Newcastle Knights 22–26 St George Illawarra — Qualifying Final, 2002 NRL Finals Series
14 Sep 2002 · EnergyAustralia Stadium, Newcastle, NSW · Attendance: 21,051
Data last verified: 11 August 2026.
Qualifying Final, 2002 NRL finals series: Newcastle Knights 22–26 St George Illawarra, at EnergyAustralia Stadium, Newcastle, NSW on 14 Sep 2002.
Sourcing caveat: No try-scoring minutes were found for this fixture. St George Illawarra's #9 (Mark Riddell) started on the bench with #16 (Shane Millard) starting hooker instead — reported exactly as sourced. Only 3 of the Dragons' 4 bench players could be sourced from Rugby League Project for this specific match; the 4th slot is recorded as fully unconfirmed rather than guessed.
Scorers
| Newcastle Knights | Tries: Bailey; Peden; Tahu; Woolnough Goals: Abraham (2/2 conversions); Peden (1/2 conversions); Johns (0/1 penalty goals) |
| St George Illawarra | Tries: Barrett; Clarke; Riddell; Smith; Thompson Goals: Riddell (3/5 conversions) |
Team sheets
| Newcastle Knights | St George Illawarra | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kurt Gidley | Fullback | Ben Hornby | 1 |
| 2 | John Morris | Wing | Wise Kativerata | 2 |
| 3 | Matthew Gidley | Centre | Mark Gasnier | 3 |
| 4 | Timana Tahu | Centre | Lee Hookey | 4 |
| 5 | Anthony Quinn | Wing | Leo Clarke | 5 |
| 6 | Sean Rudder | Five-Eighth | Trent Barrett (c) | 6 |
| 7 | Andrew Johns (c) | Halfback | Willie Peters | 7 |
| 8 | Josh Perry | Prop | Luke Bailey | 8 |
| 9 | Danny Buderus | Hooker | Shane Millard | 16 |
| 10 | Matt Parsons | Prop | Jason Ryles | 10 |
| 11 | Steve Simpson | Second Row | Justin Smith | 11 |
| 12 | Ben Kennedy | Second Row | Lance Thompson | 12 |
| 13 | Bill Peden | Lock | Jason Hooper | 13 |
| Substitutes | ||||
| 14 | Daniel Abraham | Mark Riddell | 9 | |
| 15 | Clint Newton | Craig Stapleton | 14 | |
| 16 | Julian Bailey | Nathan Tutt | 15 | |
| 17 | Adam Woolnough | UNCONFIRMED | UNCONFIRMED | |
| Michael Hagan | Coach | Andrew Farrar | ||
Match officials
| Referee | Bill Harrigan |
Match report
Second-seeded, reigning premier Newcastle fell at the first hurdle to seventh-seeded St George Illawarra in a tight arm-wrestle, with the Dragons' five-try spread across the backline and forwards enough to hold off a Knights outfit still built around Andrew Johns and Danny Buderus.