In news just to hand, the Melbourne Storm and Brisbane Broncos will face off in the 2025 NRL Grand Final.
Time to dissect and analyse this shocking development in your weekly talking points.
Broncos buck the Panthers
What about that from Brisbane. They were done and cooked at 14-0. No one comes back to beat Penrith from there, much less in a final – no one.
For all the talk about Brisbane’s high potency attack, for Reece Walsh, Ezra Mam and Adam Reynolds, they didn’t fire many shots. For a lot of a beautiful Sunday arvo, they weren’t allowed to.
Much like the qualifying final win in Canberra, Brisbane were all over the shop for a good long while. But they kept at it as the Panthers looked to run their traditional finals ‘closeout grind’ over them. The scrapped a try to the fantastic Kotoni Staggs, got another streaky one from Xavier Willison and then it was on – Penrith were going backwards, Brisbane were pushing incredibly hard.
The 16-14 final came from an absorbing, enthralling last half hour. Payne Haas played the whole 80 minutes and was immense, Jordan Riki played 80 too – keep that in mind next week with this short turnaround.
The first half was anything but insightful from Brisbane though. They looked unbalanced with Reynolds and Mam back. Ben Hunt had to go to hooker after weeks running the show at halfback, Billy Walters and his reliability were gone, Reynolds had to get up to finals intensity in his first game back in six weeks. It also meant Walsh didn’t get as much ball as usual.
Brisbane’s ability to keep on task and get the result is incredible. The mental fortitude it takes in the face of such a challenge.
A word for the vanquished. It is incredible to watch the Panthers when they’re switched to ‘finals mode’. The singular focus, the attention to detail in defence, the unrelenting attack. They got caught on Sunday but after five years there’s no reason why they can’t still be challenging for titles. Ivan Cleary has set his systems in stone and not many other clubs can do anything to beat them.
Storm stroll past the Sharks
A Cronulla try on the siren made the final score 22-14 which may seem relatively close in the washup, but after about 15 minutes on Friday night a Storm victory looked all but assured as they controlled the ball and their opponents.
Melbourne halfback Jahrome Hughes might have come back early from a broken arm, but the Sharks seemed to run everywhere he wasn’t and couldn’t make him pay with their vaunted defence either – Hughes broke eight tackles on his way to over 100 run metres, and only needed to make nine tackles of his own.
Stefano Utoikomanu was a powerhouse. He has seriously grown as a player this year. For Cronulla Jesse Ramien was OK, Addin Fonua-Blake not bad either. But their buddies in the forwards were kept too quiet for it to mean anything or for their halves to get any control.
A note – If you can find it, it’s worth having a listen to Storm winger Will Warbrick post game on Triple M. It’s a raw, emotional interview from a man who thought he was going to be lost to the NRL after bad concussion issues.
Worst of the weekend
– The bizarre Friday/Sunday scheduling which has given Melbourne a massive preparation advantage over Brisbane. For years, the NRL has played a preliminary final on the night of the AFL GF. It’s even happened in Melbourne, with no impacts on crowd or ratings. After all the tough talk and lame jokes Peter V’landys makes about the AFL, when it came to the crunch he and the NRL bottled it and clearly compromised the most important game of the year … Not that they care about what us fans think.
– Paul Alamoti pretty clearly dropped the ball scoring Penrith’s first try on Sunday but the bunker didn’t think it was worth a second look. Neither was Deine Mariner’s match-tying score for Brisbane in the 75th minute, containing more than a hint of double movement. Sloppy work from the officials.
– Keyboard warrior cowards piling onto Nicho Hynes. Silent last week when he played well, once again these heroes were back in force to put Cronulla’s loss firmly on the shoulders of their halfback behind a well beaten forward pack. It’s really easy to throw bombs from the keyboard. Want to know what’s incredibly hard and worth appreciating? Being halfback of a team that reaches a preliminary final.
– Liam Martin wasn’t sin-binned for being third man in with a swinging arm? Ezra Mam wasn’t binned for starting the ruckus? Canberra fans raise an eyebrow or two.
– Your talking points love to bash Ashley Klein as much as anyone but we did warn you all what would happen if he got a game this week. Klein’s performance in Melbourne has been savaged up and down BUT what has been missing is anyone pointing out what decisions he actually got wrong. You know what you’re getting when he has the whistle – a ref show for 80 minutes. If that’s what the NRL wants in their showpiece game, good luck to them.
– The Dally M awards finalists have been announced, with Ivan Cleary not even nominated for coach of the year. It’s Cameron Ciraldo, Michael Maguire and Ricky Stuart. Cleary rebuilt the Panthers who went from literally the bottom of the ladder to five minutes from a GF. It’s a ridiculous decision. Also ridiculous is no Joseph Tapine in the prop of the year or captain of the year categories. Don’t get me started on that.
Best of the weekend
- Give Peter Psaltis the grand final commentary role. He’s Nine’s best caller by the length of a very long straight.
- We were all worried about Jahrome Hughes’ arm, but some fella called Cam Munster obliterated Cronulla. A fantastic game from one of the NRL’s best.
- Rugby league fans showed up in force – 29,233 in Melbourne meaning a bum in every seat at the bubble dome, then 52,491 in Brisbane with brought an incredible atmosphere.
- Sharks centre KL Iro. He’s unreal. Arguably his team’s best in these last two finals after returning from a bad pectoral injury (that’s your chest muscle) which might well have ended his season after round 14. If he can stay fit there’s much more potency for Cronulla in 2026.
- Stefano Utoikomanu. See above. A colossus.
Random thoughts from prelim weekend
– All the excitement about a Sunday daytime prelim was somewhat tempered by the Lang Park stadium, with huge sun patches and glare anytime the ball went skywards for the first 50 or so minutes. It’ll rate heaps because it was a final but combined with a terrible jersey clash, it wasn’t the greatest viewing experience.
– Speaking of predictable grand final participants, the NRLW will see Brisbane and the Roosters go at it in the least surprising outcome of the year. The only shock was that the Roosters barely scraped past a gallant Cronulla 17-16 in their prelim. Brisbane smacked Newcastle 30-6.
– Melbourne are your 2025 Jersey Flegg (under 21s) champions, beating Penrith 38-18. Isn’t it heartening to see Melbourne and Penrith’s juniors doing well?
– Last week we had a random thought the AFL was smoking the NRL during the finals series in the TV ratings. This may have been premature, apologies. Let me go through my data and come back properly next week.
What did you make of the preliminaries, Roarers?
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