So, who didn’t see this grand final coming?
Because last time I checked, while half the rugby league world was staggering off the flight back from Las Vegas and sleeping off its sins, two NRL heavyweights were tearing into each other in one of the most gripping round one games for years – which, you guessed it, had a major Bunker controversy. Gulp.
It’s easy to say this is the grand final we had to have.
But it’s even easier to say this is the grand final we were always going to have.
Regardless of who wins on Sunday night, it will mean that for the last eight years the competition has been won by just three teams: the Panthers, Storm or Roosters, who only exited this year’s premiership in the grand final qualifier last week.
In the same time, the AFL has had six different premiers. On the weekend, the Lions did what every other NRL team seems incapable of doing after embarrassing the Swans and winning the title from outside the top four.
Melbourne’s Ryan Papenhuyzen and Penrith’s Liam Martin will meet again in the grand final. Credit: Getty
The NRL is supposed to be bent into some sort of even shape because of the salary cap. It’s supposed to make staying at the top even harder than reaching the summit.
But is it actually a bad thing for the NRL the same teams keep winning for almost a decade?
Sustained excellence and sporting dynasties should be celebrated, and with Craig Bellamy leading the Storm into a 10th grand final on his watch and Ivan Cleary shooting for four straight titles, they are achievements worth celebrating. Cleary said he didn’t know the definition of a dynasty, maybe because he’s been too busy creating one. That’s fair enough.
The beauty of each club is that their secret sauce is different.
Melbourne have cultivated a winning culture from a relentless work ethic and Bellamy turning water into wine with other clubs’ cast-offs surrounding superstar playmakers. Penrith have built a factory of the NRL’s best young talent in a plug-and-play system to replace talent lured by big money deals elsewhere. Their results might be similar, but the journeys have been very different.
Meanwhile, three-time wooden spooners the Tigers haven’t made the finals since 2011. The Dragons, 2018. The Titans, once in eight years. The Warriors, once in six years. The Bulldogs, this year’s feelgood story, played their first finals game since 2016.
How the fatigued fans of those clubs vote with their televisions and screens on Sunday night will be interesting.
The AFL grand final was the highest rating television event of the year – eclipsing the epic State of Origin decider – because it not only captured rusted-on AFL fans in Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth, but lured in viewers from traditional rugby league markets in Sydney and Brisbane.
Something to celebrate: The Lions pose for a team photo after their premiership win.Credit: Getty Images
It’s a target which might even be beyond the NRL and its pugnacious chairman Peter V’landys, who loves nothing more than one-upping his southern cousins. Like Chevy Chase’s National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, can he still convince the country to tune in once a year to watch the same characters all over again?
There will be inevitable calls for a national draft to slow the success of The Big Three. But what is that saying to Penrith, in particular, who have spent tens of millions of dollars over more than a decade to not only develop players to win premierships themselves, but help makes others better?
The NRL used to once beat its chest because of a run of fairytale grand final results: South Sydney broke their 43-year title drought in 2014, Johnathan Thurston kicked the Cowboys to a maiden title in 2015, Paul Gallen cried in Andrew Ettingshausen’s arms in 2016 as Sharks fans turned their porch lights off. Anyone could win, they said.
There won’t be such sentiment this year, just two outstanding teams chock-full of outstanding players with generational coaches trying to win another title.
And that’s perfectly OK.
In the dressing rooms after last year’s grand final qualifier, muted Melbourne players sat in near silence gathering their gear for the team bus. The Panthers had just wiped the floor with them.
Craig Bellamy walked around the room like his cat had just died: head bowed, hands in pockets, shuffling everywhere and nowhere at the same time. You could see his mind ticking. It’s the life of a coach. Even when it’s all over for another year, the next one immediately begins. If we get another a shot at these blokes, how do we beat them?
He gets his shot, one year and one week later in the grand final we were always going to have.
And that’s still worth celebrating.
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