The grand final wasn’t even a quarter old when Brian To’o rose from the north-western corner and celebrated a try not with a postcode hand sign, or one of those exuberant leaps from teammates on top of each other, but a simple salute.
Cheeky? Cocky? Complacent? No. It was only the second try, but he, like the rest of us, knew what was about to come.
Rugby league has a way with romance, but machines have no time for sentiment. And so it goes on for the Eels, who will flip the calendar in a few months and write down another number. Thirty-seven. The 1980s never looked so good, and never so far away.
It would have been a travesty if the Panthers, the NRL’s modern-day dynasty, finished three straight grand final appearances with just one premiership.
At the end of one of the great grand final performances, Ivan Cleary’s side produced their piece de resistance, a 28-12 grand final mauling of western Sydney rivals Parramatta at Accor Stadium on Sunday night.
Like the AFL decider, it was over almost as soon as it began. The Eels needed late tries from Clint Gutherson and Jake Arthur in the last four minutes to avoid being just the second team since 1978 to be held scoreless in a grand final.
Brian To’o celebrates a try during Penrith’s grand final rout of Parramatta.Credit:Getty
In the coach’s son, Nathan, the Panthers have the ultimate artist, who threw no-look passes, kicked with his non-preferred left foot and mugged opponents of the ball when not with it. He might not have even been the best player on the field, an honour fought for by To’o and Dylan Edwards.
The only Parramatta fans who would have shouted themselves hoarse were screeching for Jimmy Barnes rather than Junior Paulo. Their team was not in the same class as their rivals down the road, no matter how hard they worked.
Jarome Luai was right: daddy lives in the far west.
Inescapably, this felt like a real NRL grand final day at a Sydney stadium which won’t see funding any time soon.
The NRL may have postured and puffed its chests out about taking it back to Brisbane, but what a disaster that would have been given both grand finalists are from just up the road.
Sadly, it followed a familiar script to the AFL season climax on September 24.
There has been a romance about the grand final in the past decade-and-a-bit, and it felt like the final domino, swaying on the banks of the Parramatta River, had the chance to fall. The Dragons had Wayne, South Sydney the Goanna, the Cowboys JT, Harold Holt’s porch light was turned off in the Shire.
The Eels, surely?
They might be a team desperately trying to escape their past, but on a night a generation of fans had waited for, there were reminders of the ghosts everywhere.
If not for Waqa Blake’s surety of hand, slapping a ball dead from the grasp of Viliame Kikau with the line begging, it would have been the same 24-0 half-time score of the 2001 grand final heartbreak against the Knights.
It was bad enough anyway.
The Panthers, too, were being chased by history.
Dylan Edwards channelled Scott Sattler’s remarkable 2003 cover tackle on Todd Byrne, racing across to cut down Bailey Simonsson by his bootlaces and drag him over the sideline. The Eels centre was helped up the tunnel because of a serious shoulder problem, and Panthers coach Ivan Cleary showed rare emotion in the coaching box, punching the air in delight.
After three years of grand finals being in the balance until the last minute, this was as good as over after the first.
That might be harsh on the Eels, who traded punches with their rivals for the opening 10 minutes, and even found time for a trick shot when Dylan Brown kicked downfield for his speedy halves partner Mitchell Moses on the second tackle.
But once the hand of Crichton, the man who pick-pocketed Cody Walker to score Penrith’s last and title-sealing try last year, scored this year’s first, there was an air of inevitability wafting through Sydney Olympic Park.
Scott Sorensen tries to burrow his way over for the Panthers.Credit:Getty
The only surprise was when he steamed onto an inside ball from Edwards, and not Nathan Cleary. The fullback spoke of needing to add creativity to his game during the grand final preparations. He’s so good at the moment, it seems he found it in a week.
To’o scored in the corner after a slick left-side shift, and by the end of the next set, Gutherson was so desperate to try something, anything, to turn the tide, he resorted to belting a short dropout over the sideline on the full. Cleary opted for two points and death by a thousand kicks.
His next contribution was with a left-foot grubber, which found the unlikely Scott Sorensen touching down for an 18-0 half-time cushion.
It got worse. To’o got his second after the break, and his wing partner, Charlie Staines, his first. You could see it coming from a mile away.
So Brian, we salute you and your Panthers.
PENRITH PANTHERS 28 (Brian To’o 2, Stephen Crichton, Scott Sorensen, Charlie Staines tries; Nathan Cleary 4 goals) defeated PARRAMATTA EELS 12 (Clint Gutherson, Jake Arthur tries; Mitchell Moses 2 goals) at Accor Stadium. Referee: Ashley Klein. Crowd: 82,415.
