Round 8, 1977: Parramatta 11 Balmain 9

Round 8, 1977: Parramatta 11 d Balmain 9

Rugby League Week
May 14, 1977

Parramatta wanted to bottle Mick Cronin's blood on Sunday. Balmain fans wished Cronin had stayed in Gerringong.
Mick Cronin was the king of Cumberland. He had snatched Parramatta a victory right on fulltime. The game, the most stirring of the season, should have ended in a draw.
A draw would of given the people of Balmain a lot of satisfaction. They didn't deserve to be disappointed.
This game produced the very best in Rugby League and it took 26 players to do it.
Seldom has a game produced so many thrills; never has a game produced such a thrilling finish.
It was action, 80 minute action, highlighted by bruising defence.
The only blemish in the game was the four cautions Balmain lock Neil Pringle received.
Balmain really contributed to their own defeat, cruel as it may sound.
But Balmain were penalised 20-8 and I don't know of a side in the southern hemisphere who could give Parramatta such an advantage.
Ironically, Cronin landed the winning goal from a penalty kick.
And it was from a penalty four minutes from the end that Cronin was able to level the scores.
Balmain's three best players cost them the game.
That may sound like a contradiction to end all contradictions but it was Cox, Pringle and finally Lockwood who caused Balmain to be penalised into defeat.
The final penalty was imposed on Lockwood for being off-side in the last scrum of the match.
Only two tries were scored but they will rate as two of the most spectacular of the 1977 season.
The first was scored after Parramatta half John Kolc set the backs alight.
Mick Cronin handled. He ran wide and then sent the most perfect pass you could ever wish to see to Eddie Sulkowicz.
Sulkowicz raced onto the pass, split the defence and gave winger Graham Atkins a path to the line.
Up until that moment, the moment Cronin threw his magic pass, Parramatta had found it impossible to penetrate the tackling Tigers.
Balmain's try resulted from the most lethal attacking combination in the game.
Pringle and Lockwood struck gold for the Tigers only two minutes after Atkins scored.
Lockwood did the lead-up work. Pringle backed up, was there to take the flick reverse pass and dive over for the equalising try.
A game fit for a King!
Parramatta prop Graham Olling must have clinched his place in City Seconds on his performance.
Eels fullback Mark Levy can consider himself extremely unlucky to have missed a run with the City sides.