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PRICHARD: Broncos to beat Cowboys in classic NRL grand final

27th September, 2015
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Will Bennett be at the Broncos in 2019? (AAP Image/Dan Peled)
Expert
27th September, 2015
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The game has got the grand final it deserves. The two best teams in the game will meet with the potential to deliver us a rugby league spectacular. You can’t ask for any more than that.

But, as much as there is a strong argument for both teams, I don’t need time to think about who I’m tipping. I’d much rather know Justin Hodges was definitely going to play, but I’m not in a position to wait – I’m tipping the Broncos to beat the Cowboys at ANZ Stadium on Sunday.

2015 NRL GRAND FINAL KICKOFF TIME

The master coach, Wayne Bennett, has taken them this far and I’m sticking with him to successfully complete the final leg of the journey.

I found it very hard to believe the Roosters were favourites to beat the Broncos last Friday. I’m also surprised the Cowboys are slight favourites against the Broncos, but I accept the circumstances are much different.

The grand final will be fought on neutral ground, rather than Brisbane’s home ground, Suncorp Stadium, and North Queensland has the greatest player in the world, Johnathan Thurston.

The Roosters had Mitchell Pearce, who was on one leg and only lasted until halftime.

The Broncos and Cowboys have, of course, already played once in this finals series – in the opening week – and produced a magnificent contest that is among the contenders for best game of the season.

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Brisbane won it, 16-12, at Suncorp and the respective teams for the grand final will be pretty close to the same as the ones from that occasion – unless Hodges misses out.

It was as sure as night follows day that Hodges would be hit with a grade one dangerous throw charge for his tackle on Roosters forward Aiden Guerra. The match review committee had to charge him because Guerra ended up landing awkwardly and Hodges played a role in that.

But that doesn’t mean Hodges doesn’t have a decent chance of getting off.

Guerra did jump off his right foot in the tackle, apparently to try to win a penalty, while Hodges had hold of his left leg in the air. Presumably, Guerra will be asked to give evidence on behalf of Hodges.

Defenders sometimes lift the leg of a player who has been stopped in a tackle to prevent him from getting going again and hopefully force him to the ground. Usually, the tackle ends without a problem, but this time Guerra flipped over so it became an issue.

It is the type of charge a player might plead guilty to during the regular season, but they’re playing for sheep stations now.

The Broncos will obviously argue that Guerra contributed significantly to the outcome and that Hodges only had hold of his leg and wasn’t trying to drive him into the turf – and you’ve got three ex-footballers who will have to decide.

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It’s one of those cases where a well-constructed argument could get you off.

But we’re going to have to wait and see what happens with that one. There are plenty of other aspects of the game that can be dissected now and the most important one, in my view, is defence.

The Cowboys have been very good in defence of late, but Brisbane’s defence developed into the best in the competition towards the end of the regular season and has stayed that way.

Yes, I know, the Cowboys conceded zero points against Cronulla in week two of the finals, but that was understandable because the Sharks literally had nothing. They were positively awful. The Broncos would have minced them as well.

The Broncos have been routinely producing brilliant goal-line defence recently and backing it up with a very high completion rate and an incredible ability to make the opposition pay for its mistakes.

Many of these mistakes the opposition is pressured into by the fact the Broncos are so good in the other departments.

The halves will obviously be key and Thurston functions even better when Michael Morgan is there alongside him. They were both highly influential in Saturday night’s win over Melbourne. But the Broncos are very well served in that area as well, with Anthony Milford and Ben Hunt.

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Even before you get to the other great players on both sides, the presence of those four players in the halves alone makes this a grand final to look forward to with great anticipation.

It has got all the makings of a classic.

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