2018 NRL Grand Final

Mascots talking to each other

Sunday September 30, 2018. National Rugby League Grand Final Day.  Growing up in Western Sydney, there is a better than average chance that rugby league was part of your DNA in some form or another.

As a child of a Balmain born and bred father, for my brother and I, and mum via their marriage certificate, everything was black and orange. Through the 70s and 80s there was not too much joy to be had come finals time, and the thought of winning a grand final was a dream at best – a recurring nightmare in ’88 and ’89 but no more talk of that!

So grand final day was essentially just another game of football, this time shown live, but for us there was no real investment – other than food and drink for whatever BBQ had been planned.

With that said, I have been lucky enough to attend 6 grand finals, including 2005 which no one can ever take from me / us!!!  1984 when the Bulldogs beat Parramatta at the SCG, 2005, The Broncos in 2006, Manly over Melbourne in 2008, Souths breaking their drought in 2014 and then the Roosters in 2018.

In 2018 I was lucky enough to win a Nikon sideline photography competition – essentially 12-15 people (I can’t recall the exact number) chosen by Nikon via a 25 words or less submission, to shoot from the field of play using both our own, and Nikon supplied professional equipment.

From a sports photography point of view this was the golden ticket, other than the accredited Nikon/NRL photographers, these were the best seats in the house. We were on the grass, behind the digital signage, behind the southern try line.

Prior to the game we had the chance to talk to a number of the photographers from Nikon/NRL about what they shoot, how they shoot etc. etc. They talked through some of their iconic pictures, how they captured them and the science involved in talking something other than just another football action shot.

With as much of that information on board as possible we were then ushered out onto the field, much like a primary school excursion or outside class – “..carry your chair with you!”. As it turned out, we were positioned at the southern end, in front of the Melbourne Storm supporter bay(s) – If Melbourne were to win, the presentation will be at this end of the field we were told prior, a Roosters win will be at the other end in front of their fans.

What stuck out in that pregame talk was the emphasis the professionals put on getting the picture no one else does – everyone will capture a try or the trophy being raised, what different picture can you capture? With that said, I shot 2000+ pictures that game, all of the traditional stuff – the trophy raised, the heavy hits, the try being scored. But I also captured a couple of special pictures that are my go to, when talking about this game.

The cover picture to this piece for some reason appeals to my inner child, what would a Rooster be saying to Storm Man? Can they even talk? Do they even talk? Do they have a game plan for the second half? This was taken during the half time break, and to me it was just a strange sight. To me, Rooster is listening to Storm Man talk about god knows what- he’d blink if he could!

Not long after I took that picture, I took the original photo of this Cameron Smith picture. It was originally just a generic crowd shot, with one of those large face posters that have become so popular these days. When going through my pictures I decided to Photoshop this particular photo into this final result. From a 2 dimensional cardboard cut out, into an intimate close up moody portrait. If you look closely enough at the final product you can see people on the edges of Cameron’s face. I love the end result so much that this past season, I started to take a serious of actual photos of players, close up and then Photoshoped into the same effect – that was until Covid brought everything to a stop.

Sometimes you take a picture and without realising it, you capture a significant moment from an insignificant shot. That can be said with the Blake Ferguson photo. It was not until the days after the game that it was reported he had broken his foot during the grand final. Going through my photos I found the image below – the moment he broke his foot! Purely by chance, but at the exact time his ankle is at right angles.

Sitting behind the tryline, the expectation was that someone would eventually score at our end – that didn’t happen except for a field goal and then in the final minute, a penalty goal to Latrell Mitchell – the photo below captured the moment he kicked the goal, and first sign of celebration for the game they had won.

Latrell Mitchell

With fulltime, the Roosters celebrated and the Storm fell short, the final picture was one that I specifically went looking for – showing the pain of defeat. Everyone was focused on the victorious Roosters but at the other end, the Storm players were in tears. Will Chambers and Billy Slater here could not hold it in any longer.

At the end of the day, when I’m asked or I show people pictures from this game or any game for that matter, there will always be a handful of pictures that I go to – no one wants to look at 2000 photos from one game, but show them your 6 to 10 best pictures and they will be hooked – they will probably think all of your pictures are that good. The art though, is to have 6-10 unique photos to show, pictures that make you stop and look. If there was one thing I took from the Nikon guys that night, that was the message.