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It’s Parramatta and Penrith in the 2022 NRL season decider, you all know that. But how did they get there? They had to win a preliminary final, and that’s what this week’s NRL talking points are all about.
What a win by Parramatta
What a game we got on Friday night as the Eels fought back against severe adversity in a pulsating Queensland Country Bank Stadium atmosphere.
Down 20-12 with 22 minutes left, it looked like Parra were dead and buried as the Cowboys rode strong runs from Rueben Cotter and Luciano Leilua, sparkling work from the backs and that crowd driving them to the line.
But the Eels scrambled again and again in defence to keep the Cowboys from delivering that killer blow, with some borderline miraculous work on their goal line for repeat sets before they worked the ball upfield and grasped a breath of life with a try to Reagan Campbell-Gillard.
Clint Gutherson was magnificent at fullback, Ryan Matterson was great, Campbell-Gillard and Junior Paulo were immense yet again and Shaun Lane played one of his best games. Lane was in everything, making critical plays to drag his team along.
A mention to Mitch Moses too, who missed the birth of his first child to play.
The reward for Parramatta’s stirring win is another crack at Penrith. Win or lose, making the decider is a credit to the team and coach Brad Arthur, who has been copping it from all angles this season.
What a win by Penrith
Down 12-0 after half an hour and with a vocal South Sydney crowd in full voice, for just a moment there it looked like the premiers were vulnerable to a good, old-fashioned preliminary final ambush.
But just like Parramatta in Week 1, the Bunnies didn’t have the tank or the discipline to keep at Penrith’s level for 80 minutes and when the Panthers started to rumble, the Rabbitohs just had no other gears to go to.
To be perfectly honest the Panthers had enough chances to win by much, much more than 20 points but four disallowed tries kept things interesting early on.
Penrith are in perfect knick for a tilt at back to back premierships. Viliame Kikau was great and rounded out a good weekend by escaping suspension for a shoulder charge. Nathan Cleary again tormented opposition backs with his boot. Api Koroisau lifted Penrith’s tempo and scored the try to settle them down.
(Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)
Brian To’o’s magnificent 80-metre bulldozer try in the shadows of half-time all but ended the game as a contest, as Souths yet again made a horrible error at the worst possible time.
But let’s hold the spotlight for fullback Dylan Edwards, who was spectacular yet again. His positioning, effort and ability to get the ball out of trouble is second to none.
Penrith are the most dominant side we’ve seen in the NRL since maybe Melbourne’s 2017 premiership side. Whether they can finish the job like that Melbourne squad did, time will tell.
Don’t put the Cowboys’ season down to a ‘forward pass’
North Queensland were rightly devastated in the aftermath of their loss but there’s no doubt at all they’ve made huge steps forward in 2022. After early growing pains, Todd Payten has the squad he wants and the time to ingrain his philosophy across the club.
The result was a jump from 15th and seven wins last year to third with 17 and a finals win. That’s experience that’ll set them in good stead when teams come for them next year.
As Payten put it post-game, “We have got a good foundation, if we don’t fall in love with ourselves moving forward, and we continue to work hard and want to get better, we will be back here again.”
As for the hysteria over that Mitch Moses ‘forward pass’ which led to Parramatta’s first try? Let’s calm down and leave the final say to Payten again: “My first instinct was I thought it was forward but looking back on replay a couple of times, I thought it was pretty tight,” he said.
“It happened early enough in the game to get over it. We went in 12-all at halftime and 20-12 after 55 minutes, so we moved on pretty well.”
Make sure to check out all of Payten’s press conference. It’s a great thing.
Souths need a bit of work
The Rabbitohs worked well early but like everyone else, just fell away when Penrith put the foot down.
Talking points has covered plenty of what South Sydney have done well this finals series but it’s the bad that reared its head Saturday night. The Bunnies were hardly on their own in being overwhelmed by Penrith, but the way they handled the last moments of the season was quite poor.
Frustration and angst was bubbling just under the surface until winger Taane Milne coathangered Spencer Leniu, sending Leniu from the field and putting his grand final participation at severe risk.
Milne gets 6-7 weeks’ suspension and to be frank is lucky it wasn’t more for one of the more shocking acts we’ve seen lately. We also had the sideshow of Cody Walker trying to get into it with a Panthers trainer after the game.
All things considered South Sydney’s year should be called a success. They’ve got the players in key spots to do well, now let’s see if they can start 2023 faster than they did this year.
The NRLW gave us a massive boilover
An unbelievable result on Sunday when Parramatta knocked out the reigning premiers the Roosters 24-10. This is made even more unbelievable when you consider the Eels won only one of their five season games, enough to sneak into the finals on points differential.
They’ll take the field against Newcastle, who made short work of last year’s Grand Finalists St George-Illawarra 30-6. The Knights are quickly cementing a spot as one of the premier squads in the NRLW and with Canberra, Cronulla, North Queensland and Wests Tigers joining next year, you’ve gotta win these when you get the chance before players move around.
Quick hits
– One of Penrith’s disallowed tries caused a few fits of the vapours in the Channel Nine commentary box. Is there any other sport which lets its broadcasters just run the game down like this?
– Further to the above, why do we have so many broadcasters in our game who clearly don’t know the rules – or even worse, know the rules, but choose to sook about refereeing decisions anyway?
– Reports over the weekend that Canberra re-signed key prop Joe Tapine for four more years on a deal worth $3.5 million, massive money for a prop but a well-earned extension.
– A quick burst of international footy was had on Sunday arvo, with the Prime Minister’s XIIIs of Australia and Papua New Guinea facing off in Brisbane. Australia’s women’s and mens sides saluted handsomely to the tune of 64-6 and 64-14 respectively.
– Got a quick hit of your own? Whack it in the comments.
To the next
Only one week left!
Grand final day kicks off with Penrith’s NSW Cup-winning team facing Queensland champion North Brisbane Devils in the NRL State Championship Grand Final.
Following that, we get the Parramatta versus Newcastle NRLW Grand Final too, which is shaping as a beauty.
The day concludes with Penrith and Parramatta in the ‘battle of the west’ in Sydney’s ‘reconfigured stadium in the west’. Can the Eels cause the huge upset, or will Penrith make it a clean sweep of the Jersey Flegg, NSW Cup, SG Ball and NRL competitions?
What did you make of the season’s penultimate weekend, Roarers?