Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Mad Moments In Sport 3 - Paul Carige
Flicking through the channels on tv last night, I came across what can only be described as The Greatest Meltdown of AllTime in Rugby League. That of the 1998 Preliminary Final between the ever choking Parramatta Eels and the Bulldogs. With 9 minutes to go, the game seemed over with the Eels cruising to their first Grand Final in 12 years with a seemingly unassaible 18-2 lead. Three tries later and the Bulldogs have drawn level thanks to some superb kicking from the original SuperBoot Darryl Halligan, but the madness hasn't even begun yet. With only seconds remaining on the clock, Corey Hughes puts in an attempt at a field goal which trickles towards the dead ball line. Parra's putrid fullback, the 'Great' Paul Carige does a Kurt Gidley and puts his brain on the shelf for the remainder of the game planting the ball on the deadball line for some unknown reason. This STILL wasn't his maddest moment. That was to come after the fulltime siren with scores still deadlocked, he receives the ball near his own try line after possibly the worst field goal attempt of the 90's by Robert Relf, and decides to chip and chase himself from I repeat, HIS OWN TRYLINE AFTER FULLTIME! The ball of course doesnt land anywhere near back in the hands of our gutsy/extremely stupid fullback hero, but in the hands of Canterbury's best field goal kicker Craig Polla Mounter, whom near halfway lets rip with one of the greatest attempts at field goal surely seen in the game's history. Hollywood Harrigan has to go to the video ref (didnt even know one existed back in the 90s) to see if the ball went over the crossbar or not, luckily for Carige it didn't. It still didn't cease from making him infamously reknowned as having 'almost' the greatest meltdown in sporting history, but still worthy of a gong for Schlossy's Soiled Shoe's Mad Moments in Sport Hall of Fame.
Believe it or not, Carige STILL wasn't quite done with his truly remarkable efforts. With the Bulldogs running away with all the momentum in the world and subsequently the game late in extra time, Carige puts the icing on the cake for his outstanding performance with not one but two more moments of madness in general play. First he takes a cross field bomb that he really doesnt need to take and gets taken over the sideline by a flea winger, and then he achieves true greatness in melting down completely taking a long kick close to the sideline that is definately going out on the full, only to take a couple of steps backwards and into touch, handing the Bulldogs a truly miraculous free pass to the 1998 Grand Final.
A truly GREAT Mad Moment/s in Sporting History.
p.s. Does anyone know if Carige is still alive? If so, where is he hiding??
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I watched this with a tear in my eye. A tear of utter jubiliation! What a meltdown that was and in such a short period of time. Carige was killing it that year and this game signalled the end of his promising career from memory.
ReplyDelete"puts his brain on the shelf" is the best way to put it.
ReplyDeletenow a common occurance for NRL players
Roscoe the greatest post in Shoe history. Paul Carige kicking the ball on the last play and Pollermounter going within a ball hair of a field goal to win it. I also watched with a tear in my eye of complete laughter.
ReplyDeleteCommentators Warren, Roach, Sterling were already talking about a Broncos and Eels Grand Final with 9 minutes to go and then the meltdown begun Eels led 18-2 with 12 mins to go. Eels led 18-6 with 7 to go!
I rang my best mate who is an avid Parra fan and he said he will never watch that game again. I was only 12 when the game occurred but I can remember watching with my Dad on the lounge and the Carige moment annointed a new phrase to the household. 'Fairdinkum you have had a Carige'. It got a run in SLR Deevs back in 04. Good times.
God Bless Paul Carrige!
James Phelps The Daily Telegraph - September 14, 2007.
ReplyDelete"Horror Game Still Dogs Carige"
HE is rugby league's most elusive man and it is the bitter rivalry between the Eels and the Bulldogs that sent him into hiding.
MainGame yesterday tracked down former Eels fullback Paul Carige and, nine years after a series of blunders cost him his career, we still couldn't get a word.
Carige fled Sydney and then Australia in the wake of the Eels' dramatic 32-20 loss to the Bulldogs in the 1998 grand final qualifier.
Fans blamed the then 25-year-old for ruining the Eels' chance of making their first grand final in 12 years.
The Illawarra junior will forever be remembered for kicking the ball to the Bulldogs in the dying seconds of the match with the scores locked at 18-18.
It was just the first tackle.
Bulldog Rod Silva pounced on the ball and positioned halfback Craig Polla-Mounter for a dramatic 49m field goal attempt which dropped just short.
Carige's mistake was the most spectacular of a series of errors that helped the Bulldogs storm back and win one of the most memorable semi-finals in recent history.
While the ill-timed kick is etched in folklore, it was an earlier blunder that proved more costly.
With just 10 minutes left, Eels coach Brian Smith walked down to the edge of the field and readied himself for post-match celebrations with the game in the bag at 16-2.
With the Dogs closing the gap to 16-12, Carige waited for a kick with his foot over the dead-ball line in an attempt to gain his side a 20m tap.
Instead, the Eels were forced to kick the ball back to the Bulldogs, with the ball coming to a stop by the time Carige picked it up.
The Bulldogs scored soon after and went on to win the match in extra-time. After the match Carige described his mistakes as brain explosions.
"I don't know, I guess it was a bit of a brain explosion," he said. "Look, I was just trying my best for the team, sometimes those things come off and you come up with a win. We gave it our best shot, I suppose it was an exciting game, good for the fans."
Unfortunately the passionate Parramatta fans disagreed. Carige was forced to flee to Coffs Harbour after copping verbal abuse wherever he went.
He was also the target of vicious comments on the internet from disgruntled Eels fans and also Bulldogs fans, quick to put the boot in.
Before the match, Carige's future seemed assured.
He had played more than 40 first-grade games for the Eels in just two years and had another year left to run on his deal.
But in the wake of his horror five minutes, Carige was cut from the Eels and left Australia looking for a start in the UK.
MainGame yesterday tracked down Carige, who is now working as a teacher in the Brisbane Youth Detention Centre.
The 34-year-old was at the Wacol centre when we called but couldn't get to the phone. A colleague revealed that Carige resurrected his career with Wynnum in the Queensland Cup.
"He came to us in about 2002 and played a couple of years," Wynnum CEO Mark Rockley said. "He was a very handy player and still keeps in touch."
Polla-Mounter, who narrowly missed the field goal late in the match, yesterday said Carige could blame the Eels-Dogs rivalry for ending his NRL career. "It is a bitter shame because the kid could really play," Polla-Mounter said.
"He disappeared off the face of the planet after that. I think the Eels and Bulldogs fans can be the most unforgiving, especially when we play each other. I have no doubt it is the biggest rivalry in rugby league and part of the reason he didn't play again.
"It all started in the 1980s and got worse in 1995 when some of our guys (Dean Pay, Jarrod McCracken, Jim Dymock and Jason Smith) jumped ship."
WOW!!! I had no idea the extent of the aftermath of Carige's meltdown was so extensive. Brilliant!Outstanding response to the "Where is Paul Carige now?" queries BoxHead.
ReplyDeleteI forgot about Smith lobbing down to the sideline to celebrate prematurely with his players 10 mins to go. Absolute GOLD! No wonder he's the second grumpiest coach in the NRL (behind only Wayne Bennett of course)...
I've experienced some pretty special days in my life, including the birth of my 3 kids, but this day was easily the greatest day of my life. To watch Parramatta self destruct only 11 minutes away from a Grand Final was brilliant. To watch it with Parramatta supporters drinking piss was even better.
ReplyDeleteThe ghosts of this day reared their heads again at the 2001 Grand Final when they lost to Newcastle as raging hot favourites.
May the legacy of Paul Caraige and Steve Mavin will live on forever...