It’s the disciplined Storm against helter skelter Eels

Jeff Lima in action during the NRL, Round 19, Parramatta Eels v Melbourne Storm match at Parramatta Stadium in Sydney on Monday July 20, 2009. Eels won 18-16. AAP Image/Action Photographics, Robb Cox

This wasn’t how it was meant to end up. Twelve months ago, this season was meant to be about another chapter in the great Manly dynasty, a club which would dominate the NRL for years to come after their victory in the 2008 Grand Final.

Melbourne were meant to be a team on the slide, after another off-season where they lost more than they gained and with more teary departures brought on by the salary cap.

How wrong we all were.

And if you think 12 months is along time in rugby league, try 12 weeks.

Read the papers and the Parramatta elections were not about getting the team into a Grand Final but merely ensuring they had a team to enter in the comp.

“Heartless”, “Penniless” the Telegraph screamed. They are now one week away from typesetting “Premiers”. Surely a unique trifecta.

But they one have big hurdle in front them and that hurdle has a few handy gatekeepers in its path. Melbourne were brutally efficient against the Broncos.

Would Peter Wallace have changed things? Who knows.

Brisbane got their timing all right to charge into the finals and then into the qualifying final, but the timing of Wallace’s injury couldn’t have been worse.

Phil Gould in the Sun Herald argued it was proof there was a need for a playmakers academy to be set up. I’m not sure about that, but it was proof that teams struggle when they lose their first choice halfback and playmaker, something we have been learning on a yearly basis since about 1908.

You’d be hard pressed to find a club whose premiership dreams have been scuppered by an ill-timed injury. Wallace has been a pretty maligned figure this year, but his absence showed how vital he was to the Broncos side.

Regardless, the Storm look red hot.

Like Parramatta, their big gun look to be firing at the right time. It should be an epic final.

On Friday night it was a truly mammoth game. You could say right from the opening tackle, but it was for about the opening forty tackles.

The defence from both sides was immense, but in the end Parramatta’s ad lib football was simply too good.

As the game wore on and both teams tired, the Bulldogs, whose charge this season has been built on structure, looked out of ideas.

Conversely, the Eels didn’t look like they had a plan but simply tossed it around, running the Bulldogs ragged.

Normally you want to force a team into throwing it around as it can lead to errors, but the Eels seem to thrive on helter skelter ball movement.

I’ve never seen a team throw so many risky passes in their own twenty and never be punished for it.

Sometimes successful teams bring about a whole new way the game is played. I wonder if this style will attempt to be replicated by other sides next year?

Of course, you need the right cattle, and to say Parramatta owed it all to Jaryd Hayne would do the other players a huge disservice.

Jeff Robson, Daniel Mortimer, Krisnan Inu and Feleti Mateo all gave the Bulldogs as many nightmares as the current human highlight reel, so credit must go to Daniel Anderson for instilling such belief and confidence in his players.

Renowned as a disciplinarian, Anderson is clearly a lot more than just a fire and brimstone merchant as he seems to have brought tremendous unity and joy to a bunch of footballers who haven’t looked like they have enjoyed their football over the past few seasons.

And what of the vanquished?

The Canterbury club will, on reflection, be incredibly satisfied with how the year went after their disastrous 2008.

However, the same question will be asked there as it will be in Kogarah and the Gold Coast: does the style of football, which is so effective during 26 rounds of the competition, then work in the finals?

The top three all looked to be lacking the strike power when it mattered.

Do you need to carry a few aces, which in turn give you a lopsided roster, to wheel out for the big games, even if it costs you a few matches during the season?

Ivan Henjak should have dismissed his doubters after his maiden year in charge, much like Kevin Moore.

But both will suffer key departures in the off-season and their challenge will now be to lift their players for a second straight year to have them back in contention in 2010.