NRL Grand Final Review – Prop in the Canefield: You gotta love footy finals!

 

 

You gotta love footy! Grand Final Wrap

Well, our long-awaited Grand Final tour named the TWIT (The Where Is Tommy) Tour started on the Friday when we left the Gold Coast. The Crabman, The Prospector and I began our early discussions as we drove to the Ipswich Brothers Leagues Club where our host Bernie had organised the club lunch special – rib with prawn toppers for us. The Ipswich Leagues Club is certainly a magnificent leagues club, the food was as good as Bernie had suggested and it was a great way to start a four-day campaign. We washed it down with a Powers which, of course, stirred memories of how good the Broncos once were!

 

Prop, The Crabman and The Prospector at Ipswich Brothers

 

The Prospector and The Crabman both thought that Melbourne would be a good show, but I continued to argue that I just didn’t think Melbourne would have the strength in the forwards to be able to get play down the money end of the field. After lunch we headed up the range to Toowoomba and arrived at our destination for Friday and Saturday, the Federal Hotel. We made our way to the bar and awaited the arrival of Tiny as he had to work that day. The $12.50 Footy Jug was our choice as we got serious about Moonee Valley.  Friends of ours, Gus and his wife Dolph, joined us as we went back to the room for the official presentation of the TWIT gear and had our entree of fresh Gold Coast prawns and oysters.

 The TWIT’s were happy with Struddys gear but weren’t so sure of the TWIT moniker I had given them. I said it would grow on them! Back to the dining room for dinner and rugby league was again a high point of discussion. Previous tours, games, teams and players along with the racing at Money Valley and the tucker at the Federal was very good. Tiny put in a monster performance and we were a little worried as to how he would back up!

 

Tiny presents The Crabman with his TWIT kit

 

On Saturday, we kitted up in our TWIT dress shirts and prepared for a long day of punting. The Epsom in Sydney, the traditional race day before the Sydney Grand Final, and the Turnbull at Flemington were the early goals followed by a night at the Toowoomba races. 12.30pm start and the concern over Tiny was reinforced when he laboured during the day. He blamed rum and the amount he consumed underlined why he was right! We didn’t make it to Toowoomba because of the delays at Flemington, which was a weak excuse, however we were well established, and we had all had a good day on the punt and, barring Tiny, were all travelling well so we decided to change the plan.  The game was getting closer and we had a bit of a kitty to invest in the final multiples to see if we could win a bit more.  I was still convinced that Penrith would be too good. After the last at Toowoomba, the day was gone.

 

Dress uniform at he Federal Hotel

 

On Sunday we made our way to the Dalby Diehards Leagues club where we took in the North Devils’ match against the Newtown Jets and lunch. Once again, the Dalby Leagues club $12.99 steak is a beauty. I must say it was a highly entertaining game and a high-quality match to boot. It was great to see the Devils running out the winners of that match. Former Qld schoolboy coach Dave Elliot deserves to be congratulated for the way in which his team played. They were too good for Newtown in a game that was contested right until the final siren. Keeley, the back rower from Norths and a Dolphins forward, certainly looked good and his second try wrapped the game up. The Gosford product looks like a forward going forward. It was also great for Norths to remove the memory of their poor performance in that same match two years ago, so all credit to the Devils for winning that title. Interestingly, Qld hasn’t won the title since the Ipswich Jets side coached by the Walker brothers back in 2015. Well done to Dave Elliot and the Devils.

We then moved on to Bell where we watched the women’s final from the Public Bar of the Bell Hotel, resplendent in our TWIT footy kit. The Roosters seemingly had a winning margin at half-time before a complete turnaround. The Roosters gave up a 24-point lead and, whilst never being headed, just won 32-28 at full time. Cronulla came back very strong on the back of a lot of possession but the Roosters were able to hang on.

 

Team photo at the Bell Hotel

 

We left Bell to head to a little country pub at Kaimkillenbun  where 4 blokes well past making the advantage line turning up in their footy gear engaged the small crowd. One of the locals even wanted to swap shirts with me! Whilst the boys thought it would be alright for her, they weren’t so sure about me taking my shirt off in the public bar! Great country hospitality.

Back to Tiny’s place and we were ready for the big game. Our host was still struggling. The Prospector – as is his way with words – said that ‘Tiny spat the bit out after Friday night, never travelled well, went backwards and finished a conspicuous last’.

The game started at a frenetic pace and both sides looked in great order. I don’t think it will go down as the greatest Grand Final, but it certainly was a cracking good game. From the opening minute, both sides went at each other as hard as they could and, in fact, for the first 22 minutes there was barely a break in play until Grant scored a good individual try to give the Storm hope.

But Penrith, however, were winning the field position battle. They were consistently starting their sets at the 25-to-30-metre mark, whilst Melbourne was starting from the 5-metre mark.  4 minutes later, Turuva scored and to me it seemed too easy.  Right on half-time, Martin scored a try after a switch from Luai to Cleary who drew and passed for Martin, and this was a big blow to the Storm on the stroke of half-time.  Hughes was especially quiet as the Penrith defence just seemed to be swarming on him, giving him no time to play the way he’s played over the season.

The big guns of Penrith all showed up. I thought Yeo was outstanding, Cleary outstanding and, of course, Martin had a very good game. Luai was also dangerous and must be worried about what next season will be like for him. They didn’t make mistakes and they were able to pin Melbourne down. But take nothing away from Melbourne. They were very good but they just couldn’t get over that advantage line often enough or early enough. Again, the try just before half-time by Martin really was a crunch moment in the match. The second half was incredibly tight with only the Alimoti try off a Martin steal but to me it always felt like Penrith had the lead and they were able to hold onto it. It is a credit to the Penrith side to be able to win 4 Premierships, given the players they have lost, and to their coaching staff. In the end they were the better team.

 

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

Crabman’s Claw Final Tally as judged by The Crabman:
Yeo 8; Cleary 7, Grant 4.

 

The Crabman’s Claw Award

 

The Crabman presents his award to Isaah Yeo

 

The Theo: – Best player in the winning team judged by Theo Hansen
Jerome Luai

The Tiny: – Best player in losing team judged by a wounded Tiny
Harry Grant

 

 

We finished the night by watching replays of old BRL and NSWRL GFs on You Tube. Redcliffe – Valleys 1973, Easts – Redcliffe 1977, Norths – Souths 1980, and others and it was great reminiscing going to those games as teenagers. Some terrific footy before we looked at Parramatta from 81- 86. What a side and, sure enough, Ray Price was quoted in the paper on Monday morning saying his Eels would beat Penrith – fascinating stuff.

After our wounded behemoth Tiny provided our breakfast, we hit the road with a stop off to see the Bernborough statue in Oakey (where, I might add, very little was open) before heading to the Ipswich Turf Club at Bundamba for one last sporting activity. A couple of beers and a pie and discussion shifted to 2025. How will Penrith go? What about Luai? Who will the Roosters sign? What about Maguire? And then it was home sweet home!

 

Odd Rugby League facts!

Phil Sigsworth is the only player to be sent off in a Grand Final for a high tackle on Brett Kenny in Canterbury Bankstown’s 4-2 loss to the Eels.

Well, that’s all folks and I hope you have enjoyed reading the Prop in the Canefield in 2024.

You gotta love footy finals time!

 

All photos courtesy of Matt O’Hanlon

 

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