A double to David Nofoaluma on the ground he called home for most of his NRL career proved the winning margin for the Glebe Dirty Reds in their 19-6 defeat of Wentworthville Magpies at Leichhardt Oval in the Leagues Clubs Australia Ron Massey Cup Grand Final.
Nofoaluma scored in the 48th and 76th minutes to secure Glebe their first Cup.
“I played 11 years of my NRL career here so it’s still part of me – I have a lot of history here,” Nofoaluma told nswrl.com.au
“To be able to come here and play a grand final with Glebe Dirty Reds, we all had something individual to play for. The thing I like about this group is that each player, especially the young ones, were keen to learn off us experience players,” he said referring to himself alongside other NRL players like Dean Whare and Craig Garvey on the field today and Kane Evans, who missed the final through injury.
Match: Magpies v Dirty Reds
Grand Final -
home Team
Magpies
away Team
Dirty Reds
Venue: Leichhardt Oval, Sydney
“They ask questions and that’s what you want. We all did this as a team.”
The Dirty Reds certainly worked hard as a unit keeping the Magpies scoreless until the 57th minute. Fullback Jade Anderson was everywhere in attack and defence and won the Player of the Match award.
Coach Aaron Zammit not only has a premiership to his name but will lose his long plait he’s grown for the past seven years after he made a promise to his players they could snip it off.
“Who cares… I’m just so happy for the boys,” Zammit said.
“Our defence won it and we’ve not been renowned for that since we’ve been such a good attacking side for the past six weeks or so. And just the belief – the boys wanted to win this so much – it’s history right here.”
Glebe had to win three sudden-death matches in the finals to be crowned 2024 winners.
It was heartbreak again for Wentworthville Magpies. They also lost the 2023 Grand Final to St Marys Saints.
The opening 40 minutes was played mostly in Wenty’s half. They were able to deflect raid after raid early, but in the 10th minute a sublime flick pass from Dirty Reds second-rower Corey Ross as he fell to the ground created the clear space for centre Vito Tevaga to score.
The arm wrestle resumed with Wenty’s ball handling the most telling factor in not being able to post any points. Winger Ethyn Martin managed to get across the line in the 37th minute but was unable to ground the ball cleanly.
A penalty four minutes earlier to Glebe bench forward Daniel Arahu gave the Dirty Reds a slim 8-0 lead at halftime.
In the second half, Nofoaluma showed all his NRL prowess when he leapt high to retrieve a Joey Taipari kick that bounced awkwardly. But with Wenty fullback Austin Quast hanging on, Nofoaluma was able to score and stretch the lead to 14-0.
Glebe had scored three unanswered tries and looked in control when Wenty started to win the field position game.
Five-eighth Dylan White set a short kick towards the uprights, which bounced diagonally and into the arms of Magpies second rower Kyle Cassel. The conversion in front by Liam O’Brien narrowed the gap to 14-6.
But the fightback was short-lived. Nofoaluma scored his second and then Whare iced the match with a field goal as the clock ticked down the last 45 seconds to spark wild celebrations on the field.
