Sydney Roosters 33–21 North Sydney Bears — Minor Qualifying Final, 1997-arl NRL Finals Series
6 Sep 1997 · Sydney Football Stadium, Sydney, NSW · Attendance: 11,332
Data last verified: 11 August 2026.
Minor Qualifying Final, 1997-arl NRL finals series: Sydney Roosters 33–21 North Sydney Bears, at Sydney Football Stadium, Sydney, NSW on 6 Sep 1997.
Sourcing caveat: Confirmed named scorers total Sydney Roosters 23 of 33 points (10 short — the source's field-goal count for Adrian Lam may itself be an extraction artifact, since it does not resolve cleanly to whole tries) and North Sydney 13 of 21 points (8 short, roughly 2 further tries) — both recorded as unattributed rather than guessed.
Scorers
| Sydney Roosters | Tries: Andrew Walker (2) Goals: Ivan Cleary (6/7) Drop goals: source lists an apparent 3 field goals credited to Adrian Lam, but this does not reconcile with the final score and could not be independently confirmed — reported as an unresolved extraction discrepancy rather than a confirmed fact |
| North Sydney Bears | Tries: Chris Caruana Goals: Jason Taylor (3/3) Drop goals: source lists an apparent 3 field goals credited to Jason Taylor, but this does not reconcile with the final score and could not be independently confirmed — reported as an unresolved extraction discrepancy rather than a confirmed fact |
Team sheets
| Sydney Roosters | North Sydney Bears | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Andrew Walker | Fullback | Matt Seers | 1 |
| 2 | Jack Elsegood | Wing | Brett Dallas | 2 |
| 3 | Ivan Cleary | Centre | David Hall | 3 |
| 4 | Brandon Costin | Centre | Michael Buettner | 4 |
| 5 | Matt Sing | Wing | Nigel Roy | 5 |
| 6 | Brad Fittler (c) | Five-Eighth | Ben Ikin | 6 |
| 7 | Adrian Lam | Halfback | Jason Taylor (c) | 7 |
| 8 | David Barnhill | Prop | Brenton Pomery | 8 |
| 9 | Simon Bonetti | Hooker | Mark Soden | 9 |
| 10 | Terry Hermansson | Prop | Steve Trindall | 10 |
| 11 | Scott Gourley | Second Row | Gary Larson | 11 |
| 12 | Luke Ricketson | Second Row | Greg Florimo | 12 |
| 13 | Nigel Gaffey | Lock | Billy Moore | 13 |
| Substitutes | ||||
| 14 | Sean Garlick | Chris Caruana | 14 | |
| 15 | Shane Rigon | Danny Williams | 15 | |
| 16 | Bryan Fletcher | Mark Reber | 16 | |
| 17 | Nathan Wood | Paul Stringer | 17 | |
| Phil Gould | Coach | Peter Louis | ||
Match officials
| Referee | Kelvin Jeffes |