Sydney Roosters 26–20 Newcastle Knights — Preliminary Final, 2000 NRL Finals Series
19 Aug 2000 · Sydney Football Stadium, Moore Park, Sydney, NSW · Attendance: 33,727
Data last verified: 11 August 2026.
Preliminary Final, 2000 NRL finals series: Sydney Roosters 26–20 Newcastle Knights, at Sydney Football Stadium, Moore Park, Sydney, NSW on 19 Aug 2000.
Sourcing caveat: Fittler's try is recorded as an intercept. Cross's minute (~55') is approximate per the source. Sydney's combined kicking total (Fitzgibbon 5/5) exceeds the 4 conversion opportunities available from 4 tries by one — the split shown here (4 conversions plus 1 penalty goal) is the only arithmetically consistent reading, not a guess.
Scoring timeline
| 50′ | Sydney Roosters — try, Phillips |
| 52′ | Sydney Roosters — try, Fittler |
| 55′ | Sydney Roosters — try, Cross |
| 66′ | Sydney Roosters — try, Hegarty |
| 70′ | Newcastle Knights — try, Tahu |
Tries with a sourced minute, in order scored, with the conversion kicked/missed alongside each one where source data lets us match a kicker to that specific try. Tries whose exact minute isn't recorded in available sources appear in the Scorers table below but not here; goal tallies we can't attribute to one specific try are shown as descriptive text in Scorers rather than guessed into this timeline.
Scorers
| Sydney Roosters | Tries: Phillips 50'; Fittler 52'; Cross 55'; Hegarty 66' Goals: Fitzgibbon (4/4 conversions, 1/1 penalty goals) |
| Newcastle Knights | Tries: Albert; Hughes; Johns; Tahu 70' Goals: Johns (2/5 conversions) |
Team sheets
| Sydney Roosters | Newcastle Knights | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Luke Phillips | Fullback | Adam MacDougall | 1 |
| 2 | Matt Sing | Wing | Darren Albert | 2 |
| 3 | Ryan Cross | Centre | Matthew Gidley | 3 |
| 4 | Shannon Hegarty | Centre | Mark Hughes | 4 |
| 5 | Anthony Minichiello | Wing | Timana Tahu | 5 |
| 6 | Brad Fittler (c) | Five-Eighth | Matthew Johns | 6 |
| 7 | Adrian Lam | Halfback | Andrew Johns | 7 |
| 8 | Ian Rubin | Prop | Tony Butterfield (c) | 8 |
| 9 | Simon Bonetti | Hooker | Danny Buderus | 9 |
| 10 | Peter Cusack | Prop | Matt Parsons | 10 |
| 11 | Bryan Fletcher | Second Row | David Fairleigh | 11 |
| 12 | Craig Fitzgibbon | Second Row | Ben Kennedy | 12 |
| 13 | Luke Ricketson | Lock | Bill Peden | 13 |
| Substitutes | ||||
| 14 | Dallas Hood | Sean Rudder | 14 | |
| 15 | David Solomona | Peter Shiels | 15 | |
| 16 | Craig Wing | Steve Simpson | 16 | |
| 17 | Shane Rigon | Paul Rauhihi | 17 | |
| Graham Murray | Coach | Warren Ryan | ||
Match officials
| Referee | Bill Harrigan |
Match report
One of the great finals comebacks: Newcastle led 16-2 at halftime behind Andrew Johns's generalship, only for Sydney to score 24 unanswered points, four tries inside a frantic stretch — Phillips, Fittler's intercept, Cross and Hegarty — turning the game on its head. It denied Newcastle a Grand Final berth and sent underdog Sydney Roosters through to their first Grand Final in twenty years, a result still remembered by Novocastrians as one of the club's most painful losses.