Five years ago, Billy Magoulias produced two amazing rugby league feats in the same week when he orchestrated victories for the Newtown Jets in the NSW Cup and the State Championships.
With Newtown behind in the dying seconds of both games, Magoulias put a chip kick over the top for a runaway teammate to score the game-winning try.
After an NRL debut with Cronulla, a stint in England’s Super League and the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic, Magoulias is back playing for the Jets, who take on the North Sydney Bears in this weekend’s NSW Cup grand final, the first time the two foundation clubs have met in a grand final since 1943.
“A lot has happened for me since 2019,” Magoulias said. “I debuted for Cronulla, then I went overseas and played for Warrington in the Super League, and then I’ve come back and had my daughter.”
Magoulias describes those two crucial plays as “just moments”, but they’re still the two things Jets fans love to remind him about.
“I think they’re just two moments that kind of happened back-to-back,” Magoulias said. “Yeah, it is pretty crazy when you look back at it to think how did you do that? But, for me, I don’t sit there and talk about it personally – that doesn’t really [play] on my mind – but every time I talk to a Newtown fan, they always remind you of it.
“I guess it’s good when the fans are getting enjoyment, because the Newtown fans, it’s not just like a feeder club to an NRL club, they’ve got their own set of fans, and they’ve got their own club and their own culture, their own sponsors, so they run their own show.
“I guess that’s probably the coolest part, is them enjoying that experience where we did win the competition and then go on to win it the next week. For me, that’s probably the best thing that comes out of it.”
Billy Magoulias playing for the Newtown Jets in NSW Cup this year.Credit: Mario Facchini
That 2019 team was particularly fruitful for Cronulla – whose feeder club is Newtown – with Braydon Trindall, Will Kennedy, Blayke Brailey, Ronaldo Mulitalo, Siosifa Talakai, Sione Katoa, Toby Rudolf, Teig Wilton, who are all part of the Sharks semi-final team playing the Panthers this weekend, a part of that Jets side.
If the opportunity to play in the NRL again came up, Magoulias would not turn it away, but with a thriving rugby league academy off the field, he is content with his football career, and believes he can still be the game-breaker this weekend that he was five years ago.
“I hope it doesn’t get that close; I hope we win by a lot of points,” he said. “None of that stuff is planned, it’s just kind of off the cuff and whatever you see you’ve just got to react. We never practiced that initially at all; I probably wasn’t meant to kick the ball [back in 2019] but, again, that’s something that just happens. We just hope on the day everybody is in the zone, and we’re reacting to things like that if need be.”
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