2024 NRL Finals – Week 2: You gotta love footy!

Week 1 Finals

Well, after the first five minutes of the first final Penrith certainly looked on song and serious about their finals series.  To’o scored a try that was just too easy and clearly the Panthers had no hang ups from the previous weeks as they rushed to their second try through Tago in another five minutes.  It may have been a lucky one but, nevertheless, Penrith were all over the Roosters. Sustained pressure led to two more tries through Luai and Garner and, at the 22-minute mark, it was 22-nil and the Roosters were gone, completely starved of the ball. If Cleary had any injuries, he certainly wasn’t showing it on Friday night as he was hitting in both defence and attack. Their first half was almost perfect!

The Watson charge down epitomised Penrith’s defence in the first half when against any other side it surely would’ve ended as a try. However, Penrith were able to hold out for the six tackles and quickly move the ball back forward. The Roosters were out on their feet.

At the start of the second half, just when you thought all was lost, all of a sudden the Roosters fought back into the game through two quick tries in the first seven minutes, the second one from Tedesco maybe putting the Roosters back into the game. I had no problem with the disputed forward pass as Klein was in line and blew the whistle immediately.

The Roosters attempted to make a game of it but, realistically, were never in the hunt. Penrith scored with 10 to go sealing the match and they will certainly look forward to having the week off. Full time 30-10.

Crabman’s Claw Final Points
3 Yeo, 2 Cleary, 1 Edwards

I don’t want to make any comment about the Cronulla v Melbourne game except that Melbourne, like Penrith, were just too good. Cronulla has been such a bad team for me this year that I can take little joy from the loss. If Hynes silences his critics, which I almost hope he will, I will be complaining again next week about my poor Shark record. It’s only fair that I just simply say again that Melbourne were too good with an almost flawless second half.  Full Time 37-10.

Crabman’s Claw Final Points
3 Munster, 2 Grant, 1 Hughes

The first knockout game between Newcastle and the Cowboys went end to end for the first 13 minutes. Just when Newcastle looked like they were going to score, Feldt intercepted in his last home game for the Cowboys, running 95m to score in front of a crowd, baying for Newcastle blood. 10 minutes later Ponga, the man  who Newcastle rely on so much, split the line and passed back inside to his hooker Brailey who scored a great Newcastle try. Then, seven minutes before half-time, Ponga came up with a bomb and Newcastle, through a Gagai contest, saw Sharpe score and the Knights lead 12 points to 4 even though the Cowboys looked like the dominant side.  Newcastle, so reliant on Ponga, were however ahead on the scoreboard.

Early in the second half the Cowboys fought back with a great tip on by Holmes, followed up by a smart Drinkwater ball to Maclean before the Knights scored to lock the scores up at 16-all.  The Cowboys were starting to look good when Ponga made another break and it looked like it was all over, but Gagai dropped the ball. From there on, it was all Cowboys with Cotter scoring what was almost an unbelievable try, with the ball bouncing off his knee before he raced through to ground the ball and give the Cowboys the lead. Dearden scored the final try in an entertaining and important win for the Cowboys. Full Time 28-16.

Crabman’s Claw Final Points
3 Dearden, 2 Ponga, 1 Taumalolo

On Sunday, the Sea Eagles took on Canterbury and the Dogs looked like the better side for most of the match but couldn’t control the game like they would have liked to, especially in the last 15 minutes. The Bulldogs scored first through Kiraz and then Manly replied with a try through Tommy Talau. Kickau then scored a great try for Canterbury, followed by another Canterbury try through Crichton and, at this point, it looked like Manly were at the Party Shop looking for Mad Monday outfits. However, just before half-time, Bullemor scored off a tremendous pass from young Hoppa to give the Manly side some confidence going into half-time.

The second half started much the same way with Canterbury dominating and they scored through Skelton. 22 points to 12 with 25 minutes to go really should have been curtains for Manly, however they scored a great try off a set move from the scrum through DCE before Koula scored one of the great individual tries in a finals game you’d ever see. Garrick kicked a tough, into the wind goal to give Manly the lead with 7 to go. Burton had two attempts at field goals and missed both late in the match.  It was Manly running out winners in an entertaining match. Full Time 24-22.

Crabman’s  Claw Final Points
3 Olakau’atu, 2 Kickau, 1 Turbo (just for staying out there when he clearly wasn’t right)

For those who are interested, the Crabman’s Claw is the Prop for the player of the final series. The winner will get an all-expenses paid trip from the Young’s Bus Terminal in Yeppoon to the Crab Man’s special shack on an estuary deep in the Capricorn Coast. Of course, all the crabs you can eat and beer you can drink included. A most prestigious award.  The player of the Winning Grand Final team will get the Theo Hanlon Prop, and the losing team will get the Tiny Prop. Awards will be determined at our Annual GF Tour where the Prospector, Tiny, the Crabman and myself spend 4 days discussing the 2 great Australian pastimes – Rugby League and Racing!

That leaves us with Penrith and Melbourne in the preliminary finals and the Sharks against the Cowboys on Friday night followed by the Roosters against the Sea Eagles on Saturday.

 

Week 2 Finals

The Friday night game is interesting because the Cronulla side has been a problem for me all year. All the noise this week has been about the half-back Hynes. A lot of pressure has been put on him and I guess, in many ways, how he performs will play a big part in how the Sharks perform in this match. The Cowboys, on the other hand, have had very little to worry about other than how they were going to get to Sydney on time! Interestingly, the Cows’ performances away from home this year have been better than they’ve performed at home, which is unusual for the Cowboys side. I just think they’ll be too strong, their players in the middle are better in my view. Their back row is certainly better, and their halves have been in good form, especially since Clifford came into the team. Dearden has been especially good.  Drinkwater has been playing well and they have speed in the three-quarter line. So, I just can’t see how the Sharks can beat them. But I know that for many of you Sharks supporters, you’ll be happy that I’m tipping the Cowboys. Origin count: Cows 6 Sharks 2.

 

The second game on Saturday evening has the Roosters up against the Sea Eagles. It will be very interesting to see if Radley takes the field having done his shoulder two weeks ago. The Roosters certainly have an edge in the forwards provided JWH doesn’t try to put anyone to sleep. However, the halves, so important in these big games, is where the Sea Eagles have an advantage. The Cherry-Evans/Brooks combination has been good all year and Keary, as good a player as he is, has struggled with Sandon Smith as the half-back as opposed to young Walker. It should be a great game; however, I just think the Roosters will out muscle the Sea Eagles in the middle of the field. I’m sure it’ll be tight and Manly will have to be at their absolute best, including Turbo in much better form than last week, if they are to win.  It should be a cracking game, but I expect the Roosters to go through. Origin count: Roosters 5 Manly 4.

 

So, my selections are Cowboys and Roosters.

 

Winning will be the easy part as both winning teams then have to work out how they beat teams that last week played one half each of almost faultless rugby league.

My Grand Final prediction: Penrith and Melbourne – no surprises there!

Odd Rugby League facts!

My old club Bundaberg Brothers were beaten in the GF on Saturday and were coached by club stalwart and a very good player in his day, Andrew Hamilton. It made me think of the 1989 Past Brothers Premiership A, Reserve and 18s teams where we had 7 sets of brothers. There were 4 Hamiltons (Peter, Chris, Stephen and Andrew) and 2 of O’Hanlons (Matt and Ben), Popes (Mick and Pat), Gilberts (Peter and John), McGraths (Marty and Ian), Rackemanns (Peter and Rooster) and Zorzans (Joe and Steve). On any given day we could field a team where every player was related to someone else on the field. So, I thought about GF winning siblings and feel free to add to the list below.

Some famous sets of Brothers have played in grand finals and the Urbos from Manly will try and keep the dream alive this weekend. I was going to wait but I think they will be knocked out, so it gets an in this week! The 3 Trbojevic brothers (Jake, Tom and Ben) will try and emulate the 3 Burgess brothers (I know there were 4 but only 3 played in the GF for Souths) and play in a grand final. Other famous grand final playing brothers include the Morris brothers, Brett and Josh (St George, Canterbury and Roosters); the Walters brothers, Steve, Kevin and Kerrod (Canberra and Brisbane); the Johns brothers, Andrew and Matthew (Newcastle); the Geyer brothers, Mark and Matt (Penrith and Melbourne); the Wynn brothers, Peter and Graham (St George and Parramatta); the Bugden brothers, Geoff and Mark (Newtown, Parramatta and Canterbury); the Raper brothers, John and Ron (St George and Canterbury); the Provan brothers, Norm and Peter (who famously are the only brothers who have both captained Grand Final winning teams – Norm at St George and Peter in the 1969 Balmain boil over); and of course the famous Hughes (Glenn, Mark and Graham), and Mortimer (Steve, Peter and Chris) clans of the 70/80s Berries.

You gotta love footy finals time!

 

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