that we formed in the four walls (of the club) was just unbelievable.

“We knew if we wanted to do something special, we had to sacrifice something... and we all did that."

“We didn’t have the most star-studded roster,” adds Marshall.

“But what we did have was a connection in the team... and sometimes that’s more important than having superstars.”

Benji’s Choice

For Marshall, season 2005 almost didn’t happen.

“I actually dislocated my shoulder in one of the pre-season games,” says the current Tigers mentor.

“I saw the doctor and he said, ‘Look, you can either rehab for six weeks and come back and play, which is going to have a 90 percent chance that you’ll re-dislocate it anyway. Or we can just get surgery now'."

After sitting out most of 2004 with a similar injury, Marshall opted for the six-week rehab and ultimately missed just one game the entire year.

“I’m so glad I went with that option,” he says with a grin.

The Tigers started the season well, winning three of their opening four games, including consecutive victories over 2004 grand finalists the Bulldogs and Roosters.

Then came the rough patch, during which they lost seven of their next 10 and sat 12th with 10 rounds remaining.

After being beaten 40-22 by the Broncos in Round 15, the officially quoted odds for a Wests Tigers premiership ballooned from 80/1 to 150/1.

After the Broncos loss, Sheens told his inconsistent team that perhaps rather than aiming for their pre-season goal of a top-four finish, they should be satisfied with merely making the eight.

This enraged forward Ben Galea, who during a team meeting, demanded that the team not lower its expectations.

Galea’s passionate outburst would ultimately galvanise the team.

The Streak

The turning point in the season came on a rainy afternoon at Kogarah, when the Tigers exploded out of the blocks to lead premiership favourites St George Illawarra 32-6 after 50 minutes.

Granted, a late charge from the Dragons saw the visitors squeak home 32-24, but the message was clear: Timmy’s tyros could mix it with the big boys.

“We had a lot of luck with injuries and had the same team playing week-after-week,” Hodgson says.

“[But] it felt like we changed a little bit of the way we played, and the way the game was played generally.

“Rather than just going one out and doing that robotic style of footy... we had a bit more ad-lib about us.”

Sheens' men would go on to win their next eight straight, playing an up-tempo brand of football that would see the Steeden bounce from player to player like a flea hopped up on caffeine pills.

They weren’t exactly the strongest defenders in the comp, but while they were scoring an average of 37 points per game, it didn’t really seem to matter.

“The style of Sheensy’s coaching made everyone move around,” prop John Skandalis says.

“You weren’t sitting still on the field, you either had to be a decoy or part of the play.

“You had to be moving and I think that suited everyone.

Up Next / Cancel Replay Play Next Prince pays tribute to Marshall

“Princey controlled the game so well which allowed ‘Hodgo’, Benji and Farah to throw the ball around.”

This flamboyant style of Tigers footy was probably best exemplified one Sunday in August, when Marshall & Co crossed for eight tries in a 46-6 trouncing of Cronulla – the most memorable scored by Daniel Fitzhenry after Marshall slalomed past six Sharks defenders and threw a no-look pass to Pat Richards.

“Going on that run of eight games straight gave us that confidence,” Hodgson says.

The Finals

Despite dropping their final two games of the regular season against Melbourne and Penrith, Wests Tigers finished the season in fourth spot and were drawn to play fifth-placed North Queensland.

If they had any opening night jitters on their finals debut, it certainly didn’t show, with Hodgson’s 30-point haul (three tries, nine goals) helping them outgun the Cowboys 50-6 at Telstra Stadium.

Next came the Broncos, who entered the game as favourites despite losing their previous six games.

The opening exchanges were close, but two pieces of Marshall magic turned the game.

In the ninth minute of play, the skinny five-eighth pulled off arguably the greatest defensive play of his career when he held Brisbane veteran Darren Smith up over the line to save a try.

Then, seven minutes later, he would post the game’s opening points via a 90-metre intercept try, as the Tigers eventually romped home to win 34-6.

Up Next / Cancel Replay Play Next Finals classic: Dragons v Wests Tigers 2005 preliminary final

The grand final was now just one win away, but the Tigers had a sizeable obstacle in their way - a powerhouse St George Illawarra side that had lost just three of its past 19 matches.

Yet again, the Tigers came in as underdogs, and yet again, they defied the odds, outplaying the star-studded Dragons 20-12 in front a capacity crowd at Aussie Stadium.

While Marshall got on the scoresheet, most of the plaudits went to the underrated Halatau, who was named Man of the Match after scoring two vital tries.

A Flick in Time

Utter the words, “Marshall skips away, Marshall skips away,” to any footy fan and they will almost certainly be transported back to the 35th minute of the 2005 decider, when the 20-year-old whiz kid conjured up the most replayed grand final try in recent memory.

Up until that point, the Tigers had been struggling to contain a Cowboys side that they had thrashed just three weeks earlier.

Electric Cowboy Matt Bowen had opened the scoring in the eighth minute, but the Tigers had managed to draw level after Bryce Gibbs pounced on an errant Paul Bowman pass that had sat up in the North Queensland in-goal.

Up Next / Cancel Replay Play Next Great Grand Final Moments: 2005 Benji Flick Pass

Then Marshall ‘flicked’ the go-button.

“I was defending on the wing... (and) dropped back on the last tackle as Johnathan Thurston kicked down the short side,” Marshall recalled in his 2011 autobiography, ‘Benji.’

“Brett Hodgson picked it up... (Cowboys lock) Travis Norton tried to smash Hodgo, but he still got the ball away to me.

“It was like it was meant to be. Thurston had fallen when he kicked the ball, so he was out of the chasing line... (and) a big gap had opened up for me to run through.

“By the time Thurston got back into the line, I had already gotten past him.

“The next thing I knew, I only had Bowen in front of me.

“I knew Bowen was going to bundle me over the sideline, so I had to think of something quick.”

That ‘something quick’ turned out to be an audacious flick pass to a looming Richards, who palmed off Rod Jensen, before finishing off the 90-metre scoring movement - a minor miracle considering the lanky winger had spent the grand final in a hyperbaric chamber after injuring his ankle against the Dragons.

Richards’ try made it 12-6, and from that point the Tigers were never headed, as second half touchdowns to Fitzhenry, Anthony Laffranchi and Todd Payten helped the joint venture to a 30-16 victory.

While Marshall had provided the moment, skipper Scott Prince took home the Clive Churchill Medal after pulling the strings during his Man of the Match performance.

Not bad for a bloke, who two years earlier was struggling to retain a first-grade spot in Brisbane after suffering two broken legs in back-to-back seasons.

The Here and Now

Heading into Round 25, Wests Tigers sit in 11th spot on the ladder on 24 points – four points behind the eighth-placed Roosters.

Even if they were to win their remaining three games, they will still need a couple of external results to fall their way if they wish to break their 14-year play-offs drought.

However, if history has taught us anything in rugby league, unexpected results are often the norm and, if Marshall’s men are looking for inspiration as they chase a finals berth, they need look no further than an unlikely bunch of heroes who defied the odds to lift the Provan-Summons Trophy.

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