2017 NRL GF: We've Got Grand Finalists
Only the best get routinely smashed.
Next weekend's Grand Final is next weekend's problem, savouring two NRL teams who won their way to the Grand Final by playing rugby league at an an excessively high level is for right now. Melbourne Storm had all their big guns, all their role-players and all those in-between firing against Brisbane Broncos and eventually rolled over the Broncos. North Queensland Cowboys don't have their two big guns, they are however playing exceptionally well. The composure and mental fortitude the Cowboys showed against Sydney Roosters in grinding the Chooks down, was almost as sublime as their skill and execution. With that we can toast to some funky rugby league.
Many have been shocked about the Cowboys performances and the Wildcard's going to type something up along those lines. Yes, they are without Jonathan Thurston and Matt Scott, however led by a Michael Morgan who has soared through numerous rugby league levels of excellence this season, this Cowboys team have found a way to operate as well as they would have with Thurston steering the ship.
Lachlan Coote is equally as crucial as Morgan, and Jason Taumalolo. Then again, all the Cowboys players are doing their bit in this well-oiled machine. Look through that Cowboys roster and you won't find a bad player, or a player who has played poorly in recent weeks. There may be some level of shock about the Cowboys, this overlooks the solid consistency in the Cowboys roster, from 1-17; Ethan Lowe and Gavin Cooper are solid, Justin O'Neill and Kane Linnett are solid, Kyle Feldt's a try-scoring specialist and Antonio Winterstein only ticks boxes.
The Cowboys have got the most out of mid-season recruit Shaun Fensom, who is the perfect foil for Taumalolo. Fensom hasn't had to re-invent himself, he just isn't required to make big metres because that's not his job and the same goes for Corey Jensen - who the fuck is Corey Jensen!? When you ponder the variety in this Cowboys forward pack, I'm reminded of something Paul Green said about James Tamou and his Cowboys forward pack as Tamou, Matt Scott and Taumalolo are all different body shapes. This is why Green went out and signed Jordan McLean from the Storm for next season, this current Cowboys forward pack has a splash of size-variety with Coen Hess coming off the bench, however the variety is really in the skill-sets offered.
Taumalolo is a beast, Hess is a beast, John Asiata is more subtle and the graft is there in Fensom, Jensen and Scott Bolton. Ah, Scott Bolton.
It's rude to compare Taumalolo to any Roosters forward, so let's compare Bolton; Bolton had 16 carries for 145m with 5 tackle busts and a line break while no Roosters middle forward had more than 10 carries for 97m (Sio Siua Taukeiaho). That big, bad, nasty Roosters forward pack got put in the shade by Bolton and no one should be surprised given Bolton has averaged 14 carries and 134m per-game this season and 9.3m/carry. The best players save their best work for the Finals and Bolton has bumped up his season averages to 16 carries and 156m in the Finals, averaging 9.75m/carry.
As for the Storm, well it's just Melbourne Storm wizardry. There's not much point in highlighting how the Storm have absorbed the loss of Cheyse Blair - a typical Storm solid, job-doing centre - with young Curtis Scott, or how they low key assembled the best forward pack in the NRL that will lose Tohu Harris and McLean, while somehow gaining Sam Kasiano to partner Nelson Asofa-Solomona, or how the Storm jacked Asofa-Solomona and Suliasi Vunivalu from 1st XV rugby in Aotearoa; 1st 15 rugby is as good an NRL supply line as any and the Storm have scouted it the best since they lured Matt Duffie over (compare that to the Warriors who got mediocre returns out of Konrad Hurrell, Ngani Laumape, Solomone Kata and Albert Vete).
There's not much point in highlighting that stuff, even though it's amazing and shouldn't be slept on, because it's the Storm. They have done all of that many times before and this is exactly what you'd expect from the best NRL club (not team, club) of the past 15 years, perhaps the best sporting franchise in Asia, Australia and Oceania, perhaps a top-10 sporting franchise in the world; San Antonio Spurs esque.
We obviously expect wizardry from Melbourne's big-three, although they deserve special mention, yet again. A lot of noise was made by Andrew Johns' comments about Adam Blair and any time someone mentions 'coward' or 'cheap shot', silly media get excited. Blair was merely doing his job, the same job he does every week and that job is part of what makes Brisbane a formidable opposition. That's even more important when you are playing Cooper Cronk, like, how to you put Cronk off his game?
Well, we saw that last year in the Grand Final when Cronulla Sharks put Cronk under all sorts of niggly pressure and unless you've got a better idea, I'd roll with super duper levels of niggle as well. This is also a product of Cronk being the best halfback not named Thurston, ever.
Thurston and Cronk take hefty shots frequently because they take the ball right to the defensive line, luring defenders in, before making a decision and executing. When I see Cronk flattened, I see the best halfback in the game sacrificing himself solely to execute a play to the best of his ability. That and there's not too many other ways to slow him down.
Guess who leads the Storm in offloads? Billy Slater. Guess who scoots out of dummy half when the Storm are on their own 10m-line and a pack of forwards are waiting to pounce? Billy Slater. Slater looks as though he could go for another five years and the tries against Brisbane were nice, although those tough carries from deep in Melbourne territory really caught the eye.
Slater's speed is a weapon and there's something extra, I'm not sure what it is. There's speed, but Slater's never the quickest bloke on the field, maybe it's his ability to maintain speed while changing direction with every step. Who knows, like Cameron Munster, Slater is just incredibly difficult to tackle and like Cronk getting smoked for his late ball-playing, Slater cops plenty when using that agility to make crucial metres off Melbourne's try-line.
There was a play in the second half where Cameron Smith went down the short-side on the left edge and eventually put a kick in, deep into the Broncos corner. This was one of many exceptional kicks from Smith, early kicks that put Brisbane back down their end of the field and there's simply no other team that rolls out a play like Smith kicking long and early, with Cronk boosting after the kick to make a key tackle, as those two did against Brisbane #Excellence.
But this one kick typified what Smith is capable of and what this trio are capable of. Smith had the footy in two hands, as if he may pass, he shaped to kick in-field off his left and then put a low kick into the corner, off his right footy. All while having his eyes up, all in the space for 5-10m.
We hear a lot about great athletes having more 'time' than regular athletes and it's a concept I understand, crystal clear examples are hard to find though and it's far easier for the athlete to feel like everything around them slowed down than it is for us as the audience, to see everything else slow down around that player. That little play from Smith oozed time and it was as if Smith had put the game in half-speed.
For that moment, I reached a rugby league peak. The Storm and Cowboys did the rugby league thing to such great levels this weekend, they were nothing but excellent. Being hypnotized by Cameron Smith was the highlight, the highlight of two fabulous footy performances.
Peace and love 27.
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