Andrew ‘Bobcat’ Ryan made a tackle in the 2004 NRL grand final that sealed the Bulldogs’ win — but he’s never watched the game back.
It was Ryan’s first game as captain and the tackle will go down as one of most iconic moments in the club’s history.
And yet, in the 19 years that’s passed, he’s never sat down to re-watch the game.
The 44-year-old made the shock admission on the Fox League Podcast while lifting the lid on the preparations and the aftermath of the Dogs’ last premiership.
Ryan also opened up on how Steve Folkes got him to Belmore after he put his name on the rugby league map with the Eels what it was like captaining characters like Mark O’Meley and Willie Mason — and the headlines that followed the latter.
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THE NICKNAME…
Before we dive into it, one thing must be settled. Where on earth did the nickname ‘Bobcat’ come from?
Ryan’s mate Luke O’Connor — also a Dubbo product — is responsible for it. The pair played for the Eels’ under 20s side together when O’Connor came up with the name that’s stuck with Ryan since he was an 18-year-old.
“We used to do our review sessions in the dressing sheds… I don’t know if he’d been thinking about it or where he came up with it but I was up on the screen — probably missing a tackle — and he just goes ‘you look like a bobcat, you’re fat and square and slow’,” Ryan recalled.
“Then the rest of the boys jumped onto it saying ‘you’ve got squinty eyes and a furry forehead.’ So it’s just dead set stuck from then on.”
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THE FIRST BIG BREAK
Ryan just a kid playing footy in Dubbo before the Eels picked him up and the opportunity only came about after he turned up at an open trial while still in Year 12.
“I went to one open trial for Parramatta under 20s, they invited me back for another one and then sort of said ‘we’re keen to sign you on a one-year deal for the under 20s’ and I was like ‘far out, I couldn’t even make the Dubbo rep side’,” he said.
“I moved away from home and started a landscaping apprenticeship. I ended up fighting my way through to the reserve grade side and then made my debut.”
Ryan debuted alongside the likes of Brett Hodgson, Luke Burt and Nathan Hindmarsh. But the guys he was up against were slightly more intimidating.
“I remember I was scared,” Ryan said.
“We played the Broncos and it was in 2000 — their side in 2000 was ridiculous. It was Gorden Tallis, Brad Thorne, Shane Webcke and Petero Civenociva.
“I was sitting on the bench going ‘what am I doing here? Maybe this isn’t for me, maybe I need a new career’ and thinking ‘do I have to go out there?’
“I remember getting steamrolled by Shane Webcke… I was 21 or 22 but it was like I was a little 14-year-old getting thrown around.”
Ryan quickly cemented his spot in the team and the following year as the Eels went on a stunning run to comfortably win the minor premiership and make the grand final… Only to go down to the Knights.
“I think we lost three or four games all year heading into the finals, then came up against a red-hot Newcastle side,” Ryan said.
“I guess on reflection, they had a few guys that had played in the ‘97 grand final where I don’t know if any of us had played in one. Whether or not that was a factor, I don’t know.
“It’s funny, you speak to people throughout your career and in my second season in first grade I was lucky enough to play semi’s and a grand final… I don’t know if you just assume that’s the way it always.
“You probably don’t realise until you’re older how valuable it is to play finals.”
ORIGIN DEBUT
That same year, Ryan made his State of Origin debut. He was added to the bench in several changes made by coach Wayne Pearce after New South Wales lost the first game.
Ryan still remembers the moment he found out he was in — after just a season-and-a-half in first grade.
“We played the Sharks at Shark Park and I had only played 30-something NRL games so there was no way I was thinking about playing Origin,” he said.
“They lost the first game and then I remember the exact spot I got a call, someone gave me a bit of an insight — ‘I think you might be in the Origin side.’
“From that moment my phone just went nuts. I was in the team. My head was all over the place.
“But I got put on report as well, it was a tackle on Preston Campbell… so my first thought went to that. I had to go to the judiciary.
“But I flew home, grabbed some gear and went straight to camp to meet everyone. Then once the dust settled, the next couple of days, I had to try and put a case together for the judiciary.
“Thankfully I got off and was able to play. It was the furthest thing from my mind that I was going to play Origin.”
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MOVE TO THE BULLDOGS
After playing in a grand final and ticking off a representative debut, it should’ve have surprised Ryan that two clubs were interested in him — the Bulldogs and the Raiders — but it did.
“I ended up coming here (to Belmore) to meet Steve Folkes,” he recalled.
“It was a pretty tough time in a weird sort of way because a lot of us had come through the grades at Parramatta together so we were all pretty tight.
“I hadn’t really thought about leaving but when someone like Steve Folkes — and they were on that season where they ended up winning 17 in a row — (wants to meet) I agreed to terms to come after that.
“Quite a lot of us were coming off contract at Parramatta, three of the guys went to Canberra and there was half a chance of (me) going to the Raiders as well.
“I met with Steve Folkes and loved everything about him straight away. Basically they said to me ‘we want to sign you on a three-year deal’ and I was like ‘wow, this is crazy. You are the best team in the comp and you want to sign me.’
“It was a little bit bittersweet at the time because I was connected with all those guys at Parramatta. But as it turns out, certainly no regrets.”
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THE 2004 GRAND FINAL
The 2004 Bulldogs squad was special. As Ryan revealed, they were a tight-knit bunch that had some fun, but “we trained like nothing else.”
“Those experiences around those years of training was ridiculous,” he added.
Fast forward to late September and the Dogs defeated the Panthers to lock in a spot in the grand final. And as it turned out they’d go up against their fierce rivals — the Roosters.
But they’d have to do without their captain, Steve Price, who was injured in the early minutes of the preliminary final.
Who did Folkes turn to? Ryan.
“Bizarrely where we sit in the offices at Belmore, we’re not too far from where Steve Folkes’ office used to be,” he recalled.
“We realised pretty early in the week that Pricey was probably going to struggle but we didn’t know who was going to fill in or how that was going to look.
“Folkesy grabbed me and said ‘can you come up to my office for a chat’ and I thought ‘what have I done’… It was the Wednesday I think of grand final week… and he just said ‘how would you feel about being captain this week?’
“I nearly fell over because firstly I had never been captain of an NRL team — actually my last time as captain was in St John’s open schoolboys and I think we got flogged in all three games. So I wasn’t going to tell him my record heading in.
“I was just in shock, I was excited, I was nervous… It was a huge honour. It was an unbelievable honour to run out on grand final day — I remember wearing the HFC Finance jerseys around in the ‘80s on grand final day dreaming and here I am leading the team out on grand final day. It was really special and really bizarre.
“I’m there going to toss the coin against Brad Fittler and it’s his last NRL game in a grand final and I’m sitting there for my first ever game as captain going ‘far out.’ Fortunately we got the win in the end but it was just all these bizarre experiences.
“For Folkesy to ask me I was just really proud.”
Ryan came up with a few huge moments in that game. He set up Matt Utai for the Dogs’ first try of the game. he made a try-saving tackle on Chris Walker with 15 minutes to go and then there’s the tackle that saved the premiership.
The Bulldogs had a 16-13 lead but with 15 seconds to go, Michael Croker breaks through only for Ryan to cling to his ankles with everything he’s got.
Croker dropped the ball and the Dogs players look at each other — they knew they had done it.
“I haven’t actually watched the whole game back yet,” Ryan admitted.
“… But I’ve obviously been able to see some of the end quite a few times. I remember the feeling, when we realised we had actually won, I just remember my whole body was just tingling. I was overcome with so much emotion, it was a crazy feeling.
“I don’t remember too much of the processes or making the tackle but I do remember the second half of that game they were just peppering our line heaps.
“They had a lot of these trick shot plays… I remember we felt like we were defending our line heaps — I don’t remember us attacking much in the second half. The relief… It was an unbelievable feeling.”
Ryan lifted the trophy with Price, who wore his jersey over the top of his button up shirt. It was a bittersweet moment for Price given he had signed with the Warriors for the following season.
“It was a pinch yourself moment,” Ryan said when asked about lifting the trophy.
“That was a part of my plan if we were lucky enough to win. I was just the fill-in (captain) for the day, I was always keen to get Pricey up — he was the captain.
“It was a little bit strange too because he was moving onto the Warriors as well. But to hold that trophy up, I don’t know how to explain it, it still doesn’t feel real.”
The group headed back to Canterbury League Club where they were greeted by thousands of fans. There were the lucky ones that got inside the club, while the others surrounded the gates.
“It was unreal,” Ryan said.
“We got on the double-decker bus a couple of kilometres out from the Leagues Club. When we came up the back alley and around the corner there was just thousands of people outside the Leagues Club — and they were the ones that couldn’t get in.
“We were just so pumped for all of them to be a part of it. Once we got inside we went to all the different levels in the Leagues Club where everyone was to take the trophy to all the fans that got inside. It was phenomenal.
It was 2am by the time the players finally got to sit down with their families — and the trophy.
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TAMING THE BEASTS
Ryan has had the pleasure of playing with — and captaining — two of the great characters of rugby league.
The larrikin that is Willie Mason and the oldschool front-rower Mark ‘Ogre’ O’Meley.
They’ve all reunited at the Bulldogs this year in varying roles.
When asked what his first impression of O’Meley was Ryan said: “Pretty much exactly the same as he is now. Just upbeat, champion character, loves his training, loves being a competitor. He hasn’t changed from the moment I met him.”
The two were part of the ‘04 pack and played plenty of games for the Blues and then Roosters together. Forever intimidating their opposition and forever rattling cages.
“Absolutely they did,” Ryan laughed when asked if those two took the battle of the forwards personally.
“‘Mase’ is a funny one because he’s so good, he just backs himself.
“I remember waking up some days, we’d be playing a massive game against Parra or the Roosters and someone would give me a ring to say ‘Mase has caused a headline.’ And it’ll say ‘Mason says none of their pack make ours’ or something.
“But what he does is he goes out there and he’s probably the best player on the field, he’s just got that knack of being able to get it done.
“Then Ogre, talk about being competitive and the opposition, he hated everyone. Anyone that was a front-rower in an opposition team — even to now, he still wouldn’t want to talk to some of them from back in those days. He is a special man.
“He was so fixated on doing his job the team and whatever it took — he’d run through a brick wall for you if it meant winning. He was a thrashing machine too, he could fight like nothing else so it certainly gave you a heap of confidence.”
Captaining different personalities though was something Ryan admitted didn’t come naturally to him.
“It’s something I actually struggled with at first,” he said.
“When I took over the captaincy I actually started to look around at everyone and think ‘why is he doing that? Should he be doing that?’ and it actually started to impact my performance.
“But the more experienced you get and the more you get to know your teammates you know to let them be. You know how to prepare and what makes them tick.
“Some need to have a laugh, some need to have a sleep — Ogre had to get deep heat rubbed into his head. But initially probably started to impact my performance.”
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RETIREMENT
Ryan hung up the boots at the end of the 2011 season. Initially he was keen to go round for one more year — it would’ve been his 10th season with the Bulldogs — but he knew he wasn’t “moving as good defensively.”
So he made he decision.
“If I’d gone on to play it probably would’ve been for the wrong reasons,” he conceded.
“Even if the opportunity wasn’t with the Bulldogs, if I went on to play somewhere else it would’ve been just to try and bring up 300 games or maybe not play for the right reasons.
“I thought to myself if ‘I’m thinking about it then it’s probably time to pull the pin’.
“Deep down if I started to think about it, I realised it was probably the best decision. I’d rather pull the pin a bit early than go the extra year.
“Not that it mattered, I’ve played plenty of reserve grade over time and it wouldn’t have impacted me, but I guess I got to go out on my own terms.”
The Bulldogs arranged for a bobcat — not of the animal form — to be set up behind the goalposts for Ryan’s last game.
Fittingly, he scored a try… But what happened next is a memory that’ll stay with him forever.
“Clearly I had never tried a post-try celebration before,” he laughed.
“My plan was, I didn’t drive a bobcat well but I did a bit of landscaping so I thought to myself in the warm-up if I score I’m going to run over to it and I wanted to step up into it and sit in it.
“Unfortunately as I was coming around at a rapid speed, it actually wasn’t open so I thought ‘what am I going to do now.’ I don’t know how I thought it was a good idea but I thought I’d step on the bucket and then nearly cut my leg off and nearly got medi-cabbed off in my last game.
“The plan went to trash very quickly.”
When asked if he has any regrets from his 291-game career he said no — but there is one thing that might come remotely close to being one.
“I guess the only one… should I have played on another year because I initially thought maybe I had another year in me but it didn’t look like that was going to happen at the Bulldogs. So that was the only part of me…
“But realistically I left as a chunky little kid from Dubbo as an 18-year-old and never thought I’d play a minute of NRL so to be able to hang around for a while… I definitely don’t have any regrets.”