North Sydney's 17–12 defeat. The most crucial when scores were locked at 12-12 after Taylor set up Michael Buettner for a try moments before. With 3 minutes remaining, Norths had a chance to play in their first grand final in 54 years if Taylor could kick that goal. The normally reliable Taylor missed the conversion and Newcastle player Matthew Johns went down the other end of the field and kicked a field goal to make it 13–12. With seconds remaining Norths frantically threw the ball around the field, Owen Craigie swooped on a loose pass and raced away to score the match winning try to make it 17–12. This was North Sydney's 4th preliminary final defeat in 6 years. In the 1998 NRL season, Taylor made 26 appearances as Norths finished 5th on the table. Taylor played in both finals matches against Parramatta and Canterbury-Bankstown which ended in defeat. Taylor captained Norths in what would be the club's last season in the top grade. He played in North Sydney's last game in the NRL which came against North Queensland at the Willows Sports Complex. Taylor scored 2 tries and kicked 3 goals in a 28–18 victory. Taylor remained with North Sydney for their merger with the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles to form the Northern Eagles in 2000, but was released by the club at the end of the season. Without a club for the next year, Taylor wrote a letter to Parramatta Eels coach Brian Smith and joined the club for the 2001 season. His performance that year was described as, "close to the greatest comeback ever in big-time rugby league." Taylor's last match was for Parramatta at in their 2001 NRL grand final loss to the Newcastle Knights. Whilst at Parramatta Taylor set a new point-scoring record, breaking Daryl Halligan's mark of 2,034. Between 1992 and 2000 (and across three clubs) Taylor played 194 games in succession, also a standing record, 20 games clear of Hazem El Masri's 174. Taylor retired with the record for most career points in the National Rugby League and its predecessors. He scored 2,107 first grade career points, a mark later surpassed by Newcastle Knights halfback Andrew Johns in July 2006, then again by Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs winger Hazem El Masri in March 2009, then once again by Melbourne Storm hooker Cameron Smith in April 2019. He retired holding the record for most first grade career