The Greatest Grand Final Performance Ever: Reece Walsh’s performance in the Grand Final was the finest individual performance in Grand Final history, a match-winning showing that will live on through the ages.
Whether it was with ball in hand or in defence, Walsh continued to impact the match from the opening minutes until the full-time siren.
He finished with a try, three try assists and 14 tackle breaks but that hardly tells the full story.
His try was Steve Jackson in style as he just powered through the Storm, his passing was as pin point as you could ever hope to see, his cover defence ran down Ryan Papenhuyzen with what looked a certain try while his tackle on his fullback opposite in the final minute is one of the great Grand Final tackles.
Walsh has been a polarising character, known for being rocks or diamonds.
At few stages this year though did it look like he would have the composure to lead the Broncos to a premiership.
He did though, stepping up through the fire of finals football and teammate injuries to emerge as one of the game’s true stars.
Time For The Humble Pie: This year I have done little else but lay the Broncos.
They were a great bet to miss the Top 8, they were unders in betting, they were overrated, lacked depth, the coach was a bad fit, the assistants were horrible, the club was inherently off, the stars lacked the consistency and there seemed to be a major attitude problem.
Clearly I was wrong … very wrong.
Michael Maguire was widely criticised for his old school methods and after the Tigers debacle he did not seem a good fit at the Broncos.
Wrong!
He was the perfect fit as he ended another long drought, bringing in old school methods while connecting to a young core.
He melded some steady veterans in with a lairy style and instilled belief that no deficit could not be overcome.
Michael Maguire now sits in an elite crew as a coach who has led two clubs to premierships.
While he drinks champagne and bathes in the glory, I’ll be eating humble pie trying to figure out how I could have gotten it so very wrong.
You Sleep With Rugby Types, You Wake Up With Chlamydia: While Reece Walsh had a true game for the ages, Storm winger Will Warbrick had a performance that will last equally as long in popular memory.
Warbrick put himself in the discussion with Neville Glover for the worst ever Grand Final showing, a performance that was reminiscent of Paul Carige’s infamous 1998 Preliminary Final.
Warbrick could not catch the ball, was consistently out of position, he showed no urgency.
At the end of the day, when you bring in union types you have to accept the risks that come with signing someone who played a soft, non-athletic sport.
Craig Bellamy learned that the hard way, it will be a tough offseason of introspection for Bellamy, who has now lost two straight deciders.
He has a declining five-eighth who really was poor in the decider, his entire three-quarter line was poor, Jack Howarth clearly should not have played, while Xavier Coates is a liability when not getting a clean jump.
As has been the case all year, his middles with the exception of Josh King were poor.
The Storm are close but it does not feel like they are getting any closer.
What the NRL Must Do To Make The Great Game Even Greater: Rugby League is without question the greatest of all games. The NRL though still has plenty of room for improvement. Here are the 12 things the NRL need to fix and preferably this offseason.
- Ban Defectors For Life
Players who defect to another code should be banned for life. It should have happened to Sonny Bill Williams in 2008 and should happen to anyone who betrays Rugby League. Anyone has the right to go and earn where they want. There should be strong and severe consequences for those that hurt the game though.
- Dally M Medal Night Overhaul
Dally M Medal night has become an embarrassment, a cluster that has too much happening in too short a period of time. The refusal to read out all votes is so disrespectful, leading to the embarrassing situation this year where only one lot of votes from the final four rounds was read. Players and coaches don’t attend. Nobody has any idea what is going on. These are prestigious awards. The NRL needs to copy the Brownlow and run the Dally M like that while naming the teams of the year at a different ceremony.
- Return To Afternoon Grand Finals
This might be the one issue that has universal support in Rugby League. Even Nine seems to be on board now given the television ratings for afternoon games over the last few seasons.
- Betting on the Dally Ms, Player Props, NSW Cup and State Championship
Things you can bet on: the results of pre-recorded television shows, the first NFL coach to be fired, extraordinarily low levels of soccer and tennis. Things you can’t bet on: Rugby League’s most prestigious individual award, a match on Grand Final day, the second best Rugby League competition in the world or on individual props that drive SGMs.
- Separate Refereeing and Bunker Officiating
There are two key characteristics needed to be an on-field referee: an understanding of the rules and a high level of fitness. The latter clearly is not needed for The Bunker. Ruling out fat people, old people, or anyone else… it it stupid and wasteful and there is clearly not enough talent in The Bunker for same. Separating the two rules would also eliminate the culture of pedantry and stubbornness we see in the refereeing ranks.
- Assert Quality Control Measures With Announcing and Production
The NFL signs off on all the announcers for the networks as part of its television right deals. The NBA has a huge influence on who calls its games – see the removal of Jeff Van Gundy from ESPN. The NRL cannot allow both Nine and Fox NRL to run with the analysts they do. Andrew Johns is one of the great players but the fact he does not seem to understand how simple rules work is disheartening. Brad Fittler has run into his problems. Steve Roach does zero preparation and sounds like a parody of himself. The production reflects on the game and the NRL needs to realise this.
- A Balanced Draw
The NRL is too big to expect every team to play every team twice in a year. We can expect a civilised draw though where everybody play everybody before playing a team a second time. The draw in recent years has been laughable. The NRL need to stop beng so lazy with it.
- Live Access To Bunker Communications
The Bunker is operating akin to a shadow government, essentially refereeing from afar with zero accountability. A light needs to be shone and that should be the ability of the public to listen in real time to all communications within The Bunker.
- Significantly Improving Publicly Accessible Stats
No sport has a worse statistical offering than the NRL. It is embarrassing what is provided and how it is provided on the NRL website. In an era of gambling and Supercoach and a generation that views sport increasingly through numbers, the NRL looks boorish and antiquated.
- Fostering the International Game
The game finally has a set post-season calendar but it is clear the NRL pay absolutely zero respect to the international game. Players are allowed to pull out. Eligibility remains an on-going joke.
- Eliminating Suburban Grounds From Finals Matches
Shark Park, Kogarah, Brookvale et all cannot be allowed to host finals games – ever. It is great that the NRL still uses suburban grounds but it makes the NRL look bush league to host finals games at such dilapidated, small venues.
- Buy Super League
One of the key differentiators the NRL has in its war with the AFL is that the game is played elsewhere – Rugby League is not a provincial oddity like Australian Rules. That means keeping Super League strong. Given the clowns in charge of the Super League now, the NRL need to take charge of the Northern Hemisphere competition.
Atkins Goes To Water: Grant Atkins is now a Grand Final referee and if there is any justice in the world he will join the likes of Edie Ward, Paul Simpkins and Keith Holman as officials who are one-and-done in big games.
Take away some of the questionable calls from his assessment – he should be done because of his complete lack of bottle in sending eventual Clive Churchill Medal winner Reece Walsh to the sin bin for a deliberate shoulder charge to the face of Ryan Papenhuyzen.
Walsh could easily have been sent off and at the very least he deserved 10 minutes.
That kind of weakness has no place in the Grand Final.
Belinda Sharpe and Chris Butler Cost The Roosters A Premiership: There have been few decisions in Grand Final history more outrageous or more costly than the completely absurd decision to award Mele Hufunga a try that ultimately gave the Broncos the lead and the premiership.
It should never have been awarded.
Belinda Sharpe had a terrible angle and simply guessed and that guess was then used as justification by Chris Butler, who at no point saw the ball go anywhere near the turf.
Let It Go Gordie: NRL360 was once must-watch television but is now essentially unwatchable and one of the primary reasons for that is host Gorden Tallis.
Tallis lost any sense of credibility with his continued blind defence (and petulant, childish way of showing that support) of mate Kevin Walters.
Clearly unable to read the room, Tallis has continued like the last Japanese soldiers in the Filipino bush fighting a war that ended 30 years ago.
On Monday he gave Walters the credit for the premiership, not Michael Maguire and made the ridiculous claim that Walters should get a premiership ring.
Fun Fact #1: Toulouse beat York in the Championship final 10-8 on the back of Jake Shorrocks kicking five penalty goals while York scored two tries.
Fun Fact #2: Tamika Upton has played seven seasons of NRLW. She has won five premierships.
Fun Fact #3: The first player in alphabetical order in premiership history is Leo Aberton, who played three games for Balmain and Glebe in the centres in 1925 and 1926. This is his 100th year as the first premiership player in alphabetical order.
Rumour Mill: A number of players have been linked to some new union competition with Jye Gray, Zac Lomax, Ryan Papenhuyzen and Will Kennedy all believed to have been offered big money to join. Phil Gould was reportedly hospitalised last week with a heart concern.
Moronic Coaching Decision of the Week: Kevin Walters should be stood down immediately for picking Mark Nawaqanitawase in his 23-man Kangaroo team. Nawaqanitawase has already declared that he will be returning to rugby union for their tinpot world championship. It does nothing but diminish the Australian jersey by selecting a known union defector.
The Coaching Crosshairs: There is rightly plenty of positive talk about Willie Peters coming out of the UK with the former Rabbitohs half clearly the best available coach after guiding Hull KR to the Super League Grand Final after winning the Challenge Cup earlier in the season.
One name that should not be forgotten though is his Grand Final counterpart Matty Peet, who has led Wigan for four seasons.
He has a remarkable 77.34% win rate, winning two championships and two Challenge Cups while he is favoured to win a third Super League title.
NRL clubs who will be looking for a coach next year – Manly, North Queensland, Wests Tigers – should be looking closely at Peet.
Watch It: Hot on the heels of Brisbane’s latest premiership triumph, we go back to the club’s first ever game where the likes of Lewis, Langer, Miles, Matterson, Dowling, Conescu and Niebling hosted a Manly team led by Paul Vautin at Lang Park.
Watch the highlights of that first game from 1988 here.