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And in the end, Mam couldn’t even beat the machine.
It was always going to take something special, something completely out of the box to beat the most dominant team of the NRL era, on the cusp of the first back-to-back-to-back titles in 40 years. Brisbane had it, until they didn’t.
The greatest rugby league team seen since the great St George side of the 1950s and 1960s have their pièce de résistance, landing the biggest comeback in grand final history.
Down 16 points, down and absolutely out on their feet, Nathan Cleary dragged the Panthers to their third straight title with a mesmerising 26-24 win over the Broncos at Accor Stadium on Sunday night. You saw it, and you still didn’t believe it.
On the back of an electric 10-minute second-half hat-trick from Brisbane’s Ezra Mam, the first in a grand final since Michael Robertson since 2008, the Broncos had one-and-a-half hands on the Panthers’ trophy. Then one of the greatest grand finals in history played out.
You always have to be wary of recency bias, but that statement is not hyperbole. Few rugby league games have been dramatic, and now the Panthers join Parramatta, the last team to win three straight titles from 1981-83, on rugby league’s Mount Rushmore.
Penrith halfback Nathan Cleary engineered the greatest grand final comeback in history.Credit: Getty
Cleary will be there one day, too.
Down 24-8 with only 18 minutes left, Cleary set up Moses Leota, kicked a 40-20 to engineer the next, and then did it all himself for the winner with just over three minutes left. His kick from right next to the posts finished the unthinkable.
Earlier in the night, Mam had seemingly beaten the machine.
Brisbane found their inspiration the form of a heavily tattooed Torres Strait Islander, whose mother’s trek to be in Sydney on grand final night started with a dinghy ride from a remote island in northern Australia. What a story she has to tell when she returns.
Nathan Cleary leaves Reece Walsh in the dust to score the match-winner for Penrith.Credit: Getty Images
Mam, 20, scored three tries in the blink of an eye. The youngest star in a team full of them, searing away for three tries and opening up a defence which has never looked as porous, should have decided it. But it didn’t.
Penrith don’t know when they’re beaten. Cleary doesn’t know when he’s beaten. They might not be beaten next year, the year after that, and who knows how long it will keep going.
Conversely, Brisbane never looked like they should be in the game in the first half. They looked like the only team in it during much of the second half. Jarome Luai’s shoulder gave way. Stephen Crichton scored a try in a fourth straight grand final, trailing only St George legend Johnny King, who scored in six straight deciders. Cleary rose from the dead, and a dodgy knee which forced him to hand goalkicking duties to Crichton on one occasion in the first half.
Reece Walsh was supposed to be Brisbane’s man, until it was Mam. Walsh’s most telling contribution in the first half was those neon pink boots, in sheer frustration, running sideways from a kick return near his own line. The Penrith defence muscled him back into the in-goal. From the resultant short drop out, a questionable decision given the 6-0 scoreline, Adam Reynolds shanked it out of play. Cleary had the simple task of making it 8-0.
The Panthers and short dropouts are synonymous with grand finals, and Royce Simmons is not the only one who will never have to buy a beer in Penrith again. The numbers said the Broncos should have been licked by half-time – just 43 per cent possession, an awful 61 per cent completion rate, 371 less running metres – but thankfully, rugby league is not just decided by numbers.
But if not for Mitch Kenny, like Simmons a tough hooker, loitering near the Broncos’ try line, swooping on a Herbie Farnworth bat back after another Reynolds short drop kick, the Panthers wouldn’t have scored a first-half try at all. Kenny hadn’t scored a try all year until the last day of the season. A brutal half had a touch of the bizarre.
But the black boa constrictor let up, only just, and it was enough for the Broncos. Tom Flegler, only moments earlier cleared to return to the field after a concussion test, ducked, dived and then asked for divine intervention under an Isaah Yeo tackle. The rugby league gods answered, 8-6 at the break. Coach Kevin Walters wouldn’t have believed his luck.
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Mam made good on it after the break with two scintillating individual tries, and another off Walsh. The machine was bruised, broken and beaten.
Until it wasn’t.
PENRITH PANTHERS 26 (Nathan Cleary, Mitch Kenny, Moses Leota, Stephen Crichton tries; Nathan Cleary 4, Stephen Crichton goals) defeated BRISBANE BRONCOS 24 (Ezra Mam 3, Tom Flegler tries; Adam Reynolds 4 goals) at Accor Stadium. Referee: Adam Gee. Crowd: 81,947.
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