I must say I thought the Courier Mail Bronco headline was a little understated. They could have had ‘We Told You So’ or any number of Walsh lines e.g. ‘Walsh Wizardry’, ‘Waltzing Walsh’ or even ‘Walsh’s World’! But no, it was all a little understated. As I have said, the Courier has stayed solid with the Broncos all season (they are the owner, of course) and by winning both the men’s and women’s grand finals they can celebrate a significant achievement.
Grand Final Tour Report
Our Grand Final Tour started with the touring party making their way to the central NSW metropolis of Bimbi, population 11. I chose to fly from the Gold Coast to Canberra where the Mahjong Hand (the Big Robert, formerly known as Tiny) picked us up. We had a quick afternoon tea in Canberra at my sister’s place before driving to Bimbi and stopping at pubs in Boorowa, Young and Bribbaree and top spots they were with Rugby League the main topic of discussion.
Thursday in Bimbi was a day to remember. We had a large piece of pork roasted over coals for about 6 hours under the careful watch of the Crabman. Think great crackling and you are getting close to what we had. The Mahjong Hand invited a number of his relations around and we sat and talked rugby league, sheep and canola farming, the weather, the price of lambs, the cost of star pickets and barbed wire. Before this day I thought fencing was what the Count of Monte Christo did! For large chunks of the day the Prospector, Crabman and I got a real education on what it is like to live in the bush. By the way, there was no shortage of the amber ales either.
Come Friday and we were ready for our trip to Sydney but, as is his way, the Mahjong Hand had a few errands to run. We were in our tour jerseys (see photo) and by the time we finally got on the road it was about 1.00 pm. We had a pie for lunch at West Wyalong whilst completing the errand run so we were fed. The Crabman and I decided that we would have a few road trip drinks to make sure that we could discuss the game fully but a Sydney traffic incident blocking the highway slowed the drinking down and our arrival into Bondi Junction to about 9.00 pm. A long day.
Saturday saw our traditional pre-Grand Final warm-up at Randwick where we took in the Epsom while situated high up in the Members. We had a good afternoon on everything except the punt where I don’t think a single one of us had a decent win although the Crabman was keeping his wins close to his chest. Mahjong Hand had to throw his considerable size around to a couple of youngsters who continued to stand in his way. We went to the Doncaster Hotel (I had my only win of the day over the taxi driver on Saturday night) where the Mahjong Hand wanted to watch the rugby union. I met my old Bundaberg mate Guido and we discussed rugby league and the game on Sunday. Guido was adamant that Walsh would be the difference between the two teams and that the Broncos would run away with the match. How prophetic that was! Sunday, of course, was all set and as is my way I like to be at the game early and watch all three games. The Crabman and I jumped on a train at Bondi Junction and before we knew it we were watching the first of three games.
Touring Team in Bimbi preparing for the Emerald City!
Back Row L-R: The Prospector, The Crabman, The Prop
Front Row: Mahjong Hand (Tiny)
The Grand Final
The first match saw the Warriors taking on the Burleigh Bears in the National Championship. Unfortunately for Burleigh, they were affected by a few injuries from the previous week, including their half-back Guy Hamilton who was injured in the Grand Final and took the field clearly troubled by his left ankle. It also showed the difference between the Auckland side, which is basically a full Warriors Reserve Grade team training professionally, against a team of semi-professionals. However, Burleigh had their chances but were unable to capitalise on those, especially when the score was 12-nil. Burleigh bombed a try and the Warriors turned straight around and the score was 24-nil within about 3 minutes. Former Gold Coast junior player Tannah Boyd was the outstanding player on the field and one wonders just whether he can maybe now go on to crack a first grade spot somewhere. The way I see it, Burleigh are the national champions because the New Zealand team is from a different country! Anyway, that’s how I would justify it!
The women’s final had the Broncos up against the Roosters. It was a tight game with the Broncos getting out to a half time lead of 12-nil. The quality was quiet was high and Tamika Upton certainly stood out for the Broncos. The Roosters fought back to lead 18 -12 before half-time but the Broncos scored 2 more in the second half to win the match.
That brings us to the main game, and what a game it was! The Broncos scored a very easy try early in the match with Mariner having no trouble getting outside his man off a magnificent Walsh pass. However, the Storm retaliated and scored three quick tries to lead 16-6 and it looked at this point that the Broncos may be in trouble. The talismatic Walsh, however, took the game into his own hands and scored a magnificent individual try to put the Broncos back in the game. Again though, Hughes scored three minutes later with a soft try and it looked like Melbourne were just going to be too good with the half time score of 22 points to 12.
It looked like an uphill battle for the Broncos in the second half but the addition of Mam into five-eight and Hunt into hooker certainly made a big difference, just as it had last week. Shibasaki scored a try in the 45th minute to bring the scores closer together again, and that was followed by tries to Mariner and a second to Shibasaki, giving Broncos the lead with about 20 to go. Reynolds had been replaced with an injury and the game went from end to end. Walsh, having set up the earlier tries, now pulled off two fantastic tackles, both on Papenhuyzen, one on the first tackle when everyone in the ground expected him to score and the other with about a minute and a half to go when he stopped Papenhuyzen in his tracks when he looked surer to score. Walsh may be rocks and diamonds but he was all Cullinan Diamonds on Sunday and he was deservedly named the Clive Churchill Medal winner.
For Melbourne, the loss of Howarth early deeply affected their cause as his big body was missed and forced doubts into Coates’ head around defence. Much as I am a fan of Wishart, he was given a difficult hand. The much vaunted Melbourne spine just didn’t seem to click in the second half when the game was in the balance.
We exited from the ground as quick as we could and went straight back to East Leagues Club where, in a very proud moment, the Crabman was made a life member of the club he has supported since he was a young boy by shelling out the $65. We acknowledged with congratulations for the Crabman and forced him to shout us a drink in his honour!
It was a tremendous win by the Broncos and a tremendous final series as we’ve all read about their three comebacks from behind in the final series. It was also a vindication for Coach Maguire who held the line and stood firm when his side dropped out of the 8, but ultimately he reaped the rewards. You can only say congratulations to the Brisbane Broncos!
Top Eight (Winner)
Broncos
Fact / Stat for the day
Grand Finals (head to head) – Broncos 2 Melbourne 0
You gotta love footy!
To read our library of rugby league stories click HERE.
To return to our Footy Almanac home page click HERE.
To see the full 2025 season draw for the NRL click HERE.
To see the full 2025 season draw for the NRLW click HERE.
To see the details for State of Origin in 2025 click HERE.
Our writers are independent contributors. The opinions expressed in their articles are their own. They are not the views, nor do they reflect the views, of Malarkey Publications.
Do you enjoy the Almanac concept?
And want to ensure it continues in its current form, and better? To help things keep ticking over please consider making your own contribution.
Become an Almanac (annual) member – CLICK HERE.
Prop, some of your travel geography bemuses me (Bimbi to Bondi via West Wyalong?) but the entourage certainly saw a bit of the countryside. I’ve asked The Prospector to launch an off-season inquiry into the varying classes of tickets for the chaps on big day! Hearings to commence soon.
I am glad you spared the readers the bizarre events of the trip home on Monday. Then again, how could you do justice to them in print. All i will say, by 4pm i would have been happy to try some of the sheep sedative that we made the trek to West Wyalong to collect on Friday to see if it worked on humans.
Long trip Prop but from what I know of you it had all the right ingredients for a GF trip. Great read as usual look forward to 2026 and I think you need to check the SaNav nex trip it seemed to take you the long way around.
Thanks for the musings for the season Ox. One thing can be said about you is that you don’t lack options.
As you well know Bam Bam options aplenty is a fine strategy- we needed more than a sat nav when travelling with the Mahjong Hand- although the west Wyalong pie was good although there were no peas and the matchstick with Fresh cream was excellent- just what a person who ate his body weight in potatoes in Ireland needed!
Other than sheep sedatives we learned – napthylene poisoning is real- the 1981 Kingswood has a 308, local farm suppliers are cheaper than Bunnings – 10 sheep equals 1 steer – iron bark has great embers for pork crackling- (Bimbi Bob had every tool ever made except an axe so hard to chop iron bark!
Great outcome,great trip,great yarn.
did you make it back?
Cheers ? ?
Cmon you blokes. I spoke to Tiny on Tuesday and he was exhausted from looking after you fellas. Come to think about it, he didn’t mention the trailer, fridge, detours, food break at Wyong Westfields. I think it’s going to be a long week for the big guy. Great yarn Matt.
Sounds like a great trip.
Thank you Fridge – home safe and sound and CL – tiny could have authored around the world in 80 hours given his performance bit as always plenty of laughs!