Reece Walsh with the premiership bling. Photo: Reece Walsh Instagram.
There would have been only one better result for rugby league than the Brisbane Broncos winning last weekend’s NRL grand final – a fully-fit Raiders putting anybody else to the sword.
Let’s face it, the Broncos got lucky against the Raiders, with so many what-if moments and a referee who just can’t stay out of the limelight. It took a last-second penalty to force golden point extra time.
Against the Sharks, the emotionally drained Raiders – and no doubt their fans, too – were shadows of their best, particularly without the stricken Ethan Strange. Why isn’t that sudden illness being investigated? Just sayin’ …
Putting aside my green eye and conspiracy theories, I was happy to revert to Origin status when the Raiders crashed out.
Raised in Ipswich and Brisbane, it was easy to turn maroon and join the Reece Walsh Fan Club, even after what he did to the Raiders in that epic semi. Some are still calling it the greatest game of all.
The Broncos’ march to the premiership had good fortune, but that doesn’t invariably favour the brave.
That’s why the NRL needs teams like the Raiders and the Broncos, with players like Weekes and Walsh, to be winners.
No one can deny the success of the Melbourne Storm and Penrith Panthers with their method and system in which players slide seamlessly in and out of the team.
They are famous for the “grind” – that effective but hardly pretty form of football that accumulates victories but fails to capture the imagination the way the Raiders and Broncos have contrived victories this season.
The Storm and Panthers have enviable records, and the Cleary miracle of 2023 – when the grind wasn’t enough – is seared into Bronco fans’ psyches.
The NRL knows that the game needs more than predictably successful teams, which is why this season of upsets would please it, and in particular, such a climactic finals series.
We could have had the five-peat fairytale or the perfect Storm, but the Broncos magicked up a brand of football that rocked the foundations literally of Lang Park and in the grand final overcame what had been a flawless Melbourne performance.
It was pure theatre, with all the drama, pathos and gladiatorial spectacle of a Hollywood blockbuster, as players fell and the result remained in the balance until the final seconds.
The star, of course, was Walsh, who completed his evolution from brilliant but flawed tyro to the complete footballer whose defence was just as devastating as his attack.
The NRL also knew that the grand final required a referee who would let the players decide who won the trophy, not indulge in the “even-handed” nonsense that saw Hudson Young marched in the first semi.
It was a game of the highest skill but also of blood and thunder.
The night before the grand final, I watched the Rugby Championship match between the Wallabies and the All Blacks, which was ruined by officious schoolmasterly refereeing that may have been technically correct in a game with so many laws that even the players don’t know how to stay compliant, but sucked the energy out of the contest.
Unlike the rugby overlords, the NRL has the audience in mind when thinking about how the game should be played, not old boys obsessed with the intricacies of the breakdown.
Which is why players such as Walsh, with his dreamboat eyes, painted nails and fearless approach to the game, are such a gift.
The game can have its journeymen, even the star cogs in the machine, but for it to truly thrive, it needs characters with the X-factor.
The Broncos’ finals campaign was a marketing dream for the NRL with a superstar who can name his price, an action-packed highlights reel and a come-from-behind narrative to die for.
Instead of yet another Storm or Penrith premiership, the trophy went to a club that hadn’t tasted victory for 19 years, with fanatical supporters who pack home games but also travel and is now redeemed after the heartbreaking capitulation of 2023.
In the cut-throat market of elite sport, the NRL has developed a devastatingly winning product. The fans can’t wait till next year.
The stage is already set for the Raiders to star in a redemption tale of their own.
