Wally Lewis and all his mates feel the love

You don’t have to be a diehard Queensland rugby league supporter to enjoy the magic of the occasion: an NRL grand final on hallowed turf in Brisbane. But it certainly helps.

Wally Lewis poses with a fan. Picture: Getty Images

You don’t have to be a diehard Queensland rugby league supporter to enjoy the magic of the occasion: an NRL grand final on hallowed turf in Brisbane. But it certainly helps.

They’ve waited decades for this and in a rebadged King Wally Square – an incongruous sea of South Sydney green and red and Penrith black in the city centre – facemasked locals didn’t care to dwell on the messy detail of how the big dance finally made its way north.

Or that a supremely ill-timed Covid outbreak could still cast a pall over nearby Suncorp Stadium, the famed Cauldron, scene of all those red-blooded State of Origin victories over the uppity NSW Blues, and now reduced to three-quarters capacity for Sunday’s decider.

“It’s a wonderful reward after Queensland has basically propped up and allowed the competition to continue this year,” said The King himself, league ­Immortal Wally Lewis, still a hero in his hometown 29 years after hanging up the boots to carve out a TV career as a sports presenter.

Like just about everyone in footy-obsessed Brisbane, Lewis has ridden a rollercoaster of emotion this week as Queensland’s southeast teetered on the brink of lockdown, threatening to unwind the carefully laid plans of the NRL and Annastacia Palaszczuk to shift the grand final from shuttered Sydney for the first time in the history of the unified code.

The news on Friday was ­“encouraging”, the Premier said, with the emergence of only three new cases.

After emergency talks, the NRL pressed on with the richly anticipated clash between the star-studded Rabbitohs and Panthers before a crowd of 39,000.

But Palaszczuk insisted she would not hesitate to pull on a snap lockdown and shut the spectators out should more unexplained infections crop up ahead of kick-off. If that happened or the crowd was further reduced, the NRL would consider postponing the game for a fortnight, putting a reopening Sydney back in the frame to host it.

“I just want to make it very clear: if the advice is to go into lockdown, we will go into lockdown, OK. So there’s no ifs and buts here, people. This is serious,” Palasaczuk said.

In Wally central – temporarily renamed from King George Square in front of Brisbane City Hall – the fans were doing their best to put a local spin on what is, after all, an all-Sydney affair.

Lewis’ former team, the Brisbane Broncos, finished third-last in the competition – which was at least an improvement on last season’s wooden spoon. But the hope of the side is Souths’ mercurial playmaker and captain, Adam Reynolds, who is Brisbane-bound next year, along with Penrith’s in-form Origin backrower Kurt Capewell.

Then there’s Wayne Bennett, the Bunnies’ taciturn, 71-year-old super-coach who won six of his seven premierships at the Broncos and is aiming for a swansong title before returning to Brisbane next year, most likely to link with the new expansion club tipped to be announced by the NRL after the grand final.

He received a rousing cheer when he walked on to the stage for the teams’ last pre-game promotional appearance in King Wally Square and shook hands with his opposite number, Ivan Cleary, the Penrith mentor and father of gun halfback and co-captain, Nathan Cleary. The 23-year-old’s duel with the veteran Reynolds, carrying a groin injury, promises to be a highlight.

The two coaches also have a history of personal niggle, having exchanged barbs during the finals on Penrith’s onfield tactics to protect young Nathan and Bennett’s not-so-subtle efforts to alert referees to his concerns.

Decked out in his Broncos’ jersey, army corporal Cain Chambers, 33, said he had adopted the Panthers as his team to win a bet with his father-in-law. “It’s a grand final in Brisbane and, hey, you can’t complain,” he said.

But spare a thought for Patrick Uzabeaga, 52, and son Kepler, 9, who lost their places in the stands when the restrictions came on in Thursday. “This is as close as we’re going to get to the grand final,” the disappointed man said, the boy at his side as the players took a bow.

Lewis, 61, on hand to cover the event for the Nine Network, said he couldn’t separate the two sides that upped sticks and relocated to Queensland three months ago, along with most of the NRL after Sydney plunged into lockdown.

“Oh boy, how many times can I toss a coin,” The King said, pressed for his grand final tip. “I probably feel that Penrith deserve to be favourites, but having witnessed the form displayed by the Rabbitohs I’ll admit I’m getting nervous.”