Ah, little one, sit close and listen well. Let me tell you of what happened on a Sunday gone by at Leichhardt.
The score was locked at 10 apiece, and the Cowboys, fierce and unforgiving, were thundering on the Tigers’ line. The shadows of halftime lengthened, the crowd held its breath, and it seemed fortune teetered away from our men in black, white and orange.
And then fate revealed herself. A Cowboys error, a faltering of desperate hands, and the ball fell, heaven-sent, into the arms of Samuela Fainu.
Some would call it luck, but I call it the reward of sweat and sacrifice. Fainu’s very instinct to throw himself into the defensive scrap was the spark, and though he knew it not, he had set into motion the greatest try of the 2020s.
Fifteen metres burned beneath his strides before he cast a one-handed offload, falling as he did so, into the hands of the ever-faithful Jarome Luai.
And on this, his 150th game, with kin filling the hill and former comrades gathered in tribute, Luai shone brighter than ever. He saw the field as a painter sees canvas, and with a bullet pass he unleashed the mid-season marvel, Taylan May.
Now, truest magic was summond: On the 20th anniversary of the Tigers’ 2005 triumph, May flicked the ball in that very same fashion as Mr Marshall, a pass echoing Benji’s immortal gift. Coincidence? No, child. Destiny.
Sunlight caught Tito Turuva as he gathered the ball, his steps scattering Cowboys defenders like wild brushstrokes flung on a canvas.
Then, with the calm of a man who already knew the ending of the story, he found Jahream Bula, surging through the centre like a chosen one.
And Bula, oh sweet Bula, didn’t just finish a try that day; he finished a masterpiece rendered in the eternal memory of his Wests Tigers hearts.
