Billy Magoulias has done it again.
For the second week in a row, the Cronulla big man has produced the match-winning chip kick to deliver Newtown another slice of history.
This time Magoulias landed his chip on a dime for Jackson Ferris to complete a stunning 20-16 comeback victory over Burleigh in the NRL State Championship on Sunday.
The Jets were down by four with less than a minute to play on Sunday when Magoulias urged his hooker to send the ball to the open side at ANZ Stadium.
“And he come back to me on the blind side and then at first I was looking for a three-on-two,” Magoulias said.
“There was no three-on-two and I thought, ‘A kick in behind, the boys are chasing hard and it’s going to be hard for (the Bears) to turn it around’.
“I just put it in a little pocket there, we got a bounce and under the posts we go.”
The Bears had seemingly sewn up the title on twice, first by setting up a 16-2 lead on two Anthony Don tries and a third to Jamal Fogarty in the 47th minute.
Burleigh then, after Newtown roared back with three consecutive tries, desperately defended numerous sets on their line in the closing stages.
That was until Magoulias rolled the dice one final time, landing his chip in the middle of a pack of Bears and sitting up for Ferris to score under the posts.
It’s the fourth year in a row the NSW reserve grade champions have taken out the annual grand final day clash against their Queensland counterparts.
Magoulias, who has been dubbed the next Paul Gallen, would have been distraught had the Jets blown their chance at their first national title.
“There’s nothing worse than losing to Queenslanders. I really didn’t want to lose that game. We’re lucky it went our way,” he said.
The early signs weren’t positive for Burleigh the moment hooker Pat Politoni’s afternoon ended with a suspected broken arm in the third minute.
But back-to-back Don tries in the space of eight minutes, including an 80m effort, gave the Bears an eight-point lead at halftime.
It wasn’t until the 54th minute that Newtown finally broke the Burleigh line, with Sione Katoa producing an acrobatic put-down to cut the lead to 10.
Magoulias was also responsible for their second try, charging down a grubber for Ferris to run 60m and reduce the lead to four.
A Katoa try with four minutes remaining gave Braydon Trindall a chance to level the game from the sideline but his attempt swung wide.
The contest didn’t lack any spice, with those on report including Jets pair Ronaldo Mulitalo (headbutting) and Ferris (kneeing), as well as Bears lock Sam Coster (crusher).
