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All of a sudden, this year’s grand final is an exciting prospect.
Over the last couple of weeks, a Storm victory has seemed inevitable.
They’re just so much better than every other team in the competition that the finals felt like a foregone conclusion.
Keeping the Broncos scoreless on Friday night just seemed to clinch it.
This was, after all, the clash that many commentators predicted for the actual grand final.
Why, then, does the Cowboys’ incredible victory over the Roosters throw a spanner in the works?
After all, if the Storm has beaten every other team in the eight, it stands to reason they can beat North Queensland as well.
Last time these two sides met the purple army came away with a 26-8 win – and in Townsville.
That was in Round 22, and yet the Cowboys feel like a very different team now.
For one thing, Michael Morgan and Jason Taumalolo have finally come into their own.
For another thing, the Cows now have the three most improbable wins of the finals season behind them.
(Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)
Add to that the fact that their inclusion in the finals was dependent on the Dogs beating the Dragons, and this is a fairytale finish if ever there was one.
That’s why they’re the only team that really ever stood any chance of beating Melbourne.
At this stage, Melbourne are so far ahead of the other NRL outfits in terms of talent that the only way any team could beat them is with a surge of spirit and self-belief that goes beyond what you’d normally expect of a finals season.
With three such unlikely wins, the Cowboys may now just have that surge.
Sure, the Storm may have three marquee players in Cameron Smith, Cooper Cronk and Billy Slater.
But being forced to hit the field without marquee players can give a team a different kind of strength.
It’s certainly forced Morgan to showcase an organisational aptitude we never even glimpsed while Johnathan Thurston was alongside him in the halves.
Spirit and self-belief may seem like vague concepts, but there’s no other way to explain how the Cows came away with such an emphatic win against the Roosters on Saturday night.
Similarly, don’t underestimate how much the Storm are sustained by their own inspirational narrative.
This is the last time that Smith, Cronk and Slater will play together.
It’s also the culmination of Slater’s long and magnificent journey back from injury.
Finally, it marks the culmination of a record-breaking finals season for both Smith and Slater.
All those factors have given the Storm a sense of entitlement heading into this grand final – and entitlement can sometimes win grand finals.
Yet with this win over the Roosters the Cowboys have cemented an inspirational narrative to rival even the Storm’s most media-saturated moments.
If Melbourne are playing for a legacy, then the Cows are playing to cement one.
(Photo by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)
If Melbourne are playing for a future without Cronk, then the Cows are playing for an even more distant future without Thurston.
In the process, North Queensland have already captured the popular imagination.
For all the professional humility that the Storm have incorporated into their PR machine, the Cowboys are genuine underdogs – bereft of their co-captains and arguably their two most important players, they’ve won each of their three finals games on organisation, focus and pure determination.
In their own way, they’re entitled to this win as well, and the groundswell in their favour may help them get there.
One thing is for sure – at this late stage, talent alone was never going to beat the Storm.
By providing a surge of momentum that rivals Melbourne, and an inspirational groundswell that eclipses even the most lavish paeans to the Storm’s Big Three, the Cows may just be the only team that stand a chance of a decent grand final in one week’s time.
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