NRL round 27: Crash Craddock on Broncos vs Storm and the impact on premiership race, finals

It’s going to be like watching The Phantom of the Opera without The Phantom. ROBERT CRADDOCK analyses the bizarre last-round clash between the Broncos and Storm.

The Broncos and Storm have rested a combined 21 players.

Welcome to rugby league’s version of The Biggest Loser … the weirdest game of the year where you win if you lose and lose if you win.

The Melbourne Storm versus Brisbane on Thursday night – with a staggering 21 players missing – will feel much like The Phantom of The Opera without the Phantom yet will still be strangely compelling viewing.

The temptation is to say this match demeans the competition but there’s something bizarrely mesmerising about a sporting contest which means everything and nothing.

The Storm and the Broncos, two clubs with a well known obsession with each other, have turned a game of rugby league into a poker match where po-faced coaches Craig Bellamy and Kevin Walters are refusing to show their hands.

Jordan Riki scuffles with Bronson Garlick when the Storm and Broncos clashed earlier this season. Picture: Robert Cianflone/Getty Images.

Through absolutely no fault of their own, the two clubs will enter a game where the benefits of losing probably outweigh those of winning.

C’mon Broncos fans. Be honest. Who would you rather play at Suncorp Stadium in week one of the finals? A Melbourne Storm outfit with all their stars back who have beaten you 13 times in a row or the Warriors?

If your answer is the Warriors your chance is gone if you beat the Storm on Thursday night.

And what about you Melbourne? Would you rather saddle up in the finals against a Broncos side who haven’t beaten you at full strength in Brisbane since Kevin Rudd was Prime Minister or perhaps go to Penrith and take on perhaps the greatest team of our generation?

If your answer is the Broncos then your fate is sealed if you lose — repeat lose — to the Broncos.

Thomas Flegler will captain the Broncos on Thursday. Picture: Getty Images

The amount of young kids playing for their futures ensure both teams will be going flat out but there is no doubt this game has a very odd flavour.

Some would say the resting of players cheapens the competition but the bat-poo crazy nature of this contest makes it fascinating viewing.

It’s a tipsters nightmare (Brisbane are slight favourites) but we do have one tip – there will be plenty of tries scored.

Our crystal ball sees one of those back and forth “we-score, you-score’’ contests.

Anyone for a 32-30 scoreline?

The on-field interviews after the game with the winning captain are going to be interesting.

If it’s the Broncos acting skipper Tom Flegler, try this one: “Tom, that was just an inspiring win by a team packed with up and coming players and you now earn the right to play a full strength Storm who have won 23 of the last 26 games against you … you must be so excited by that?’’

Just when you think rugby league’s supply of quirky storylines is exhausted it throws up this, a contest for the Who Cares Cup in a game in which two teams of back-up players are sent out to shape their clubs seasons in a match which is both vital and pointless.

What a game.