Canterbury-Bankstown 26–12 Newcastle Knights — Qualifying Final, 2009 NRL Finals Series
12 Sep 2009 · ANZ Stadium, Sydney Olympic Park, NSW · Attendance: 21,369
Data last verified: 11 August 2026.
Qualifying Final, 2009 NRL finals series: Canterbury-Bankstown 26–12 Newcastle Knights, at ANZ Stadium, Sydney Olympic Park, NSW on 12 Sep 2009.
Sourcing caveat: Canterbury-Bankstown's full 4-try list is now confirmed via Rugby League Project's scoresheet: Luke Patten's double plus single tries to Ben Hannant and Josh Morris, reconciling exactly to the 26-point score (4×4 + El Masri's 5 conversions×2 = 26). No try/goal minute timestamps were found for this fixture. The source page's URL slug reads "elimination-final", but 2009 predated the QF/EF split (all four Week 1 matches were officially "Qualifying Finals" that year) — treated as a labelling artifact. Exact jersey-number-to-position mapping for several Canterbury-Bankstown starters was inconsistently reported between source fetches; the 13 starting names themselves are confirmed.
Scorers
| Canterbury-Bankstown | Tries: Patten; Patten; Hannant; Morris Goals: El Masri (5/6 conversions) |
| Newcastle Knights | Tries: Dureau; Sa'u Goals: Dureau (1/1 conversion); Gidley (1/1 conversion) |
Team sheets
| Canterbury-Bankstown | Newcastle Knights | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Luke Patten | Fullback | Kurt Gidley (c) | 1 |
| 2 | Hazem El Masri | Wing | Shannon McDonnell | 2 |
| 3 | Josh Morris | Centre | Junior Sa'u | 3 |
| 4 | Jamal Idris | Centre | Adam MacDougall | 4 |
| 5 | Bryson Goodwin | Wing | Cooper Vuna | 5 |
| 6 | Jarrad Hickey | Five-Eighth | Jarrod Mullen | 6 |
| 7 | Ben Roberts | Halfback | Scott Dureau | 7 |
| 8 | Ben Hannant | Prop | Mark Taufua | 8 |
| 9 | Michael Ennis | Hooker | Isaac De Gois | 9 |
| 10 | Michael Hodgson | Prop | Chris Houston | 10 |
| 11 | David Stagg | Second Row | Steve Simpson | 11 |
| 12 | Andrew Ryan (c) | Second Row | Zeb Taia | 12 |
| 13 | Gary Warburton | Lock | Matt Hilder | 13 |
| Substitutes | ||||
| 14 | Daniel Holdsworth | Wes Naiqama | 14 | |
| 15 | Greg Eastwood | Marvin Karawana | 15 | |
| 16 | Chris Armit | Richard Fa'aoso | 16 | |
| 17 | Yileen Gordon | Danny Wicks | 17 | |
| Kevin Moore | Coach | Rick Stone | ||
Match officials
| Referee | Tony Archer and Jason Robinson (two-referee system) |
Match report
The Bulldogs used a strong finish to the regular season to carry momentum into finals footy, with fullback Luke Patten scoring twice as Canterbury controlled long stretches of possession and field position. Veteran goalkicker Hazem El Masri was reliable off the tee. Newcastle, under first-year coach Rick Stone, stayed competitive through captain Kurt Gidley's general play and tries to Scott Dureau and Junior Sa'u but could not find enough attacking width, eliminating the Knights.