Cronulla-Sutherland 22–6 Brisbane Broncos — Qualifying Final, 2001 NRL Finals Series
7 Sep 2001 · Toyota Park, Sydney, NSW · Attendance: 15,508
Data last verified: 11 August 2026.
Qualifying Final, 2001 NRL finals series: Cronulla-Sutherland 22–6 Brisbane Broncos, at Toyota Park, Sydney, NSW on 7 Sep 2001.
Sourcing caveat: No try-scoring minutes were found for this fixture. Brisbane's 4th interchange player could not be sourced — Rugby League Project's Team List table for this specific match (matches/1734) shows only 3 bench entries (14 Michael Ryan, 16 Corey Parker, 17 Shane Walker); recorded as fully unconfirmed rather than guessed.
Scorers
| Cronulla-Sutherland | Tries: Mellor; Mellor; Mellor; Pierce Goals: Rogers (3/5 conversions) |
| Brisbane Broncos | Tries: Berrigan Goals: Lockyer (1/1 conversions) |
Team sheets
| Cronulla-Sutherland | Brisbane Broncos | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | David Peachey (c) | Fullback | Darren Lockyer (c) | 1 |
| 2 | Mat Rogers | Wing | Lote Tuqiri | 2 |
| 3 | Paul Mellor | Centre | Chris Walker | 3 |
| 4 | Chris McKenna | Centre | Stuart Kelly | 4 |
| 5 | Colin Best | Wing | Wendell Sailor | 5 |
| 6 | Adam Dykes | Five-Eighth | Ashley Harrison | 6 |
| 7 | Preston Campbell | Halfback | Shaun Berrigan | 7 |
| 8 | Jason Stevens | Prop | Shane Webcke | 8 |
| 9 | Jason Ferris | Hooker | Luke Priddis | 9 |
| 10 | Martin Lang | Prop | Petero Civoniceva | 10 |
| 11 | Nathan Long | Second Row | Brad Meyers | 11 |
| 12 | Paul McNicholas | Second Row | Dane Carlaw | 12 |
| 13 | Nick Graham | Lock | Darren Burns | 13 |
| Substitutes | ||||
| 14 | Chris Beattie | Michael Ryan | 14 | |
| 15 | Andrew Pierce | Corey Parker | 16 | |
| 16 | Luke Stuart | Shane Walker | 17 | |
| 17 | Dean Treister | UNCONFIRMED | UNCONFIRMED | |
| John Lang | Coach | Wayne Bennett | ||
Match officials
| Referee | Steve Clark |
Match report
The opening Qualifying Final of the 2001 series saw John Lang's Cronulla-Sutherland comfortably account for Brisbane, a Paul Mellor hat-trick doing most of the damage. The loss sent Brisbane into the McIntyre system's second-chance bracket, from which they recovered to reach a Preliminary Final regardless.