Brisbane Broncos 31
Sydney Roosters 12
The Brisbane Broncos have booked their place in the 2015 NRL grand final with a dominant, 19-point win over the Sydney Roosters at Suncorp Stadium in the first preliminary final.
It took a field goal to seal the deal for the Broncos, but the game was never seriously in question for the last half an hour as the Broncos ran away against a Roosters side whose attack wasn’t gelling and defence didn’t look serious enough.
Ben Hunt was absolutely magnificent, and along with Anthony Milford paved the way for some of the most outrageous tries you will ever see. The Broncos forwards, led by Sam Thaiday and particularly Adam Blair, were fantastic in allowing Hunt and Milford to run rampant over the Roosters defensive line.
Darius Boyd had his best game of the season, while Corey Oates put in a strong performance.
For the Roosters, James Maloney provided some spark, while Roger Tuivasa-Sheck also played well in patches. Their front row combination of Sam Moa and Dylan Napa were solid for most of the game, while Sio Siua Taukeiaho had a strong performance off the bench.
The Roosters’ bench was expected to dominate, but the Broncos subs, led by Mitchell Dodds and Jarrod Wallace, kept their momentum going.
The scoring opened in just the first minute with a huge brain explosion from Shaun Kenny-Dowall. After the Broncos’ first set of six, they put a wobbly kick down towards the sideline, with Kenny-Dowall there to collect, but he tried to throw a long ball in to Tuivasa-Sheck and Boyd came through to score the easiest try of his life.
The next try came from a Hunt grubber into the corner, after he noticed a massive overlap in numbers. The ball looked out of play for all money however Jordan Kahu flew through to bat it back in and Hunt was there to score.
In the 19th minute, we saw some incredible passing from Hunt, Milford and then Andrew McCullogh to finish off one of the best-looking tries you are ever likely to see.
However, the Roosters turned the game around, dominating the middle across the next 10 minutes, and Blake Ferguson scored a pair of tries that were almost carbon copies of each other, running over Jack Reed.
The last 10 minutes were back and forth before a long ball fro Hunt right on the stroke of halftime saw Oates score in the corner untouched, for the Broncos to take a 20–12 lead into the break.
Kenny-Dowall was denied a try on a 50/50 call just after the break, and from then on it was all the Broncos.
Milford scored in the 48th minute off his own grubber kick into the in-goal, not long after the Broncos had begun to dominate once again.
After a lot of back and forth, although with the game still heavily in the Broncos favour, Boyd having danced across the Roosters defensive line until he found Reed in a hole, who scored with ease.
On the very next set Milford put over a perfectly executed field goal, and that ended the scoring, with the Broncos closing out the game by slowing down the play and not taking any risks.
All in all, it was a brilliant performance for the Broncos to make the grand final next Sunday evening, although Justin Hodges may have a case to answer at the judiciary after a lifting tackle.
Meanwhile, the Roosters again failed to turn their minor premiership into a grand final appearance.
Minor premiers the Sydney Roosters aim to become the only Sydney-based club in the grand final when they travel north to take on the Brisbane Broncos in the first NRL preliminary final at Suncorp Stadium. Join The Roar for live scores and commentary from 7:30pm (AEST).
Following a strong win in one of the games of the season against the North Queensland Cowboys in the first week of the finals, the Broncos had a much-needed week off and will be feeling refreshed coming into this clash.
After the Broncos finished second in the regular season, many were saying this could be the grand final.
But after the Roosters suffered a first round finals loss to the Melbourne Storm, the chances of that happening were ruined.
The Chooks bounced back to record a strong win against the Canterbury Bulldogs last weekend, all be it in controversial circumstances.
In team news, the Broncos are unchanged from that win over the Cowboys.
Meanwhile, the Roosters welcome New South Wales State of Origin half Mitchell Pearce back into the fold. Pearce replaces Jackson Hastings, who drops back to the bench, with Matt McIlwrick the man to miss out.
The biggest problem for the Broncos this year has been how much of the game has been played on their own goal-line. However, I see this turning into a problem for the Roosters now. With Pearce returning from injury, and James Maloney not in great form, the Roosters could easily get frustrated and make mistakes, which in turn would pave the path to victory for the Broncos. It could well be a mistake to move Hastings back to the bench.
The big battle in this game looks to be Jake Friend against Andrew McCullough. Both players are pivotal to their respective teams’ performances, play a similar amount of minutes, and have similar, livewire back-ups in Hastings and Kodi Nikorima.
Prediction
The Broncos defence is going to be too good and they have proven in recent times they have points in them. Brisbane will get through on the back of a large home crowd at Suncorp and go to the grand final.
Broncos by 6.
With a fascinating preliminary final in front of us, join The Roar for live coverage from 7:30pm (AEST), and don’t forget to comment if you’re following along with the action!
Follow Scott on Twitter @sk_pryde
Marcel
Guest
Broncos deserved to win without a doubt - they played their best football of the year. For the Chooks I just think no Pearce and Hargreaves for 5 weeks finally caught up with them. Imagine the Cows without Thurston and Scott or the Storm without Cronk and Bromich or the Broncos without Hunt and Thiaday.....they would all do it tough
Marcel
Guest
Roosters were always going to do it tough without Pearce and JWH. The Broncos without Hunt and Thiaday or Storm without Cronk and Bromich or Cows without Thurston and Scott would all struggle
Bronco Juggernaut
Guest
Yeah, NSW future halves do not look promising. Brooks, Moses, the Reynolds boys, Austin, Keary. That's about it. The forwards coming through are also in favour of QLD. I'd say NSW have only just got the upper hand in fullbacks, Tedesco and Moylan vs. Holmes and Munster. But Munster is a superstar.
Georgina
Guest
Bennett at Newcastle shows he is not such a wonder coach......Brisbane have a huge advantage being a one team town with massive 3rd party salary payment and player pool......same in Melbourne to a lesser extent.
The Prize_Man
Roar Pro
Agree, Blair has been making those efforts all year. i can remember early in the year him chasing uate for 80m to apply pressure to the bloke supporting him allowing boyd to make the tackle on uate. It seems that pressuring the kicker is something he considers part of his job and makes consistent efforts to do this.
G
Guest
I'm aware he lost a GF in the Brisbane comp to the team that had big Mal and others then got them back the next year by practicing their game plan for them every week. I'm referring to his top flight record, he was a co-coach with Furner Sr when he lost at Raiders but as the sole head coach of an NRL/ARL/NSWRL/SL team he's 7/7, and if that doesn't mentally mess with the Broncos opponents next week I'll be very surprised.
Here we go again.
Guest
Only in your opinion. And too bad that doesn't count for much.
The Barry
Roar Guru
I don't know MB - the "hill of redemption" call re Blake Ferguson early in the game was a bit crook. But I guess when you have Fittler and Gould cheerleading for the Roosters and Lockyer and Lewis cheering on the Broncos it's not hard to come out looking good.
Maroon Blood
Guest
I thought Ray Warren was outstanding as well, didn't get Blair and Thaiday mixed up once!
Pedro the Maroon
Guest
"versing"? This is not a verb.
Leon
Guest
Albeit not all be it!
Johnathan
Guest
That game was a shocker! I am so glad that Broncos won because we might be versing them in the grand final
The Barry
Roar Guru
I agree. It's a bit of a furphy that Blair was terrible for three years at the Tigers. His first season was a stinker, his second average but he was pretty good in his third year. He's gone to another level now and is playing better than he did at the Storm. As well as his brutality his effort was outstanding last night. There was one passage in the second half where the Broncos were comfortably in front but still about 15-20 mins to go. Guerra looked like he was going to make a half break. It was Blair who sprinted over and snuffed it out. He then absolutely flew out of marker to put pressure on Maloney as he kicked. You wouldn't have criticised him if he made neither play or went at half pace but he absolutely gave it everything. Best forward in the game at the moment and I thought should have been MOM last night.
SpongeBob
Guest
Just wait until you see what's been rehearsed for next week!
Jackson Henry
Roar Guru
Casper, I actually agree with you on that. With the caveat though that Gould is actually quite complimentary to QLD these days...which when you think about it, is in his own interests. You'd look like the world's worst analyst of you didn't acknowledge the last decade...
Steve
Guest
OMG....Roosters choke again at the final hurdle. How good is it?? Strangely it was almost the same score as last year when the Rabbits destroyed them in the preliminary final. The new chokers of the NRL.
The Prize_Man
Roar Pro
just thought it summed it up nicely in two words. blair has been outstanding in the back half of the year but that performance tonight was right up there with the best individual forwards performance i have seen. playing as the big man in relatively small pack he really stood up and dominated in both attack and defence. Hunt is class. last year he had to do it all himself and he was great all year. this year he has milf to take some of the attacking responsibilities off of him and it has really allowed his game to flourish. his game management and decision making seems to improve every match my only regret is that he hasn't been the half back since 09.
Joister
Guest
for those who love to stab Trent Robinson and stick it to him listen to his press conference after this evening - he was gracious in defeat and applauding of the broncos playing the better game
Casper
Guest
Geez the vitriol comes out when NSW team gets bashed, I'd suggest he was referring to rugby league. Even your guys admit Suncorp is the best rugby league atmosphere.
Casper
Guest
Big like we've had served up to us for years. Enjoyed Freddie and Gus having to sit down and shut up for a fair while. Bronco halves killed the 2014 Nsw combination and they aren't even our top seeded pair, that duo goes around tomorrow night.