Rugby league’s collective heart went out to Warriors five-eighth Chanel Harris-Tavita after an extraordinary shanked conversion at GIO Stadium on Friday night.
Hooking the seemingly unmissable conversion from next to the posts with seven minutes to go, CHT’s howler consigned the Warriors to a 20-18 defeat – potentially ending the club’s tenuous NRL finals hopes.
The gut-wrenching shot at goal – from a player that boasted an 82 percent career strike-rate leading into the game – was merely the latest in the long line of goalkicking disasters throughout the code’s history, ranging from costly to just plain embarrassing.
Here’s a few to remind Harris-Tavita he is far from alone.
Don Fox (1968)
The daddy of all goalkicking misses, Don Fox’s failed conversion attempt for Wakefield at the end of the 1968 ‘Watersplash’ Challenge Cup final rates near the top of Rugby League’s hard luck stories.
The outstanding Great Britain Test forward had already been announced as the Lance Todd Trophy winner as man-of-the-match when Wakefield scored an unbelievable last-gasp try under the posts to trail Leeds 11-10.
With time up, Fox was left with the simplest of conversions to win English club football’s greatest prize. But he infamously skewed it wide in the quagmire conditions, slumping to the sodden Wembley turf after handing Leeds the Cup.
Colin Scott (1982)
No one would begrudge Colin Scott for missing his penalty goal attempt from out wide in the second match of the 1982 Origin series, but the Queensland fullback’s toe-poke strike was perhaps the worst of all time.
The ball skewed off the side of his boot, skidding 10 metres along the ground into the waiting arms of NSW halfback Steve Mortimer.
Mark Levy (1984)
The Panthers made the leap from perennial cellar-dwellers to finals contenders in 1984 but were left to rue a lost opportunity against eventual premiers Canterbury that could have earned the club a maiden post-season appearance.
Nearing the end of a thrilling Round 20 contest, rookie Greg Alexander pegged Penrith back to 22-20 in arrears with a determined try.
Penrith fullback Mark Levy had the chance to draw the match with a conversion attempt slightly to the left of the posts, but he shanked the simple shot into the right-hand upright. The one competition point that went begging would have been enough to put the Panthers into a play-off for fifth spot.
Laurie Daley (1990)
Canberra superstar Laurie Daley enjoyed a fine Test debut in Australia’s 34-2 win over France at Parkes but sullied his performance slightly with an appalling conversion attempt from in front.
The five-eighth hooked the kick spectacularly, missing the left-hand upright by 10 metres. The green-and-golds used five different kickers for their eight shots on goal, with fullback Gary Belcher’s sole attempt the lone success.
Gene Ngamu (1996)
The footage below shows Warriors five-eighth Gene Ngamu putting British second-rower Denis Betts over near the posts in the dying stages against the Bulldogs with the Aucklanders trailing by six.
What it doesn’t show is Ngamu butchering the simple conversion attempt that would have earned the Warriors a vital late-season competition point. The agonising loss was part of a four-match losing run to the finish the year that saw the club finish three points adrift of the Top 8.
Shaun Timmins (1997)
A try in the shadows of fulltime by interchange debutant Brendan Hauville drew Illawarra level with heavyweights Norths early in the 1997 ARL season.
Left-footed fill-in goalkicker Shaun Timmins had a simple chance to win the North Sydney Oval-hosted match but badly hooked the conversion attempt from only a few metres wide of the left-hand upright (though one touch judge still erroneously put his flag up).
Timmins never kicked another first grade goal but landed one of the most famous field goals of all time in NSW’s golden point win in the 2004 Origin series opener.
Joel Caine (2000)
The NRL’s top point-scorer in 2000, Wests Tigers winger/fullback Joel Caine produced one of the worst strikes even seen when attempting to convert a try against Penrith the following season.
The shot – taken from the 20-metre line and 20 metres in from the sideline – barely left the ground and landed just inside the 10-metre mark, becoming Footy Show fodder for many years to come at the expense of the affable Caine.
Stacey Jones (2001)
The Warriors conjured one of the all-time great late comebacks in Wellington in 2001, hauling in a 24-8 deficit against the Bulldogs with three tries in the last five minutes.
Stacey Jones had banged over conversions from all angles while wasting little time as the Warriors came home with a wet sail.
But after Clinton Toopi sprinted away for the last-minute leveller, the champion No.7 hooked the match-winning attempt that doubled as what should have been his easiest kick of the night, leaving the thriller drawn 24-all.
Johnathan Thurston (2010)
Johnathan Thurston had the opportunity to clinch a much-needed win for the floundering Cowboys against Cronulla in Round 16, 2010.
The Cowboys had given up an 18-0 lead to let the match head into golden point with the scores tied 19-all at fulltime.
Thurston, who earlier in the season landed his first 25 shots at goal in a row, duffed a simple 30-metre penalty shot from in front during the extra-time period. Cronulla captain Trent Barrett subsequently slotted a field goal, consigning the home side to a heartbreaking loss.
Luke Burt (2010)
Luke Burt hooked a last-minute attempt from just beyond the 20-metre line and only slightly off-centre to cruel Parramatta in a vital late-season clash with high-flying Wests Tigers.
The devastating miss consigned the Eels to a 20-18 loss, effectively ending their finals hopes and bringing the likeable veteran to tears in the dressing room afterwards.
Jarrod Croker (2010)
Just weeks later, the Tigers benefitted from another excruciating penalty goal miss.
In one of premiership football’s cruellest missed opportunities, young Canberra centre Jarrod Croker pulled a regulation penalty goal attempt from less than 30 metres out and almost in front in the 2010 sudden-death semi-final against the Tigers.
The 77th-minute attempt would have sent the match into golden point, but the Tigers escaped with a 26-24 victory at Canberra Stadium. The 20-year-old Croker was inconsolable.
Darren Lockyer (2011)
Darren Lockyer’s extraordinary farewell season – which included another Origin series victory for Queensland and a semi-final golden point field goal in his last match for the Broncos – was winding down to a fitting conclusion in the 2011 Four-Nations final.
The legendary skipper scored the Kangaroos’ fifth try with a clever kick-and-chase in the dying minutes at Elland Road to round out an emphatic victory over England. He was handed the conversion attempt – which was adjacent to the uprights – after the fulltime siren.
But Lockyer, the highest point-scorer in Broncos history, sprayed the seemingly unmissable kick in the final act of one of the great careers. Lockyer could only shake his head and offer a wry grin after the gaffe.
Kieran Foran (2018)
Part-time kicker Kieran Foran boasts the attractive career strike-rate of 80 percent, landing eight of his 10 attempts in the NRL.
But one of his two misses ranked as one of the rarest howlers of them all: a conversion from directly in front that went under the crossbar.
Paul Momirovski (2019)
Utility back Momirovski was a competent 75 percent kicker after cementing a late-season spot in Wests Tigers’ line-up in 2019, but a failed pressure attempt proved crucial in the context of the club’s campaign.
The eighth-placed Tigers scored a try with 90 seconds left against the struggling Bulldogs to reduce their deficit to two points in the Round 21 clash, leaving Momirovski with a kick to send the match into golden point.
It was no sitter just under 20 metres in from touch, but Momirovski hooked the attempt badly and the Tigers battled to a familiar ninth-place finish…one point outside the Top 8.
Momirovski went on to win a grand final with Penrith two years later, while the Tigers’ finals drought will extend to a 13th season in 2024.