With both the Dragons and Sharks lining up for big finals games on the weekend, it’s a good time to pull out of the files a couple of photos from the past that will stir memories:
1960s: Spectators packed the hill at Jubilee Oval on May 22, 1966, to watch St George play Manly Warringah.
Saints, who were playing under new captain-coach Ian Walsh following the retirement in 1965 of Norm Provan, went on to defeat Balmain 23-4 in the grand final.
It was the end of the club’s golden reign of 11 straight premierships, a world record for an elite team in any sport, which may never be beaten.
1970s: Cronulla captain Steve Rogers kicked four goals but missed with a desperate field goal attempt in the closing stages of the 1978 grand final, which ended in an 11-11 draw.
Manly won the mid-week replay 16-0.
1980s: “Crash, bang, wallop – what a picture!” was the heading on a 1989 front page report in the Leader after a driverless tip truck ran out of control down a hill and ploughed into the garage of a home at Caringbah.
A luxury Jaguar XJS sedan was underneath it. The driver of the landscape supplies truck had left it briefly.
1990s: A “park in” at Dolls Point, in which residents were invited to fill the car park to protest against anti-social behaviour and dangerous driving by youths from outside the area, proved a fizzer in 1995 – much to the delight of the young visitors.
2000s: A crowd of more than 30,000 roared in 2000 when Susie Maroney carried the Olympic torch into Tonkin Oval, Cronulla, and, with the aid of support runner Stacey Thompson, from Cronulla High School, lit the community cauldron.