Well, the minor premiers are gone after two losses in their three finals games. The Broncos didn’t give them a sniff tonight. With a capacity crowd (and the totemic Wayne Bennett) behind them they were never headed. Excellent ball control, smart decision making, a real show of forward strength and the game turning abilities of Ben Hunt and Anthony Milford were too much for the Roosters who did well to recover from an early 16-0 deficit — but it was as if the effort to claw back into the game took the wind out of them.
All that’s left now is to see who the Broncos’ opponents will be. The Cowboys (which would set up an enticing all-Qld decider) or the ever-dangerous Storm? There’s also the matter of Justin Hodges being put on report. No matter what the grading, I understand he’ll miss the grand final if he’s found guilty. But he tells Tallis he’s not worried. So there.
Thanks for reading and I’ll be back for the big one. See you then.
That #NRLGF feeling! #NRLBroncosRoosters #NRLFinals pic.twitter.com/iu54RcHpH5
— NRL (@NRL) September 25, 2015
Full-time: Broncos 31-12 Roosters
And the Broncos are the first team into the grand final after a dominant, focused, driven performance — a performance that began with a gift try some 60 seconds in.
80 min: The crowd —a ground record (for an NRL game) 51,026 — are on their feet to roar their team home over the final 60 seconds. It’s a great sight. And finally the whistle goes and the Broncos fall into each other’s arms as the Roosters fall to their knees.
78 min: Brad Fittler sounds gutted as his answer to a question about who the Broncos would rather play in the grand final is perfunctory at best.
Fun fact ahead of the next week’s decider: Brisbane are 6 from 6 in grand finals under Bennett.
76 min: It’s getting a little scrappy here now that the result is a foregone conclusion. It’s been a dominant performance by Brisbane. In hindsight how much did the pre finals loss of Jared Waerea-Hargreaves cost the minor premiers?
74 min: Maloney skips into the clear 10m out but is tackled a couple of metres out. A kick follows but Boyd watches it run dead.
72 min: On the last Guerra finds himself a few metres out, surrounded by Broncos. He dabs a kick straight to the nearest defender illustrating how the Roosters have run out of ideas and steam.
70 min: Inside the Broncos’ 10m line Hastings throws a hopeful pass to his left that Tupuo puts down under pressure. Hunt picks it up with no-one in front of him but 30m later he’s rounded up by Tupou. That was like an Oompah-loompah trying to outrun Usain Bolt.
68 min: Nice work from Tuivasa-Sheck to spin away from three converging defenders to avoid being pinned in his in-goal after a smart kick. The Roosters are then awarded a dubious penalty that brings them some relief but little joy.
From that set Tuivasa-Sheck makes a half break and kicks downfield for Ferguson. The ball is weighted beautifully and pulls up in the in-goal. But Ferguson has no hope. He’s beaten to the ball by four Broncos, one of whom bats it dead.
66 min: Knock on from Jennings as the Roosters scramble to find an overlap. The crowd goes wild again. And now Thaiday comes off for a breather and he waves to the crowd behind the Broncos’ bench and they rise for him, jubilant.
64 min: No hope for the Roosters, surely. They look beat, like a chook that looks down at its undercarriage and sees stuffing falling out of it.
FIELD GOAL! Broncos 31-12 Roosters (Milford 62)
... and Milford pilots it cooly between the uprights, throwing a fist in the air after he does so. Suncorp goes wild. Bennett’s back, the Broncos are heading to the grand final, it’s just like the good ol’ days!
61 min: Parker’s conversion hits the left upright, then Napa rocks Thaiday with a huge hit. But with great composure the Broncos set up for a field goal...
TRY! Brisbane 30-12 Roosters (Reed 59)
And they surely will win now! After Ferguson loses the ball through a wild pass, Boyd drifts across field like an unmoored boat before finding a straight running Jack Reed. Reed falls to his knees in the tackle but he’s close enough to reach out and score.
57 min: Gillett comes up out of the line and smashes Cordner front on! Corder’s head whips back as if he’s suddenly become interested in astronomy but remarkably he stays on his feet as Gillett falls to the ground.
Amid that excitement Hodges goes on report for a lift in the following tackle. Not the worst example of a lifting tackle but it raises the possibility of a suspension and missing the grand final should the Broncos win.
56 min: A lovely offload from Corey Parker, who lobs it backwards as he’s back-slammed. It might have given Bennett kittens being tackle two, but all’s well that ends well. The Broncos finish the set by kicking deep.
55 min: On tackle five the Roosters stitch together a succession of short balls, the last of which is from Tuivasa-Sheck to Guerra 2m out from the line. Did Hodges knock it out of Guerra’s hands before Tuivasa-Sheck pounced on the loose ball to score? Or was it, as it appeared, a knock on by Guerra. We’ve gone upstairs and they are reviewing it like the Kennedy assassination. No try.
54 min: Oates is in the action again, letting a bomb bounce and then spilling the follow-up attempt to catch it. So the Roosters have it 30m out, six tackles up their sleeve.
52 min: How did the Broncos get down here so fast? Can’t say but they are 20m out and on the hunt. And speaking of hunt, Hunt fires another bullet of a pass that Reed bats on beautifully to Oates on the wing. Oates seems to have scored in the corner, and the ref calls it a try, but on review Oates put his left boot on the chalk before touching down. So close!
50 min: An uphill battle for the Roosters now... but they could have reduced the deficit there! Ferguson leaps highest for a bomb that came down right on the Broncos’ line. Had he caught it he would have fallen over the line and scored but it went straight through his hands. Oh for some Perkins Paste!
CONVERSION! Broncos 26-12 (Parker)
A doddle, that one, from just to the left of the uprights.
TRY! Broncos 24-12 (Milford 48)
Yes, try it is! Smart work from Milford who’s really come into this game. That could be a Rooster killer.
Updated
48 min: But they come again. Milford slips a peach of a ball to a charging Glenn that bends the line. On tackle five Milford snaps a pass to Hunt on his right. Hunt passes it straight back to him and with the Roosters’ line static Milford grubbers into the in-goal. His chase is impeded, perhaps deliberately so, but it doesn’t stop him getting to the ball first and scoring. But we’ve gone upstairs...
46 min: The Nine commentators are giving Adam Blair a big wrap: “Best forward on the park”.
The Broncos, hemmed in on the right touchline, kick forward on the last but it dribbles dead.
45 min: And as I say that Milford is held up over the line on the last! Hunt found him in space and being the last he chanced his arm but was rounded up in the nick of time.
44 min: The Broncos, pushing on past the halfway line, have completed 18 of 19 sets to the Roosters’ 14 of 19. Amazing control.
42 min: No try! Was there enough evidence to overturn that one? I didn’t think so. Then again, had the ref ruled no try there wasn’t enough evidence to overturn that either. Rugby league video referee system, like an Escher drawing.
41 min: Possible Roosters try here! Maloney roosts a cross-field bomb that Tuivasa-Sheck leaps to claim. It falls through his hands and on to his head as he’s tackled. It pops loose behind him and Tuivasa-Sheck and Jack Reed scrap for it. But it winds up in Kenny-Dowall’s hands and he steps inside Milford to score.
The ref calls a try and it’s unclear whether Tuivasa-Sheck knocked it on into Reed before it shot out behind him. Could be try because of that uncertainty.
Peeeeeep!
The Broncos kick off the final 40 minutes...
Yep, Pearce is on the bench and his left knee iced like a six-pack on New Year’s Eve. A massive moment for the young Jackson Hastings.
Could there be a change in the offing for the Roosters?
BREAKING: Mitchell Pearce is struggling in the dressing sheds and it could be Jackson Hastings replacing him #NRLFinals #NRLBroncosRoosters
— NothingButRL (@NothingButRL) September 25, 2015
As I nip off for a cocktail, here’s something to enjoy. On this day in 1989 we saw one of the great rugby league grand finals of all time. Canberra beating Balmain 19-14 in extra time to lift the Emphysema Cup. Nice unbiased reporting in this clip, and theme music too; the like you don’t hear any more.
Half-time: Broncos 20-12 Roosters
That try came five seconds before the half-time siren! How decisive might it prove? What will it do to the Roosters who did so well to recover from their horror start? The mood in the sheds will be very different now to how it would have been had the Roosters managed to hold the Broncos out just then.
TRY! Broncos 20-12 Roosters (Oates 40)
McCullough comes within a metre of the line but after the play the ball the pill is fired left to Hunt and he throws a majestic two-man cut-out pass that finds Oates inside the left touchline. He gets down low and goes, goes, goes some 5m to score in the corner!
39 min: At the close of the next set Milford angles a grubber in behind the Roosters’ line and into the in-goal. The Broncos are coming through in a snorting wave and Pearce has no choice but to bat it dead. Drop out.
38 min: A pressure-relieving penalty to the Broncos near their own line triggers a Bronx cheer from the Suncorp crowd. That’s a 2-2 penalty count.
36 min: Milford and Boyd break the Roosters open around the ruck and Alex Glenn goes on a weaving run towards the Roosters’ line. But after he’s pulled down by Aubusson the Broncos are forced to bomb on the last. Tupou, in traffic, defuses it safely.
34 min: Hodges looks to be moving okay as he steps inside off his right before being pulled down. Kahu then climbs for a bomb on the line and he bats it back into a scrum of players. It’s like a lolly scramble at a kids’ party but a Rooster comes up with the ball.
32 min: The Roosters are making good metres running out from their own line but on the halfway line Jake Friend throws a brick of a pass too far in front of Moa and he spills it. Possession now 50-50.
30 min: What a turnaround! What a mad game. Now it’s the Roosters with all the momentum.
Boyd catches a towering bomb and after Kahu goes down in a tackle Hodges runs back onto the field. Like Jason Voorhees in Friday the 13th, he just won’t go away.
CONVERSION! Broncos 16-12 Roosters (Maloney)
Another unerring kick from Maloney, the premier goal-kicker in the competition.
TRY! Broncos 16-10 Roosters (Ferguson 29)
Looks like it! Almost an action replay of the first try! This time Tuivasa-Sheck’s pass to Ferguson left him with a little more to do but he pushed off Reed and powered through Oates to score in the same spot he scored moments ago.
Updated
27 min: Now Kenny-Dowall catches a bomb, nicely. Over his head facing the wrong way. And two tackles later the Roosters get a penalty and find touch on the Broncos’ 40m. Is the game turning?
26 min: Pearce bombs to Kahu but he catches safely again. There is now a spring in the Roosters’ step.
CONVERSION! Broncos 16-6 (Maloney)
And as Maloney steers it over from wide out on the right Hodges trots off the field for treatment. It could be his last moment in the NRL.
TRY! Broncos 16-4 Roosters (Ferguson 23)
Didn’t they need that?! There seemed to be little on as the Roosters went left to right, through the hands. Even when Tuivasa-Sheck caught it 20m out the Broncos had them covered. But a shimmy from RTS drew in Jack Reed an inch and RTS’s pass found Ferguson on Reed’s outside and Ferguson carried two defenders over the line out wide.
21 min: Hodges is down hurt. Taking the ball up he steps inside Napa who throws out a right arm that catches Hodges around the shoulder. Napa pulls Hodges to the turf and it looks like Hodges may have injured his right leg. But he gets up gingerly as the Broncos make a break through Thaiday but his desperate inside ball goes to ground.
CONVERSION! Broncos 16-0 Roosters (Parker)
An easy one for Parker and the Broncos are flying!
TRY! Broncos 14-0 Roosters (McCullough 19)
... the Broncos score again! From 30m out Milford passes to Hunt on his right, Hunt passes it immediately back inside to Milford then runs around his left shoulder. As he’s tackled Milford finds Hunt and after a short run Hunt finds McCullough backing up on his outside. Lovely.
18 min: The Roosters spill the pill in good field position so it’ll be Brisbane having another crack at them. Napa smashes Parker but from the play the ball...
15 min: Tuivasa-Sheck catches the downfield kick and quick steps past the first defender as he does nine times out of 10.
Late in the set Jennings gets on the outside of his man with a burst of speed and he draws and passes to Tupou who has a brief sighting of the try-line before the cover jams him up. His flick back inside is picked up by Hodges.
14 min: Kahu takes a bomb just in the field of play and the Broncos, who’ve had 56% possession, get to the halfway line without too much trouble.
13 min: Parker misses the conversion, but what a start for the Broncos. Two unforced errors from the Roosters (Tuivasa-Sheck could have batted that out, but waited), two tries as punishment. Time for the bleedin’ obvious: The Roosters will need to be next try-scorers.
TRY! Broncos 10-0 Roosters (Hunt 11)
Kahu’s right boot was a millimetre inside the dead-ball line when he leapt for that. So try it is!
11 min: Broncos pound the Roosters’ line... and they may have just scored another! Hunt grubbers to the right in-goal, Tuivasa-Sheck waits to let it bounce out but Jordan Kahu leaps from behind him and bats it back, off Hodges’ hand to a trailing Hunt who plants it for what looks like a try.
9 min: Gillett pulls RTS down centimetres from the line! Pearce then kicks to his right wing but Oates climbs high and pulls it down with one hand. 20m restart.
8 min: A big charge from Moa and Parker bounces off him like a dud cheque. And now a penalty to the Roosters for a ruck infringement. Roosters find touch 20m out.
7 min: Hunt finds touch 20m out with a grubber to allow us —and the Roosters— to catch our breath.
5 min: The Broncos have kicked another to SKD but he manages to keep his cool despite his heart beating like a drum roll. Minutes later he’s in the action again and Blair flattens him in his driver’s door. Big hit. Poor SKD has had an opening to remember.
CONVERSION! Brisbane 6-0 Roosters (Parker)
Everyone is in shock. It’s as if he wanted to pass it to Boyd.
Unbelievable! #NRLBroncosRoosters #NRLFinals http://t.co/crMWwFWLHd
— NRL (@NRL) September 25, 2015
Updated
TRY! Brisbane 4-0 Roosters (Boyd 1)
Good Lord! Ben Hunt, on the last, boots the ball to Shaun Kenny-Dowall’s wing. It’s a mongrel of a kick, grubbering this way and that but there is no pressure on Kenny-Dowall who picks it up inside his 30m line. From just inside the touchline he looks up and spirals a long pass in the direction of Tuivasa-Sheck. But Darius Boyd is following through, grabs it out of the air like a jam donut and scores under the posts! A brain snap, a try!
Updated
Peeeeeep!
We’re underway, James Maloney kicking us off deep into Broncos’ territory!
The teams are out on the field! Roosters are in their away strip; white, blue shorts. The Broncos, in yellow jerseys, trot out a few minutes after the visitors, led out by Justin Hodges who will retire at the end of the Broncos’ season. You can say what you like about him but he’s been very good for a long, long time.
And there’ll be a ‘moment’s silence’ for journo Mike Gibson who passed away this week. A fine writer who moved into TV and became an excellent broadcaster.
Seconds away from the advertised kick-off time. But there are ads on. Not looking good, is it?
Brad Fittler is talking up Mitchell Pearce: “He’s a winner.” Pearce has won a grand final, yes, but he hasn’t had too many happy moments in a Blues jersey at Suncorp. Roosters fans will be hoping he doesn’t suffer from flashbacks. They could do him in tonight more than his hamstring.
Stat time! Don’t say I never give you nuthin’:
#NRLBroncosRoosters by the numbers. #NRLFinals pic.twitter.com/iMWnxPWHz0
— NRL (@NRL) September 25, 2015
No kick-chase, says Gordie Tallis on Nine in reference to Roger Tuivasa-Sheck. He is dynamite. How excited must the Warriors be watching him? And nervous. They won’t care what happens here tonight, they just don’t want RTS to get injured.
Updated
I really do like prelim finals, and there have been some classics in recent times. But if I had to pick two they would be the Warriors’ win over the Storm in 2011 (featuring some Shaun Johnson brilliance) and the Dragons’ one-point thriller over the Tigers in 2010. If tonight’s game is 63% as thrilling (why must it always be “half as thrilling”) we’ll be in for a treat.
Don’t forget, feel free to drop me a line. Chat about the game, make a comment, slag off your neighbours. Whatever: paul.connolly@theguardian.com or @PFConnolly
Looks like the Broncos players are now using their ages as their jersey numbers:
Warm ups are now underway #NRLBroncosRoosters #NRLFinals pic.twitter.com/P0iM0jkBj9
— Brisbane Broncos (@brisbanebroncos) September 25, 2015
Suncorp is full and I presume there are about 15 Roosters fans in amongst the 50-odd thousand Broncos fans. The Broncos are 10 from 13 at Suncorp this season so they really do grow another leg at home.
So high for the #NRLBroncosRoosters game! pic.twitter.com/v5QVmIuTJj
— ’Ádíshní (@Adishni) September 25, 2015
Tonight’s teams:
Final teams are OUT: #NRLFinals #NRLBroncosRoosters #WWOS pic.twitter.com/EU5dkcyMLI
— Wide World of Sports (@WWOS9) September 25, 2015
Of course the big team news is the return of Mitchell Pearce who comes back into a Roosters side which hasn’t seemed to have missed him, what with the mature form —and touches of class— shown by Jackson Hastings (who’s on the bench). For all his experience many may think this hands the Broncos the advantage. Mitchell Pearce: loved or hated.
Given there are three non NSW sides left in the competition odds on we’ll have an all interstate grand final (“interstate” in terms of the decider being played, as usual, in Sydney). Hang on, that’s not right is it? Initially I was thinking it was a 75% chance but of course we should ignore tomorrow’s game because it’s a Victorian side versus one from Queensland. The odds of two non-Sydney teams playing in the grand final are actually 50%. Aren’t they? It comes down to tonight. Roosters or Broncos, toss a coin.
On that, should New South Welshman barrack for the Roosters tonight as some might suggest? Ask a Canterbury supporter that question. From behind a plexiglass window, of course. No, state affiliations mean nothing when it comes to club football. It’s like how your’re more likely to loathe your neighbours than someone you only see every now and then. Not that I loathe my neighbours, mind. They’re lovely people. We take turns hosting monthly dinners, we have street parties once a year, and we collect each other’s mail when called upon and feed each other’s chooks (that’s not a euphemism).
Yes, my neighbours are great. Oh except the ones we think dump hard rubbish on the nature strip outside our house. We hate them. There’s an old vacuum cleaner there now which has been there for ages, and a shopping trolley they couldn’t be bothered returning even when they shouldn’t have taken it out of the carpark in the first place.
I can’t help but feel I’ve gone a little off-track here. Where was I? Yes. Will the good people of NSW get behind the Roosters, the last remaining team from the game’s traditional heartland? Hell no. I’d guess that any NSW league fans who don’t support the Roosters have either gone home in a huff and will not be watching league any more until next year. Or else they’ll be pinning their colours to the Cowboys, a team that doesn’t inspire hate like the Broncos, Storm and the Roosters.
The first home-town call, ey?
The @brisbanebroncos won the coin toss. #NRLBroncosRoosters #NRLFinals pic.twitter.com/QWNFpF8hgA
— NRL (@NRL) September 25, 2015
Pre-ramble
Evening all, and welcome aboard. It’s preliminary finals time and who doesn’t love a preliminary final? They’re so often better than the grand final because, as they say, making a grand final is harder than winning one. Or is it the other way around? I always forget these things. But it does seem that every team’s goal at the beginning of the season is not necessarily to win the competition but, before that, to make the decider, to give themselves a chance over 80 minutes of carrying off the biggest prize.
So a prelim final is the last step in this process, leading to high drama and tension. And in many ways it hurts more to fall one game short of a grand final because you lose not only the chance to be premiers but to experience the excitement of grand final week; excitement like seeing shops in your suburban high street getting into the swing with, um, streamers and window displays. Who doesn’t want to buy sausages dyed in your club colours?
As for tonight’s match it’s hard to pick a winner. The Sydney Roosters finished minor premiers but their surprise week 1 finals loss to the Melbourne Storm knocked them slightly off kilter. And it meant they had to get through the Bulldogs last week and travel to Brisbane for tonight’s game. By contrast the Broncos won a close opening final against the Cowboys at Suncorp which allowed them another home game tonight and last weekend off, which I’m sure they spent lazing about the clubhouse listening to Wayne Bennett’s gramophones and watching Justin Hodges pull the wings off flies.
Did you know that the 2006 Broncos were the last premiership winners to have played all four weeks of the finals? You do now. What does that tell us? That rest is good; that the loss of momentum that comes from having a weekend off during the finals isn’t all that bad, which means the Broncos and the Melbourne Storm (who play the Cowboys at home tomorrow night) are hardly disadvantaged. Indeed, when you add on home ground advantage, they may just have their noses in front. We’ll soon find out.
KICK-OFF: 7.55pm
Hi all, welcome to Friday night footy live from Guardian HQ.
Tonight’s do-or- die try-again-next-year clash is between the Brisbane Broncos and the Sydney Roosters, from Lang Park, and Paul Connolly, he of the willing fingers, is our man entrusted this blockbuster.
But before Paul gets in, here’s Matt Cleary’s two cents:
And so to mighty Suncorp Stadium for the Friday night death match between home town Broncos and big gun Chooks, and it should be a ripper. It could of course be a risk-less bash-fest, as sheep station games can be. But here’s hoping it isn’t. And it shouldn’t be when both teams have such crack hot weaponry.
But a winner? Let us count the ways.
Cattle: On names, on paper, it’s got to be the Roosters. Chock-full of internationals, brutal bench-warmers, super-speed in Michael Jennings, hot-footed excitement in Roger Tuivasa-Sheck, and tries and metres of the D-zone by Daniel Tupou and Shaun Kenny-Dowall. They sport one of game’s best back-rows in Mitchell Aubusson, Aidan Guerra and Boyd Cordner. Their Origin halves are complemented by Jackson Hastings whom Phil Gould says has the best last-tackle options of the Roosters last tackle options. Jake Friend should take Cam Smith’s maroon jumper. The Chooks are the best team in the comp, as their minor premiership attests.
The Broncos, of course, are not without players themselves. Darius Boyd, Justin Hodges, Jack Reed, Anthony Milford, Ben Hunt, that’s a serious backline. Sammy Thaiday’s been bopping about on the fringes for a decade. Corey Parker’s done it for longer and in my opinion is better than his counterpart Paul Gallen. And the rest of their forwards tackle like they’re paid per hit.
Read more of the weekend’s preview from Matt, here.
Paul will be here shortly. In the meantime, here’s what Matt Cleary thinks of this weekend’s match-ups:
