Opinion
When I look back on the winning the 2010 Grand Final, it was such a whirlwind week.
We were part of a special Dragons team where it was a case of just do your job, like we were working on a production line.
If we’re building a car and you have to put the left tyre on, and I have to put the steering wheel on, if we’re worrying about what’s going on in the boot we’re not going to do our jobs properly.
Sometimes it’s about stars, and sometimes it’s about being a great team and that’s what we were. We didn’t have three or four immortals.
You look at Penrith and South Sydney and the 17 blokes that run out there tonight, they have to do their jobs. It’s not about finding an emotional level.
If you don’t do your job, then you can’t win the game, regardless of how good someone else plays.
I look at the Panthers last year, I felt like they were ambushed early and they didn’t know how to respond to that.
They had guys who tried too hard in the game and tried to find that extra level, when they didn’t really need to. They just needed to think about their jobs and doing what they had been all year to get into that position.
Wayne Bennett’s message to South Sydney will just be that – do your job. Yes, ‘we’re going to have to come up with some plays, and not everything’s going to be perfect’. Then naturally, the match winners will take over. That’s why they’re in those positions and why they get paid all that money.
With Penrith you have to consider the heartache of last year, the 12 months that they’ve had to get back to this day and the relief of beating Melbourne psychologically, and what it did for that team. They looked transformed against the Storm.
Defensively they’ve been outstanding this whole final series, only conceding 24 points. When we won in 2010 we conceded 18 points in the finals.
Penrith’s defence has kept them in games and help them win games. The storyline of the heartache and ‘we’ve been here before, boys’ would have been talked about.
Then you flip the script on the other side and look at South Sydney. They’ve got the most experienced Grand Final coach of all time, they’ve got one of the top 10 ‘games’ of all time in Benji Marshall, and with Adam Reynolds they have a Premiership winner in the most important position in the number seven.
I look at this week as a battle of: will this amazing defensive side of the last two years do it one more time, and then get their position players in enough field position to be able to come up with some plays, up against South Sydney’s amazing attacking effort and their ability to be desperate throughout this finals series.
Obviously the clash of the number sevens Adam Reynolds and Nathan Cleary will be a massive one.
(Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)
I’m still completely puzzled as to why Souths are letting go a premium number seven like Reynolds after this game, at a time when sevens are at such a premium.
It’s not just his game management kicking, but also his goalkicking that they may regret losing.
The ability to turn four points into six is what wins you big games and Reynolds has done that.
He’s also been playing some of his best footy in terms of getting Cody Walker into position.
Walker, and Jarome Luai for the Panthers, have had amazing seasons, but they don’t do it without those number sevens getting them into position, with passes when they need it, not necessarily when they want it.
For Reynolds, being a local kid, I can’t imagine what that would feel like if he gets to hold up that trophy as captain in his final game.
I’ve spent a lot of time with Adam. We’ve talked a bit of shop at the Sydney Kings where we’re both ambassadors.
He’s a really smart thinker. He sees the game three or four plays ahead. He’s trying to win that field position, not always for that set right now but for maybe in five or six minutes when they can reap the rewards.
It’s hard to explain that to young halfbacks. A great kick in the first minute can set us up for a try in the sixth or seventh minute. He’s been one of the best in the game at doing that in the last five or six years.
It seems Reynolds might be taking a slight injury into the game. It will be interesting to see how he attacks early and if he takes the goal kicks. That could be a huge blow for Souths if he can’t.
Blake Taaffe is sensational, but Reynolds is your short play and out of trouble kicker. That up against Nathan Cleary’s kick selection is key.
How the Churchill Medal could be decided
While that sevens battle is huge, the matchup I’m really looking forward to is between the two No.9s.
Api Koroisau isn’t the player we saw before Origin where some were suggesting he could take Damien Cook’s spot.
As the season has unfolded he’s lost that ability to be able to generate momentum around the ruck and create quick play the ball, which has stifled Penrith’s attack.
He needs to be able to come out and turn players back under. Guys like James Fisher-Harris and Moses Leota and Viliame Kikau when they get a quick play the ball, that’s when he’s at his best.
It will be a battle for him against Cook, who’s probably had his best finals series in the last four years. Because he’s done that, they’ve started really well, banged the front door down with Mark Nicholls and Tevita Tatola, and then Cook hasn’t come out sideways, he’s actually gone direct, and Tom Burgess and Jai Arrow have kept getting those quick play the balls.
How important is the battle of Koroisau and Cook? If Penrith win, I think the Clive Churchill Medallist will be Koroisau or Dylan Edwards, and if South Sydney win it will be Cook.
Penrith’s key man behind the scenes
While it’s obvious to look at what the coaches Ivan Cleary and Wayne Bennett have achieved in getting their teams to the decider, Penrith defence coach Cameron Ciraldo deserves plenty of credit.
You only have to listen to the team talk about how hard he works on their structures and see what they’ve done in that space to realise his impact.
Discipline and desire are both important. They scramble for everything, but they don’t make decisions on their own.
The rare times that they’ve gotten into trouble has been from a really good play by the opposition, when they’ve executed everything perfectly.
That contrasts to other teams where players, through desperation or concentration lapses, make decisions by themselves and come out of the line to stop a play and can’t get there.
Penrith are very much about work hard from the inside and let the player fold, and we’ll work together as a team.
When you’re in those structures, and you’ve successfully made big plays, you gain trust with your teammates. That magnifies with desperation in the game but you don’t need to over-analyse it.
Too many times with defensive teams a guy makes a bad read on an edge and the other guy stays out and that’s disconnected them because they don’t trust each other. Penrith trust each other and, over the last few months, we’ve seen South Sydney do that to.
I worked with Cameron while I was Penrith and played against him. He’s very detailed in what he does.
He has that nice mix of knowing when to flick the switch and how to also socialise and take it down a notch with his teammates. I think a lot of those young guys at Penrith, really appreciate that approach, having come through with him in the under 20s.
I’ve always found when you talk footy to Cirro, he’s a thinker, and he’s actually listening to what you’re saying, taking it all in.
For a footy nerd like myself, you talk to Adam Reynolds and Cameron Ciraldo when they’re talking shop and it’s really exciting.
Cirro would make a fantastic NRL head coach. You’ve got to have some experience in different positions, and he’s been successful in that.
But he will know that rookie head coaches are not going to walk into a top team, they’re going to start in a team that’s struggling. You’ve got to be able to take that leap and work your own systems in and try and get the best out of players.
Cameron’s done a fair apprenticeship. He’s been part of that successful branding of bringing youngsters through and every club wants to bring their local juniors through, like Penrith. At the Dragons we’re trying to do that now and we’ve got a crop there that we’ve brought through this year.
Cameron’s detail and proven ability in bringing juniors through would be an important asset to have for any club.
Why I’m tipping Penrith
I got my prediction ready at the start of the week, writing down 24-10 to Penrith.
Their defensive quality has not dipped for two years. And regardless of how much their attack is struggling, when you’ve got that base to go back to defensively, it is such a key component.
Souths have had it over the last two and a half months, but the body of work is larger for Penrith.
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