Grand Final 2023 - arrogant P's v flashy B's

[wombatgc]

Agreed wow

That was one of the best grand finals to be at live ebs and flows right throughout that game.
And it showed in the forwards with that pace our boys would of been cooked and why our team I agree will struggle in coming years.
Flagler was my man of match..He was huge tonight and a big loss for Broncos.

Tonight again showed me how far we have to go to compete with these sides.

As a neutral that was a very enjoyable game.

I wish we played like the teams tonight.

Didn’t you take a Broncos mate with you? Is he still with us?

 

[wombatgc]

Creighton will go to the Dogs as a fullback and go backwards. He is such a great centre like Latrell (as opposed to fullback).

He has really matured as a player. Those two kicks to get the drop outs were key. Smart move by Ivan to put Cogger at half and Cleary at 5/8 where Creighton finally got quick, clean ball.
When he came up to get his medal I’m pretty sure I seen the kid mouth "enjoy it Critter, you won’t see another one where you’re going". I’m pretty sure I got that right.

 

[davohan123]

Didn’t you take a Broncos mate with you? Is he still with us?

Totally destroyed he took it pretty hard but was an enjoyable night otherwise. What a game for his first GF game.

If that was us and we lost in that fashion boy that would be so hard to take.

Biggest comeback in NRL GF history tonight.

 

[simon64]

Has anyone checked on the well being of some of our "cross-forum discussion" brothers ?

I'm thinking there'll be a few still in the foetal position.

 

[wombatgc]

Totally destroyed he took it pretty hard but was an enjoyable night otherwise. What a game for his first GF game.

If that was us and we lost in that fashion boy that would be so hard to take.

Biggest comeback in NRL GF history tonight.

We were hooting and hollering when Penrith got up. Then the daughter just says, imagine if that happened to us in a GF. The festive mood took a deep dive south with that thought….for about 20 seconds, and we were yarhooing again. (I gotta stop watching Yellowstone. ).

 

[ALinda]

poor old Reyno, he’ll be having drop out night mares, had the three peat of fuk ups and a costly knock on, the Riff aimed plenty at him early.

Yep, Reynolds' 3 failed drop-outs cost them dearly. Also when they were up by 16, Reynolds should've instilled in his troops not to take their feet off the pedal, but instead the score went to their heads. With his experience, he should've done better. It reminded me of Origin games, especially close ones, when the game is never ever over till the 80th+ minute!

Unbelievable game, and much credit to Cleary for single-handedly getting them the trophy with such an amazing come back.

 

[simon64]

Seems I was right.

Or this...

I nearly feel sorry for them. (I did say nearly...... ) When I think of all the leg ups they get from the NRL re: scheduling and magic round, I start laughing again.

 

[NYEagle]

What a game. Great performance from the Riff

Fisher-Harris and Leota the difference there. What beasts. Crichton amazing.

Great to see Cliffy on stage handing out the Clive Churchill.

NYEagle.

 

[Scorpio]

As good as Cleary was the chance when the Panthers brought on their starting front rowers was amazing

Same when the bongs had Haas and Flegler etc

For me this what we lack and why we will continue to struggle against the best

Penrith also had eight players running over 140 metres with the ball in hand in the Grand Final. In any NRL game that is a great platform to win a match from. With the Panthers, everyone puts in - both attack and defence.

Sure they have great props... but it is a wholesale change in team mentality and fitness that we are lacking more than any single position that we need to fill.

 

[Hibyemama]

We were hooting and hollering when Penrith got up. Then the daughter just says, imagine if that happened to us in a GF. The festive mood took a deep dive south with that thought….for about 20 seconds, and we were yarhooing again. (I gotta stop watching Yellowstone. ).

It did, In 1997, when Darren Albert score with 7 seconds to go. I was there. Absolutely gutted it took me 2 weeks to get over it.

 

[EOL now nesting on the GC]

Yes

Yes

Yes

This teams D and fitness is beyond normal.

Impossible to say that. Different generation. Different professionalism. Completly different game.
If any of those sides from back in the day played in this generation with the rules and protections of today's game it would be game on.
I would also say that Penrith do not have worthy challengers in this run. No magnificent storm or top of their game rooters.
Take nothing away from them they are magnificent and history will call them the greatest for now but they have had it pretty easy.
Lost to Storm, beat rabbits and Parramatta before beating young green Broncs. None of these sides had the Melbourne or rooters or old broncs quality.

 

[Terry Zarsoff]

Does it count that Ivan is a Manly junior??

No. Very early on, he showed no loyalty to the club that spawned him.

The funny part was he was off to Norths in ‘94 to play fullback, only for Matt Seers to push him into the centres.

At least he met his future wife, Josh Stewart’s sister. She has a jawline rivalling Ivan’s.*

*There might have been something Freudian going on there.

 

[Once Was Brissie Kid]

Pity that by Rd 1 next year the referees will have reverted to normal transmission. Last night showed how great rugby league can be when the referee is just a passenger and not the interfering old lady.

 

[Terry Zarsoff]

Great game.. and Cleary stood up when it mattered.. why didn't his dad buy a house in Manly rather than out west and have his son grow up playing out there....haha

@BOZO.. i was hoping for the Broncs with their speed kills attack and they looked the goods, but Nathan and the Penrith men showed you need more than just speed.

He did. First off at Collaroy. Now he’s back living at Newport (I believe) and he sold the Penrith palace to Nathan.

 

[Stuey Davis’s Socks]

OPINION​

Was this the best grand final I’ve seen? It might be the best rugby league game I’ve seen​

Malcolm Knox​

Journalist, author and columnist
October 2, 2023 — 5.00am

Please understand that these words are being written in the last minutes of what I’m pretty sure is the best grand final I’ve ever seen. I’ll have to watch it again to make sure. Strike out ‘grand final’. It might be the best match.

No instant take, as hot as Sunday, can do justice to a game we’ll be talking about, and re-watching, for as long as rugby league is played.

​

Play video
14:42

2023 NRL Grand Final Highlights​

The Penrith Panthers take on the Brisbane Broncos in the 2023 NRL Grand Final at Accor Stadium.
Seven months ago, on another warm night, Brisbane played Penrith in the first round of the 2023 NRL season. It wasn’t much of a game, to be honest. Penrith were visibly slipping from the pinnacle. Brisbane were continuing their long march up from the bottom of the table they had hit in 2020. It looked anything but a grand final.
By October, the two teams had transformed for one of the fastest, most exciting, most anticipated deciders – and if this match promised a 10, it delivered 12.
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Any summary falls short, but here’s an attempt.
In the first half, Penrith tried to do a Queensland on Brisbane with a start as hot as the weather. Their speed was Origin km/h. Their physicality and intensity overwhelmed everyone other than the Brisbane defence. Somehow, the Broncos managed to score just before the break, outrageously against the run of play, to trail by two. Now it was Brisbane looking more like Queensland. Half-time, Panthers 8-6.

Nathan Cleary cruises past Reece Walsh to score the match-winning try.CREDIT: GETTY IMAGES
Chicago Bulls legend Scottie Pippen showed up during the break. It was his first game of rugby league, after his first game of AFL the day before, when Collingwood won with virtually the last kick. Pippen didn’t say which he preferred. For quality, this was the ’93 Bulls against the ‘96 Bulls. How would he know? His thoughts on the pre-game entertainment – Kiss or Tina, the Musical, fake singing from a real act or real singing from an impersonator? – would have been more informed but they remained, like his thoughts on Michael Jordan, unspoken.
Anyway, he did say there was “plenty of contact” on the field, and this was true.

For that imaginary person ‘the rugby league purist’, the first half might have looked too much like basketball, with the ball being tossed side to side, the Panthers dancing and feinting and waiting for their moment to engage an exhausted opponent. Referee Adam Gee might also have been flattened by the heat because he more or less took the first half off: no hold-downs, no offsides, whistle at the bottom of his pocket with his hankie. It made for breathless, Originy rugby league, fully satisfying everyone except the two tapped-out teams and their suffering supporters. Neutrals loved it. You could almost hear Peter V’landys murmuring a 2024 rule change: ‘Note to self. No referees to Vegas? Seek costings.’
Now the second half.

Panthers celebrate with the trophy after beating the Broncos for the 2023 NRL premiership.CREDIT: GETTY IMAGES
Back in March, when Brisbane won that scrappy first-round fixture, Ezra Mam was an unrealised Bronco hope. Plenty of flash, questionable defence, they said. Back when Brisbane won their wooden spoon, Mam was playing rugby union for Ambrose Treacy College in Brisbane and dancing in his spare time. But he’d been snapped up by the Broncos when his voice had barely broken. Another unrealised dream for union, then.
By Sunday night in Sydney, the town of his birth (a lost opportunity for NSW, too!), Mam was scything through the Panthers’ left side for one of the great grand final tries. Minutes later, he did it again. Then, backing up Reece Walsh, he did it a third time. Brisbane 24, Penrith 8. A three-peat had been forecast, and here it was.
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Then came the southerly. Hot start, cool change, didn’t matter. These Penrith Panthers have proven they can beat any rugby league opponent in any weather, any tactical style. They had won two straight grand finals, a squeaker over Souths and a cruise past Parramatta.

RELATED ARTICLE​

Opinion​

NRL 2023​

This is Penrith’s world and we’re all just living in it​

Andrew Webster​

Chief Sports Writer
Now they were fighting on two fronts: the vibrant Broncos and, in the form of history, the 1981-83 Eels. A 16-point deficit is a harder thing to battle than history. Ask the players. But the Panthers knew that the heat, and the imbalance of first-half possession in their favour, were going to turn the last 15 minutes into hours for the Broncos.
Nathan Cleary, who looked to have done his knee before half-time, lost his partner Jarome Luai to injury and co-captain Isaah Yeo to a head knock, so when the cool change came he realised he had to do it himself. He put a galloping Moses Leota away on the right, then a 40/20 kick set up a Stephen Crichton surge across the line on the left. Then Cleary did it himself in that Steve Jackson-Darren Albert moment that is going to have the memory-engravers at work for however many rugby league years still remain.
At this point, my head is spinning. I’ll need to come down from this rugby league high. Cliffy Lyons has just presented Cleary with his second Clive Churchill Medal. Can’t wait to watch the whole thing again. I only have one concern. Can someone find Scottie Pippen and tell him it’s not like this every week?
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http://rightsportal.copyright.com.a...by-league-game-i-ve-seen-20231001-p5e8wl.html

Malcolm Knox is a journalist, author and columnist for The Sydney Morning Herald.

 

[robbiea]

Didn't want them getting the threepeat but glad they did ,in that fashion.
Great game,what a team.

 

[Kiwi Eagle]

Great to see karma is alive and well, how the Broncos have lost their last 2 Grand Finals is absolutely beautiful

Loved seeing the pain on Corey Parker’s face post match as Ennis is sitting beside him wearing a big smile

Walsh only interested in being a showpony in attack, abysmal in defence and the first try to Kenny he is standing 5m into the ingoal with his hands on his hips as Kenny picks the ball up

 

[SeaEagleRock8]

First half was just another Panther bash-a-thon, I was pleased the Broncos jagged a late try so it might be competitive in the second half.
Second half was, wow! Great tries, great individual efforts, and in the end the better team, by a very small margin, won.
Credit to Penrith and Cleary. Tough result for Broncos, bit like Manly getting run down in 2013 but at least this time there weren't any forward passes.
glad it's all over, I'll probably take a passing interest only in the rep stuff to come.
Meanwhile here's a classic storyline to imagine for next year ... Seibold takes Manly to face the Broncos in the GF! (it's Ok, season is finished its time for daydreams)

 

[Spartan Eagle]

As far as grandfinal weekend goes probs one of the best showcase of AFL and NRL deciders we've had for a while. Still couldn't give a fvck..

 

[Brocky]

Or not

That’s why spoonbold can’t coach