After a comparative fizzer of a semi-final weekend, the intensity, drama and high-quality footy came flooding back for the NRL preliminary finals – ultimately leaving us with a mouth-watering western Sydney derby for this Sunday’s grand final.
Both prelims featured outstanding comebacks, with some players standing tall in the big moments…and others experiencing nights they’d prefer to forget.
1- Parra Thrive In The Fast Lane
Parramatta’s 36-year premiership wait is longest active drought of any current NRL club – and certainly the most talked about – so there’s inherent pressure on the club as it strives to satiate its title-hungry fans with an upset this weekend.
But Brad Arthur’s Eels can be proud of their 2022 efforts regardless of the grand final result. Maligned and written off as flaky pretenders whose premiership window was closing rapidly after four week two exits in the past five seasons, the blue-and-golds have crafted a memorable September campaign.
Following a tough loss at Penrith, Parramatta stamped out red-hot Canberra’s charge in emphatic style and produced a remarkable rally in sticky Townsville to snare a grand final berth for the first time since 2009.
The Eels looked shot at 20-12 down midway through the second half.
Mitchell Moses was having a mixed night, Dylan Brown was struggling to come out of his shell, and possession and territory were overwhelmingly favouring the Cowboys.
The fight-back emerged from a couple of unlikely sources, Reagan Campbell-Gillard’s bulldozing second try – continuing a mighty performance up against the vaunted Cowboys middle-forward posse – closed the gap, before Shaun Lane took control with a career-defining display.
Disrupting the North Queensland defence with several robust runs and a string of offloads, Lane laid on the match-winner for Maika Sivo with a freakish pass and now shapes as a Kangaroos World Cup bolter.
Other heroes included Isaiah Papali’i, who was enormous in an absorbing duel with Jason Taumalolo, the dynamic and hardworking Ryan Matterson, inspirational safe-as-houses skipper Clint Gutherson and centre stand-in Bailey Simonsson.
If premierships are about timing your run, BA and the Eels have got their surge stepped out to the split-second.
2- Uncharacteristic Cowboys Will Ride Again
By any metric, Friday’s fadeout ranks as an excruciating missed opportunity for North Queensland. A sell-out home crowd in familiar conditions that were challenging for the opposition and a 20-12 lead with 23 minutes to go.
The Cowboys appeared to be running downhill.
Tremendous front-runners for this most part this season, they took their foot off the gas and had their pants pulled down by a couple of soft Parramatta tries.
Despite ample chances to strike back late – as they did so superbly at Cronulla a fortnight earlier – the Cowboys looked rattled and out of ideas.
The forward pass that led to the Eels’ first try dominated post-match chatter and was an unfortunate blow.
But as coach Todd Payten correctly and classily pointed out, it wasn’t as bad as it appeared and his team had more than enough time to ensure it wasn’t a derailing moment.
The uncharacteristically flimsy goal-line defence that allowed Campbell-Gillard to barge through for two tries will be occupying Payten’s thoughts more than any refereeing calls.
The Cowboys’ season can only be considered an unequivocal success.
After four years in the bottom four and a popular wooden spoon tip, finishing third and reaching a prelim is a massive step forward and a platform for success in the near future.
Reuben Cotter, Jeremiah Nanai, Murray Taulagi and Tom Dearden were virtual unknowns heading into 2022 but are now Origin stars, while Scott Drinkwater and Reece Robson indicated they are worthy of that status in breakout campaigns, plus Griffin Neame will win a Kiwis World Cup berth.
The experienced core – Jason Taumalolo, Valentine Holmes and top-value recruits Chad Townsend and Peta Hiku – still have plenty of footy left in them. And with a hard-nosed operator like Payten running the show, the Cowboys’ premiership window is wide open.
3- Patchy Panthers Find A Way
Penrith’s seemingly inevitable surge to back-to-back glory was looking very tenuous 35 minutes into Saturday’s preliminary final.
Trailing 12-0, the Panthers were getting beaten up physically, their attack was clunky and luck was against them, narrowly missing out on a couple of tries on rule technicalities.
But when the rub of the green turned the other way, the NRL’s most relentless outfit was ready to pounce.
Despite the convincing 32-12 final scoreline, coach Ivan Cleary and the Panthers will realise a repeat performance in the grand final is unlikely to be enough if the Eels produce their best 80 minutes.
Api Koroisau’s try to put Penrith on the board was a tad fortuitous, Brian To’o’s match-turner on halftime was an absolute gift and all three second-half Panthers tries were relatively soft (if well-executed) ones from short kicks as Souths unravelled.
It followed on from a qualifying final at home where they took an hour to grab the ascendancy against an Eels side that lost their linchpin to an HIA.
Having said that, if Nathan Cleary, Dylan Edwards and To’o perform to the same standard in the decider, the Panthers will have one hand on the Provan-Summons Trophy.
4- Souths Beat Themselves
It was exactly Parramatta versus Canterbury in 1998 territory, but South Sydney’s implosion at Accor Stadium was one of the more spectacular witnessed on the preliminary final stage in the NRL era.
The Rabbitohs had put themselves in a position to pull off one of the great playoffs boilovers with an outstanding opening half-hour, taking a couple of early scoring opportunities with both hands and rocking the Panthers with their intensity.
Then it all fell apart.
A low-percentage shift in the dying seconds of the first half – instead of setting for a field goal – resulted in an excruciating long-range intercept try.
Still, Souths were very much in the contest – you’d have taken a 12-all halftime scoreline if offered it pre-match.
But when they needed their most experienced, marquee players to light the way, Latrell Mitchell and Cody Walker were second-half ghosts.
Rookie No.7 Lachlan Ilias grew in stature as the season wore on and had a strong finals series.
But the midweek narrative vindicating Souths’ decision to let Adam Reynolds go at the end of 2021 looked pretty hollow as the rudderless Rabbitohs conceded the last 32 points of a prelim in fairly limp fashion.
Hapless Taane Milne becoming the first player to be sent off in a finals match in 28 years capped a rough night that promised plenty.
Despite arguably overachieving to get to where they did, there’s an overriding sense the club is a couple of decisive roster moves away from taking the next step.
5- Derby Decider The Stuff Of Grand Final Legend
Most of the great rugby league club rivalries are based around proximity: South Sydney v Sydney Roosters, Parramatta v Penrith, St George v Cronulla, Manly v Norths.
But we’ve been treated to few genuine derby grand finals. The all-Queensland decider between the Cowboys and Broncos was something of an exception (there’s still 1300km between Townsville and Brisbane) – and it resulted in the undisputed greatest grand final of the NRL era.
A Panthers-Eels showdown is a promoters dream that will electrify western Sydney and should have every neutral fan frothing.
Genuine dislike, sizzling individual match-ups galore, and stacks of recent history – last year’s semi-final classic, Parramatta’s twin regular-season upsets and Penrith’s qualifying final victory – combined with the Eels’ title drought provide the hallmarks of an unforgettable conclusion to the 2022 season.
Meanwhile, to lift the trophy again, Penrith needs to become just the third team in the past 36 seasons (after the Tigers in 2005 and Roosters in 2013) to beat the same team twice in a finals series. Parramatta is aiming to tread the same path to triumph as the Panthers did last year: turning the tables on their qualifying final conquerors.