Strong support with Kangaroos set to celebrate 1994 premiership success

The 1994 Group Nine grand final had it all and Kangaroos will celebrate their success this weekend.

Now 30 years on, all but one of the premiership-winning side is set to return to Wagga to watch the 2024 Kangaroos take on Brothers at Equex Centre on Saturday.

An intercept try from fleet-footed winger Steve Davis leading into half-time set Kangaroos on their way but they still had to hold off a resurgent Gundagai outfit.

It could have been a different story if Tigers captain-coach Steve Funnell found touch with a penalty kick with less than two minutes to go.

Instead Kangaroos held on for a 24-20 victory.

It was Gundagai's second straight grand final loss and was to be the second of nine grand finals the club lost before their drought-breaking premiership in 2015.

Chas Mascini was named man of the match in the 1994 grand final.

He recalled how the side led by Peter McArthur had to go the hard way just to make it through to the grand final.

"We played Temora over in Temora in a qualifying final, second verse third, in the first week of the finals and got beat 52-0," Mascini said.

"We played them two weeks later to get into the grand final and were down 10-0 to get into the grand final after about 10 minutes but ended up winning 34-10."

As such they never met Gundagai in the finals series until the game that matters most.

Mascini thought Davis racing away to score gave Kangaroos plenty of momentum.

They went into half-time leading 18-0 and went further in front as a quick tap from Mascini found McArthur who had Craig McIntyre in support and he ducked and weaved through the Gundagai defence to score after 55 minutes.

However their buffer soon evaporated.

Winning a scrum against the feed led to Darren Field scoring before Gundagai centre Mick Castles went over under the posts in the 74^th minute to make it a four-point game.

Kangaroos were just able to see it out.

"They came back and nearly nailed us," Mascini said.

McArthur had a massive impact on the side after taking on a different role throughout the season moving from the back line into lock.

As did Wilfred Williams in his first season at the club.

"He made a big difference," Mascini said.

"Wilfred Williams was five-eighth and was the main player we bought into the club but most of the other blokes came through the juniors.

"Footy was a bit different then and you were playing with the same blokes for five years in a row."

Kangaroos remain the most successful club in Group Nine with 12 premierships to their credit.

Mascini thought their success in 1994 was years in the making.

"The four or five years before that we'd come about third most of the years, one year (1991) we were minor premiers and didn't even make the grand final so we were probably due to win one," he said.

"The previous grand final was 1987, so that was seven years which back in those days it was a fair while, as Kangaroos were pretty successful back in those days.

"It was a bit of a drought."