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Grand final was proof fairytales really do happen

4th October, 2015
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JT delivers the Cowboys a premiership. (AAP Image/Mick Tsikas)
Expert
4th October, 2015
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We knew it would be – at worst – a good NRL grand final. We hoped it would be great. What we got was incredible.

It was one of those finishes that will become legend. The stunning try right on full-time to tie the game up. The conversion attempt from the sideline by the player of his generation – which looked like it was going to curl between the posts but instead hit one and stayed out.

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The extra-time knock on by an opponent that put the player of his generation back in the box seat to orchestrate the win. And, finally, the field goal from said player that sent Cowboys fans – and surely every neutral observer – into raptures.

I could go on and on about metres made, tackles missed and all of that, but what really mattered about this game was that it was a fascinating and compelling contest from start to finish, which somehow produced the fairytale ending just when it appeared time had run out.

Cowboys five-eighth Michael Morgan, who just keeps getting better and better, bent a beautiful ball around the corner and Kyle Feldt scored out wide after the Broncos were just a few seconds and one good tackle away from holding on to a 16-12 lead and becoming premiers.

Johnathan Thurston, presumably trying to find some energy and get his emotions under control at the same time, took forever to line up the conversion attempt and when he finally hit the ball it was not his greatest strike.

It kept lower than what one of the Cowboys halfback’s usual kicks would, but still the ball started to swing in the typical style of a Thurston shot and as it neared the posts it looked like sneaking inside the near one, until…

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Then, in extra time, Broncos halfback Ben Hunt got under a towering kick-off from the Cowboys and knocked the ball on just a couple of metres off his own line. Hunt was inconsolable. He realised he had probably just dropped the grand final. The Cowboys couldn’t get their field goal attempt away as early in the set as they would like, but in the end Thurston got the chance and nailed it.

What an incredible climax to a phenomenal match.

I consider myself lucky. I was at the 1989 grand final between Canberra and Balmain, when Steve Jackson bulldozed his way towards the line and carried several defenders with him to score the match-winning try for the Raiders in extra time.

I was also at the 1997 grand final, when Darren Albert ran off an Andrew Johns pass to score the match-winning try for Newcastle against Manly.

And I was there last night to witness a fairytale.

There was no other place to be than at ANZ Stadium. Cold Chisel rocked the joint with a fabulous mini-concert to get everyone pumped up and then Brisbane and North Queensland did the rest.

Thurston had, of course, won a grand final before, but that was as a young bench player for the Bulldogs against the Roosters in 2004. He was the starting halfback for the Cowboys in the grand final the following year, but they lost to a Wests Tigers team that had its own wizard in Benji Marshall.

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Last night was Thurston’s chance to win the grand final as the key player in his side and the best player in the game.

There had been plenty of debate leading up to the match about whether Thurston needed a premiership win to cement a rating as one of the game’s all-time greats – whether he needed it to become an Immortal.

That debate is now irrelevant – if, indeed, it was ever relevant in the first place. Thurston will be an Immortal one day.

Sometimes, you just know a game is going to be good. But just how good, you have to wait to find out. We got really lucky with this one.

And the emotion from the combatants afterwards – it was tremendous to see.

Thurston heading to the sideline to embrace his wife and child, players who have often been teammates for the dominant Queensland State of Origin side but were opponents last night hugging each other. Broncos players trying to console Hunt.

It was great to be there to witness it all. What a night.

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