Canterbury-Bankstown 32–20 Parramatta Eels — Preliminary Final, 1998 NRL Finals Series
20 Sep 1998 · Sydney Football Stadium, Moore Park, Sydney, NSW · Attendance: 36,841
Data last verified: 11 August 2026.
Preliminary Final, 1998 NRL finals series: Canterbury-Bankstown 32–20 Parramatta Eels, at Sydney Football Stadium, Moore Park, Sydney, NSW on 20 Sep 1998.
Sourcing caveat: Canterbury's three late comeback tries (Silva, Talau, Norton) were not named in the original match-page scoresheet extraction and were confirmed via a Canterbury-Bankstown club retrospective article rather than Rugby League Project directly. This match went to extra time after finishing level in normal time, per Wikipedia's 1998 NRL season narrative — the exact minute of each late try could not be sourced. Some second-row/prop rotation detail for this specific match (positions 10-12) follows the pattern established in the team's other 1998 finals appearances rather than being independently re-confirmed play-by-play for this exact fixture.
Scorers
| Canterbury-Bankstown | Tries: Polla-Mounter; Polla-Mounter; Silva; Talau; Norton Goals: Halligan (5/6 conversions) Drop goals: Polla-Mounter (field goal); Polla-Mounter (field goal) |
| Parramatta Eels | Tries: Whereat; Whereat; Schifcofske Goals: Schifcofske and Simon combined for 4 successful kicks worth 8 points — with 3 tries scored, at least one of these was a penalty goal, but the conversion/penalty split between the two kickers could not be confirmed and is not asserted |
Team sheets
| Canterbury-Bankstown | Parramatta Eels | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rod Silva | Fullback | Clinton Schifcofske | 1 |
| 2 | Gavin Lester | Wing | Paul Carige | 2 |
| 3 | Willie Talau | Centre | Nathan Barnes | 3 |
| 4 | Shane Marteene | Centre | Stuart Kelly | 4 |
| 5 | Daryl Halligan | Wing | Karl Lovell | 5 |
| 6 | Craig Polla-Mounter | Five-Eighth | Shane Whereat | 6 |
| 7 | Corey Hughes | Halfback | John Simon | 7 |
| 8 | Darren Britt (c) | Prop | Dean Pay | 8 |
| 9 | Jason Hetherington | Hooker | Aaron Raper | 9 |
| 10 | Steve Price | Prop | Mark Tookey | 10 |
| 11 | Barry Ward | Second Row | Jarrod McCracken (c) | 11 |
| 12 | Robert Relf | Second Row | Jason Smith | 12 |
| 13 | Travis Norton | Lock | Jim Dymock | 13 |
| Substitutes | ||||
| 14 | David Thompson | Jason Bell | 14 | |
| 15 | Troy Stone | Nathan Cayless | 15 | |
| 16 | Matthew Ryan | Dallas Weston | 16 | |
| 17 | Glen Hughes | David Penna | 17 | |
| Steve Folkes | Coach | Brian Smith | ||
Match officials
| Referee | Bill Harrigan |
Match report
One of the most famous comebacks in finals history: Canterbury trailed 2-18 with 11 minutes of normal time remaining before storming back with tries to Rod Silva, Willie Talau and Travis Norton alongside Craig Polla-Mounter's double to force extra time and win 32-20, sending the Bulldogs into the Grand Final.