Rugby league has long referred to itself as “the greatest game of all”. Few who witnessed the 94-minute all-time classic between the Raiders and Broncos on Sunday afternoon would argue otherwise. In a match that is already being hailed as arguably the greatest finals match of all time, a long distance Ben Hunt field goal in golden point as darkness fell on the nation’s capital sent the Broncos to the preliminary final and broke Raiders hearts in a match that had everything. The most talented of Hollywood script writers would have struggled to conjure such a chaotic, dramatic, epic finale.
On the back of their first minor premiership since 1990, the Raiders seemed to have a home preliminary final all but secured when Ethan Strange burst over with 25 minutes to go, giving them a 16-point lead. It capped arguably the most dramatic five minutes of the season, when the Broncos had seemingly imploded. Reece Walsh was lucky to only be sin binned for headbutting Hudson Young – and the Broncos were incredibly fortunate referee Ashley Klein not only binned Young as well but gave Brisbane the penalty. Kaeo Weekes soon scooped up a loose ball though and was off to the races with a 95-metre try before forward Patrick Carrigan joined Walsh in the bin for a high shot. When Strange scored the second try in four minutes following the Walsh binning, it appeared over. Even though Jamal Fogarty’s simple conversion miss was a bad sign, few saw it as a portent of things to come.
What followed will live on as long as rugby league exists. In an individual performance that echoed Andrew Johns at his pomp and Jarryd Hayne at his scintillating best, Walsh got more than just redemption in a brilliant display where he put the Broncos on his back. In a stunning seven-minute period, Walsh scored a scything try and then set up one more. He nearly levelled the scores in the final minutes with a 45-metre two-point field that rattled off the crossbar and then won his team the penalty that sent the game to extra-time with his desperate field goal attempt.
It was the first – but not the last time – the Raiders would celebrate the win only to have it cruelled by Bunker lead official Chris Butler. While Butler was correct in awarding Brisbane a penalty on the final play in regulation, his decision to overturn Canberra’s match-winning try in golden point was far more controversial. The Bunker deemed that bomb chaser Jed Stuart knocked the ball on before Fogarty scooted away for the apparent match-winner. While Stuart may have touched the ball forward, the NRL’s own process that requires clear evidence to overturn an on-field decision did not appear to be there. The NRL should be deeply concerned about this.
Ben Hunt’s match-winning field goal from distance that careened off the post before falling over the crossbar provided not only a fitting finale to an epic but a fitting moment of redemption for the Broncos halfback, who a decade prior spilled the kick-off in golden point of the 2015 grand final that led to Johnathan Thurston’s winning field goal.
The 1989 grand final has long been the gold standard of rugby league epics while Canterbury’s comeback over Parramatta in the 1998 preliminary final and the 2010 classic between the Roosters and the Tigers are widely regarded as the greatest finals of the NRL era but Sunday’s epic is the equal, if not superior to all those.
The classic will heap pressure on the NRL to not only schedule more daytime final matches but also to return the grand final to an afternoon time slot. In fairness to the NRL, they had recognised a greater desire for big-time afternoon matches even before Sunday’s classic, moving a week two final from Friday night to Sunday afternoon. It has been a bugbear of many NRL fans since the league first moved to a night grand final in 2001 and returned to it in 2013. The most compelling argument for a move back to an afternoon kick-off is the quality of football.
For Brisbane, they are now in the box seat to play in their second grand final in three seasons. More than once their season seemed finished. A guileless 34-6 round 13 hammering at Manly where the effort-levels were questioned suggested the Broncos were on their way to another fruitless campaign. When halves pairing Adam Reynolds and Ezra Mam both went down injured on the same play in the round 23 loss to the Storm, all hope seemed lost. Brisbane are now just 80 minutes from the decider though with Suncorp Stadium the venue for the preliminary final against either Penrith or Canterbury. Most importantly, the extra rest should see Reynolds available for a return while Mam will be some chance.
The Raiders meanwhile have just six days to regroup from a soul-crushing loss with Cronulla heading to the capital to meet Canberra. This will be the fifth final between the teams in the last 17 years and coach Ricky Stuart will need to find his best to get his squad up again after such bitter disappointment.
As the dust settles on perhaps the greatest final ever played, the one certainty to come out of it is that the 2025 season has been dramatically turned on its head.
