Which is Canberra's greatest team? 1994 Raiders v 2004 Brumbies - you decide

Which is why we're delving into the story of two of Canberra's greatest teams as the Canberra Raiders celebrate three decades since their 1994 premiership in the same year the ACT Brumbies mark 20 years since their last Super 12 title.

But when The Canberra Times sat down to analyse which side was better, we soon realise we would have had more luck trying to run over John Lomax and Quentin Pongia or stop George Gregan and Stephen Larkham at the peak of their powers.

The two sides were as star-studded as they come. Thirteen of the 15 Raiders used in the 1994 grand final played international rugby league - and had John Lomax not been suspended, they would have had another.

Meninga is a part of rugby league's most esteemed club after being inducted into the Immortals. Ricky Stuart and Laurie Daley both won a Dally M Medal and stand in the NRL Hall of Fame alongside Meninga, Bradley Clyde and Ruben Wiki.

"I was blessed to be a part of that team in all honesty. I was at the back end of my career and there was so much talent in the team," Meninga said.

"There was so much emerging talent as well in [Brett] Mullins, [Jason] Croker, [David] Furner, they were starting to make their mark on the game. Obviously Laurie, Ricky, Bradley, Steve Walters and those guys, there was a lot of talent.

"The Pacific Island contingent, they were excellent. The front-rowers were scary people, Noa was an unbelievable winger, one of the best wingers I played with, Ruben Wiki was a bit of a legend of the club and the game itself, and Kenny Nagas - it was a quality footy team."

It is one of the greatest club sides ever assembled - and Meninga says it may well be the best team from the Raiders' golden era.

"It's too hard to pick, but probably on paper it is anyway," Meninga said.

As for the Brumbies? Eighteen of their 22-man squad in the final played Test rugby, including 14 of the starting XV. The only one who hadn't was Joel Wilson - and he was filling the void left by injured star Stirling Mortlock.

George Smith, Gregan and Larkham all have a home in the World Rugby Hall of Fame.

Gregan is still the Wallabies' most-capped player with 139 Test appearances. Matt Giteau and Larkham played 103 and 102 games for Australia respectively. Smith made 111 appearances for Australia, won a pair of John Eales Medals as the Wallabies' best player and 10 Brett Robinson Awards at the Brumbies.

Mark Gerrard scored a grand final hat-trick, Joe Roff had a double, and in Owen Finegan, Radike Samo and Mark Chisholm, the Brumbies had towering forwards capable of giving any defender chills.

"It was amazing for me. These are guys that only two years earlier, I'd head out to the Brumbies' stadium to watch them, and then all of a sudden I'm catching passes off them, I'm training with them, I'm hanging with them," Giteau said.

"It was surreal. I was very nervous most training sessions. Once you get into the season you start to feel more comfortable. They were extremely welcoming, great veteran players who just allowed me to be myself. That was a really great group we had there."

One should note a direct comparison is virtually impossible in every sense. Scoring systems are different, while the NSWRL regular season of 1994 ran almost twice as long as Super 12 in 2004 - which also makes average crowd comparisons vastly different.

But how about this: both teams had a winning percentage of 77 per cent. The Raiders' biggest win was by 44 points, the Brumbies' by 43. Their biggest defeats were by 15 and 19 respectively.

The Raiders finished third in a 16-team league with a win-loss record of 17-5. Their 677 points points scored were the highest in the competition, and they gave up just 298 to boast the league's second-best defence.

The Brumbies finished first with an 8-3 record in a 12-team competition. Their 408 points scored made for the highest tally in the competition, while the ACT conceded 269 - making their defence the third-best.

And when it mattered most, the stars delivered. The Raiders seemed destined for their third premiership in six seasons when Canterbury prop Martin Bella dropped the ball from the opening kick-off in the grand final - and it was one-way traffic from there as the Green Machine charged to a 36-12 triumph.

Meninga was given a fairytale farewell in his final game for the Raiders. The would-be Immortal signed off with the last try after intercepting a Jason Smith pass and fending off Jarrod McCracken to score beside the posts and send a 42,234-strong Sydney Football Stadium crowd into raptures.

"It was like fate and it just clicked at the right time and the right moment for me. I'm forever grateful I could leave the game on my terms," Meninga said.

And while only nine points would separate the Brumbies and Crusaders on the night of May 22 2004, the Super 12 final was a knockout victory.

Joe Roff scored the first try inside the opening minute when he capitalised on Ben Blair's incomprehensible mistake. It was 12-0 after five minutes, 19-0 after 11, 26-0 after 17 and 33-0 after 19. The Crusaders - a side which so often seemed impenetrable - were reeling.

The injection of Andrew Mehrtens brought the visitors back into the game, and suddenly a team boasting Richie McCaw and Brad Thorn didn't seem quite so toothless - but the party had already started in the Canberra Stadium stands.

"At the start of the year we had pre-season at Hamilton, we got flogged by 65 it could have been in Rotorua, and that night we all went out and had drinks together," Giteau said.

"To see players still believe we were doing the right thing, and then we come out in round one playing the Blues - who had won it the year before - and we beat them, they obviously saw something in the team and where we were heading.

"We had a really good mix, we had some good young guys, some really good experienced guys who had won a lot of things, and not just won a lot of things but they still wanted to win.

"They always had that hunger to compete and wanted to keep getting better, not just individually but as a team as well. I think that's what kept everyone else on track. The younger players would see these guys constantly driven, constantly trying to get better when a lot of them had already won a World Cup.

"When you've got guys like that doing it and you're a young player, you keep trying to get better."

Meninga rattles off the names of his all-star teammates and then gets to the reserves - David Westley came off the bench and went on to play Test football for Papua New Guinea.

Then there was Paul Osborne, asked by coach Tim Sheens to fill the void left by Lomax after he was suspended for the grand final. Canberra had lost one of the most menacing players in the competition - but they didn't lose an inch.

"I remember the week leading up to the GF, how well we trained and how we were committed to the cause. We lost Johnny Lomax the game before, 'Sheensy' brought up Paul Osborne, and things just clicked," Meninga said.

"About the 21st minute, I told our trainer Shaun McRae, 'you have to get 'Ozzy' off the field, he's making too many errors now'. He'd done his damage in those early minutes. I thought from that moment on we had it pretty well stitched up."

It's difficult to find an unsung hero in a Brumbies outfit that had Wallabies coming off the bench - but Joel Wilson might be a good place to start in a back line which could light up the darkest night.

Wilson was named at outside centre for the decider with Mortlock ruled out by injury, and the Brumbies did not miss a beat as they racked up what was then the highest score in a Super Rugby decider.

If Wayne Bennett had built the foundations in Canberra, Sheens built the skyscraper.

Sheens took the reins in 1988 and, in former club chief John McIntyre's eyes, was unlucky not to clinch the title in his first year at the helm. The Raiders finished third before narrow finals losses to eventual grand finalists Balmain and Canterbury. Premierships came in 1989, 1990 and 1994 - and he has forged a legacy as one of the game's greatest coaches.

"I remember before the 2019 grand final we had a zoom and Tim spoke to the guys when we were at a function," Stuart said before overtaking Sheens as Canberra's most-capped coach in 2022. "I see Tim as a Raider still. The best thing I've got out of Tim Sheens and all those players I've played with, the boys I've coached, is the mateship."

The story was vastly different in Canberra's rugby union circles a decade later.

When David Nucifora stood up in a team meeting in April 2004 - while his team was leading the competition - to tell the Brumbies he had been sacked as coach, plenty in the room knew it was coming.

Twelve players going into that season, including most of the team's Wallabies, had been signatories to a letter urging the Brumbies administration to address problems they had with Nucifora's coaching style. Few players have ever publicly admitted they were involved in the coup, but the unrest was generated by the team's most senior players.

Today the Canberra Stadium grandstands are named after players from these teams in Meninga, Larkham and Gregan. Outside them stand statues of Meninga and Daley.

Reckon this rugby league Immortal is happy with his decision to pack his bags and leave Queensland?

"People would say 'what are you going to Canberra for?' People underestimate how good this town is, how good the club is, how they look after each other," Meninga said.

"I'm glad I made that decision back in '85 to come to Canberra, because it's probably the best decision footy-wise I could have made."

Giteau adds: "There are so many great memories. Obviously winning the title was massive, to do that at home in front of family and friends and celebrate with family and friends was really special.

"The whole season was great for me, it was new, playing with those guys. It was a really special year."

How do you split two of the greatest teams Canberra has ever had? There are Hall of Famers and Test stars everywhere you look, players who provided the city with some of its greatest sporting memories in golden eras fans are yearning to recapture.

For romance, it might be the Raiders by a nose. Whichever side you sit on, Canberra fans knew what they were witnessing. The Raiders had an average home crowd of 17,392 in 1994 - a club record which still hasn't been touched.

The Brumbies' average attendances rocketed to 21,449 throughout their six regular season home games of 2004, while 23,191 turned up to a semi-final against the Chiefs.

The high water mark set in the 2004 Super 12 final still stands today. A record 28,753 filled Canberra Stadium - including the temporary stands erected at each end - to watch the Brumbies beat the Crusaders in a battle between the competition's two great dynasties.

"That was the biggest thing. Two years earlier I'd head out there because it was the cool thing to do. You know, you're in year 12 or you've just finished school, let's head out and watch the Brumbies before we head out. It was the place to go," Giteau said.

"I was fortunate enough to be around that time when we would have sell-out crowds all year round. I remember that grand final, there were standing room tickets, people could just get in and didn't have a seat but were happy to come in.

"Every time we played there it was always full. That one felt bigger because of the hype, playing the Crusaders in a final at home. The media and everything was huge. Playing at Bruce back in the day was so special."

What we would give for another day like it.