The attendance of 90,414 was the fourth highest ever seen at a rugby league match in Australia and it was the first nighttime grand final in the competition’s 93-year history.

[1] Newcastle Knights won, with their captain Andrew Johns receiving the Clive Churchill Medal for man of the match.

Johns not long after took a shot at penalty goal due to a leg pull from Brad Drew which was penalised by referee Bill Harrigan to make the score 12–0.

Not long after, the Parramatta side had their best chance of the first half with Andrew Ryan getting over the line but he was held up by Simpson (who was injured in the process of making the tackle) and failed to score.

In the following set, Parramatta spread the ball wide to the left, but a pass which would have put Luke Burt in for a try in the corner was directed well behind him and he failed to catch it.

In the 64th minute, Newcastle seemed to have wrapped up the 2001 Premiership following a wide pass from Peden to Johns who put up a towering bomb to Timana Tahu's wing.

Three minutes later, the Newcastle side once again made the margin three converted tries at 30–12 thanks to a penalty goal to Johns after an attempted short goal-line drop-out by Drew went out on the full.

One more try each to both Lyon and Brett Hodgson in the final ten minutes got the scoreline back to a difference of a converted try at 30–24, but despite this comeback, there was to be no further scoring in the match, leaving the Newcastle side to clinch the 2001 Premiership, their second title in five seasons.