Penrith halves arrive, Wade Graham ACL cooks Sharks, Ben Hunt’s statement
WE may have just witnessed the most exhilarating opening week of finals to grace the great game of rugby league. Here’s a look back at the key talking points that came out of each game.
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WE may have just witnessed the most exhilarating opening week of finals ever to grace the great game of rugby league.
Here’s a look back at the key talking points that came out of each game.
STERLING: The one player Sharks couldn’t lose
CHARGED: Latrell set to miss prelim
PLAYER RATINGS: His blueprints were on everything
Storm v Rabbitohs
1) This season might be Melbourne’s masterpiece
The Storm don’t have a halfback, not in the same way every other finals team does anyway. They have Brodie Croft and Jahrome Hughes and Ryley Jacks who can all do some good things when they’re slotted in but it’s now been almost 12 months since Cooper Cronk left and they’re yet to settle on a replacement.
Croft got the job for this one and he had some fine touches, most notably his try assist for Vunivalu, but would it really shock anyone if Craig Bellamy pulled a fast one and named Hughes for the preliminary final in two weeks?
The ability to rotate the most important position on the field is only possible because Billy Slater and Cameron Smith are perhaps the game’s greatest ever players in their position, because the rest of the roster is so settled and composed and, crucially, because Bellamy has built a world where every player, without exception, knows exactly what he is supposed to do at any given moment.
Melbourne are the premiership favorites and have a home prelim for the fourth year in a row. They know exactly what they can do and exactly what it takes to win a title.
No team has gone back to back for 25 years but if Melbourne can do it with this team, in this way, without the player around whom nearly every other side is built it will be a unique achievement in the annals of rugby league and close to the Storm’s finest hour.
2) Souths lost it in the margins
The Rabbitohs were not far away in this one and it’s no use pretending the Storm were leagues ahead, but what would have rattled coach Anthony Seibold the most was the way his side lost it.
South Sydney looked dominant in the middle early with Melbourne unable to control the big Rabbitoh forwards. But outside of the opening quarter such dominance was rare. Melbourne stood up, led by the unbreakable Dale Finucane and newly minted Tongan hitman Felise Kaufusi, and in going after Sam Burgess they proved, no matter what else happens, if you cut off the head the body will die.
Burgess will be better this week and if he’s better the rest of the Rabbitohs forwards will rise with him. South Sydney can still be a premiership team and have much improvement in them – Damien Cook was quiet, Greg Inglis was out of sorts early and the call to leave two fresh men on the bench was a strange one – but the margin for error is now zero, and for a team who just lost in the margins that’s a sobering concept.
Panthers vs Warriors
3) The Penrith halves have arrived
James Maloney and Nathan Cleary are supposed to be one of the best halves combinations in the league.
Cleary has shown uncommon poise since the day he debuted. Maloney is one of the most cunning operators in the league and no moment or stage has ever seemed too big for him.
But if we’re being real, the combination has still been growing all season. That’s to be expected – even for players this talented, combinations take time. Even through Origin, Maloney and Cleary still didn’t quite click together.
They were two talented individuals working for a common goal, but not working together in the way the great halves do, with a rhythm borne from time together.
They’re doing it now. Apart from a 10-minute period in the first half, the Panthers put their foot on New Zealand’s throat and refused to budge an inch. That comes down to a great attitude in the forwards, who played with physicality and aggression throughout and refused to be intimidated, but Maloney and Cleary controlled matters masterfully.
Their kicking games were close to perfect, creating tries, 40/20’s and dropouts until the Warriors were fatigued and swaying on their feet.
For the first time in a long time Penrith looked like the premiership-calibre team they have promised to be. The death-defying escapes were thrilling and entertaining but that’s no way to win a comp. What they did on Saturday is how premierships are made and estimations for their future should be changing.
4) The Warriors had not been here before
New Zealand carried just two players from their last semi-final campaign, Simon Mannering and Shaun Johnson.
Roger Tuivasa-Sheck, Tohu Harris and Issac Luke had played finals footy before, as had several others, but for some finals rookies the moment became a little too large.
Solomone Kata and Ken Maumalo have come so far since the start of the season but some of their worst habits reared up at the most inopportune time. Even the experienced campaigners, like Luke and Blake Green, had off days.
It’s a mistake to say the Warriors wilted under the pressure though – the effort never waned, not for a second – but their execution was off all day. Nowhere was this more apparent than their short drop outs, which have been a weapon all year, misfiring when they needed them most.
The loss of Tuivasa-Sheck was a mighty one – as Stephen Kearney said, it put the club into a stupor from which they never awakened. Johnson has come in for most of the criticism, which isn’t totally fair.
The New Zealand talisman was not near his best but none of the spine were, a mighty shame after the fine season they all enjoyed.
This season was supposed to end in a wooden spoon for the Warriors. They came a long way, but will head home knowing they could have gone further.
Roosters vs Sharks
5) Cronk is here to do these things
There was a set of six in the Roosters’ win over the Sharks that showed exactly why the club was so keen to sign Cooper Cronk. After Latrell Mitchell’s excellent second effort denied Luke Lewis, the Roosters had a 20-metre restart.
They worked the play up the middle of the field until they were 25m out from the Sharks’ line and Cronk calmly potted a field goal to stretch the lead to seven.
The way Cronk moved his forwards off the ball exactly where they needed to be, keeping play up the middle third, making sure they ran exactly where he wanted to run, in the exact fashion he needed, before calmly stepping a charging Lewis and putting over the field goal was masterful.
This was a game that brimmed with tension from the start until Cronk put his kick over. You could feel the energy leave the Sharks and flood into the Roosters.
It was one of many instances of Cronk’s extraordinary control over what the Roosters do. He dictates almost every aspect of the side with his kicking game, his talk, his direction and poise.
James Tedesco had the killer touches, but Cronk readied and aimed. He steered his team through a difficult playoff encounter when the stakes were at their highest, which is exactly what he’s done for years and exactly what he was brought to Bondi to do.
6) Wade Graham’s injury could end Cronulla’s run
Chad Townsend is playing some of the best football of his career and Valentine Holmes runs like a greyhound and Andrew Fifita can do things no other prop can, but Wade Graham is the one who takes Cronulla into the premiership realms.
Creativity has been an issue for the Sharks whenever Graham has been injured this season.
His skills with the ball elevate Cronulla’s left side attack from capable to outstanding and his interplay with Holmes, Matt Moylan and Ricky Leutele is, outside of the brilliance of Holmes, the best weapon in the Shire.
Broncos v Dragons
7) Ben Hunt won’t kneel to his legion of critics
It’s hard to remember an NRL player who has been the subject of more scrutiny than Ben Hunt this season.
Some criticism is justified, some isn’t, but a million-dollar price tag tends to put a target on a player’s head. Just ask Anthony Milford.
Hunt, booed every time fans of his former club saw him on the big screen, put on a composed masterclass to defy his haters and steer his side deeper into September.
His first tackle 40/20 late in the second stanza showcased a level of confidence we haven’t seen in the playmaker since early in the season.
It was a welcome sight for rugby league, even his critics.
8) Brisbane peaked too early
The Broncos were the form team of the competition entering week one of finals.
Heavyweight title contenders Melbourne, South Sydney and the Roosters all lost games at the back end of the regular season.
History will show that premiers have had a tendency to drop games leading into the finals, rarely do they fly into the business end of the season on winning streaks - with the exception of Melbourne in 2017.
Have a look at the results of the past five grand finalists in the final five weeks of the regular season:
2017: Storm: 5/5 Cowboys: 1/5
2016: Sharks: 1/5 Storm: 3/5
2015: Cowboys: 2/5 Broncos 2/5
2014: Rabbitohs: 3/5 Bulldogs 2/5
2013: Roosters 3/5 Sea Eagles 3/5
You could put it down to an off day, but perhaps Brisbane peaked over the past month, while their more fancied rivals were readying for finals football.
With the rigours of the NRL, it’s extremely difficult to lift week after week.
Brisbane were forced to reach their peak for the past month of the season to cement their top eight position.
Eventually something had to give, and it came on a day where there were no second chances handed out.
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