The Future League examines the greatest rivalry in the NRL West conference: the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs and the Parramatta Eels.

If you lived through the 1980s you already understand the significance of the rivalry between the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs and the Parramatta Eels. These two teams from Western Sydney ruled that decade, with at least one of them featuring in eight of the 10 grand finals of that era.

It was the time where the rivalry and competitiveness ran fiercest. The Bulldogs halted the Eels’ golden grand final run of three consecutive wins with a 6-4 victory in 1984; the Eels returned serve and stopped Canterbury from going three in a row in 1986.

If the 80s define this NRL West conference grudge match, what has followed since has been a series of exclamation marks. What has helped sustain the rivalry between these two teams, the most successful in the NRL West conference, has been remarkable finals matches each decade since the 80s. The preliminary finals in both 1998 and 2009 have fuelled the fire within the next generation of fans to keep the rivalry burning brightly.

The two teams met in the 1998 preliminary final, the first finals series of the newly-established NRL. The Eels were cruising to their first grand final since 1986 when they led the Bulldogs 18-2 with just over 10 minutes to go. Somehow the Bulldogs clawed their way back, sent the game to overtime and pulled off one of the great finals results.

When the two teams met again in the 2009 preliminary final, the Eels were riding the Hayne train and the Bulldogs were celebrating a strong season after their wooden spoon-winning result the previous year. In the end, the sheer momentum built by the Eels came up trumps in a 22-12 result in front of over 70,000 people. It’s the last time they have met in a finals match.

Since then, the Eels’ results have waned, only winning the NRL West conference and making the finals once. The Bulldogs have won the conference twice, made the grand final twice, and have been well off the pace in the NRL West in recent years. For both teams, the result of their conference clashes in 2019 may prove to define their respective seasons.