I’m speechless, I have no idea what to say right now. Maybe tomorrow morning I’ll have something to say. For now, let’s celebrate.
THREE-PEAT BABY!
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Turning point for me was when Luai went off. Cleary grew an extra leg.
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I am speechless. What a game.
I haven’t seen anyone else mention it, so maybe I’m wrong, but I also think around that 60min mark Moses was injected back into the game, followed shortly by JFH.
They started to give it to the broncs and gave Cleary the opportunity to do what he needed. Could be wrong though!
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UNBELIEVABLE!!!
I thought we were gone at 24-8, but we found a way.
Can’t wait to get back to Penrith & celebrate.
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Like others, I am beyond words.
Possibly the best grand final of all time.
And the right result.
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I have often said at the elite level its about what’s between the ears with players and last night we witnessed something i have never seen before.
The first 20 minutes went exactly how i thought, we were at our rampaging best with Leota and JFH absolutely killing them and ably helped by our forwards who were intent on belting the other mob. Yet despite this we were clunky in attack in the red zone and the Broncos just wouldn’t go away, so much so we only led 8-6 at half time.
I though to myself at half time, we just need to hold them for the first 15 of the second half and we would run away with it.
Only thing is the Broncos had other thoughts.
And what developed was a half of 2 halves.
Broncos exploded and unleashed Mam who scored 3 of the best tries anyone would wish to see, and in this period we were simply awful and one of those who was awful was Nathan Cleary who missed tackles and we looked completely outclassed…
It was at the 56th minute and Broncos led 24-8
I think hand on heart every Panther thought we were gone and Hunting History was gone as well.
But we had time, all we needed was a change in momentum
Ivan Cleary sensed the urgency and brought Leota into the game.
This is when something clicked in Nathan and the team, with Nathan shifting from being sinner to saint.
Nathan split them open and of all people to be following was Leota who ran over to score and under the posts. (he will go on to tell his kids he ran for 100 metres to score)
24-14 and all of a sudden we believed and Broncos began to doubt.
Yet there would be more drama, Luai succumbed to his injury, Yeo and Sorenson went for HIAs and Cogger was introduced.
Cleary was left with no option but to do it all himself.
So much so he kicked a 40/20 on the third tackle and it was from well within our 40.
This allowed us to apply more pressure for Crichton to score but wide out for the champion to kick from outwide to make is 24-20
Now the Broncos were really doubting and we were truly believing.
Broncos had stopped playing footy with all the effort they had put in telling and we were full of running.
It wasnt over yet and we were applying pressure everywhere and credit must go to Crichton who kicked into the in goal for drop out restarts.
Broncos now were simply onlookers to something historic.
The final assault came with Cleary busting them again and scoring under the posts and kicks the goal for us to lead 26-24
Yet there were 2 minutes left to play but now were were in control and Broncos had no option but to throw hail marys only for Sorenson to take a loose ball and we wind the clock down to win.
What i witnessed was remarkable on every level and a very young man, emerged as the greatest Halfback to ever play for Panthers and on his way to becoming one if not the best we have ever seen.
He wasn’t alone, Leota and JFH were sensational and were the dominant forwards from both teams.
This team is now the best we have ever seen and 3 grand final wins from 4 consecutive Grad Finals in simply amazing.
Best Grand Final of all time, best comeback of all time, best Panther Team of all time, Best Coach of all time.
It’s simple to say simply the best but they are more than this.
Many will write about this game but this team wrote their own story and history last night and deserve all the accolades they will receive in the days, weeks and years ahead.
Its great to be a Panther fan.
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There were some raspberries last night and the first has to go to Reynolds who couldn’t bring himself to recognise the Panthers in his post match speech. It was a low act.
Second has to go to the entertainment, King Stingray destroyed a classic and the Tina tribute was terrible, surely the NRL can do better than this.
The bouquets go to Ref who was great last night.
Also to the Broncos for pushing us all the way and importantly all our Coaching staff who often do the tireless unseen work.
Bouquets to all of the Panther sponsors and our incredible supporters.
The luckiest man in the NRL, Luke Garner coming from wooden spooners to winning a Grand Final ring.
Bouquets to our super sub Cogger who like Garner now has a premiership ring.
We farewell Cogger, Lenui and Crichton and wish them well in their future whatever that brings.
Finally thank you to all who contribute to this forum where the analysis, comments and opinions makes this a great site to visit and contribute to.
Enjoy all, its been a long year full of highs and lows and for those long time supporters like myself, enjoy what has been a remarkable ride and have had the great privilege to be a witness too.
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Too many positive feelings this morning, had to pinch myself I wasn’t dreaming.
Around the 60 minute mark of the game, a number of things happened which changed the course of the game and history.
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The wind changed - not that you get much breeze at Hombush at ground level, but the temp dropped from 30 to 20 degrees.
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Luai came from the field, replaced by Cogger. While Luai was brave playing injured, Copper straightens up the attack.
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Leota (and Fish) come back on. Once again Leota was close to the CC only to be outshone by a back. Was never going to leave anything on the field.
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Cleary stood up and took control of the game.
Some standout player performances.
Cleary - enough said, we all know what he did
Leota - never gave up and played out of his skin again. His try which started with his line break assist to Cleary, is one of the greats. A true “Sattler” moment to have the big man backing up on the inside.
Fish - as with Leota, created a fearsome front row who denied Hass, Corrigan etc room to move.
Edwards - showed the pretty boy how to play fullback, ran for crazy metres. Despite being beaten for speed twice, never ever gave up.
Critta - made history with his 4th gf try in consecutive games. Played possibly the best game of his career. Good luck at the Dogs, you will need it.
Kenny - cannot fault his game, scored o ly his 2nd try in first grade. Crisp service all night, assisted in Clearys try by passing late at the line. His game went up another gear tonight.
Yeo - just gave it his all, again never gave up, and inspired the side to victory. Very respectful captains speech post game.
Martin - played the 80 minutes (as all those above apart from Leota and Fish did), and just played out of his skin.
I should really name everyone but these are the players who impressed me most. Sitting at the game surrounded by Bronco fans hooping and hollering, who increasingly were silenced in the last 29 minutes.
I didn’t predict the game to go like this, I don’t think anyone did. It feels like the antithesis to the 2020 game.
Sitting in the glow of a 3-peat, mind now wonders to dare we dream of 4? But that’s for analysis another day.
Greatest ever grand final, greatest ever rugby league game. Some are saying the greatest ever game of major sport (I personally think that’s a stretch), but one thing is for certain we are certainly living in the age of the greatest rugby league team - the Penrith Panthers
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Thanks, folks; as usual, plenty of insightful commentary here. I had the following thoughts, inter alia :-
All too often we see passes, in all teams, even from dummy half, go anywhere but in front of the receiver. But I think that Kenny’s service is exemplary, and that is just so important in making ground and breaks.
I can see Tango spending a lot of his off-season working with the defensive coaches. Maybe Turuva, too.
Crichton and Leniu will be greatly missed. When Kikau and Koroisau left, there were no like-for-like replacements, and it seemed to take a while to develop a new style of play that would leverage the playing attributes of the ‘next man up’. Are there any ‘like-for-like’ replacements for Crichton and Leniu? If not, who will step into the breach? There is talk of May moving into the centres, but are Crichton and Leniu irreplaceable from within the Penrith system?
It seems that there only two words in the vocabulary of Bronco supports; viz ‘boo’ and ‘bullshit’. It must be hard when you’ve had 30 or so years of receiving special treatment every time the club whinges, and especially hard when such an unfashionable bunch of unwashed Westies gets it over you. So sad. Also, I would imagine that when Brisbane play Souths, there would be 80 minutes of unrelenting booing.
Sitting amongst Broncos fans became problematic during the second half, before our fightback shut them up. After Mam’s third try, the insane screeching of the woman behind me was so frenetic that I was sure that a visit to the audiologist was on the cards for Monday.
Pathetic lack of appreciation of Penrith’s good play by the Brisbane leadership. Reynolds had to be reminded to make a belated acknowledgement on-line, and Walters’ contribution seemed to be limited to ‘hats off to Penrith’. Maybe I missed their more effusive contributions. In contrast, people like Yeo and the Clearys could give them all a lesson in respectful humility.
We were heavily outnumbered by pro-Brisbane supporters. Clearly most of Sydney’s NRL followers have an issue with the West doing something admirable. So, to those Sydneysiders who switched their support to Brisbane, up yours.
One of the night’s highlights was watching the bloke behind us leaving (a particularly obnoxious prick) with his face showing clinical depression. I hope that he receives counselling. Such is the curse of an unfulfilled sense of entitlement.
None of us supporters will even forget this night (until dementia takes its toll). Being hoarse has never been so good. I hope the continuing emotional connection of Penrith youth to our club continues, until we finally dispense with having a majority of locals supporting other clubs.
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Finally had the chance to rewatch the game after arriving home late this afternoon.
My half time assessment of the referring was probably a bit of an overreaction to the Flegler try, which I’m still not convinced of after rewatching (thought he grounded short of the line).
It was good to see Adam Gee not overplay his hand in the game, and let the players sort it out themselves.
As for the second half, it could almost be called a half of two halves. For the first 20 the Broncos ran amok. Credit to Esra Mam, who probably had his name pencilled in for the Clive Churchill Medal at that stage.
Then the cool change arrived, and gave us our second wind. The last 20 was an absolute masterclass by Cleary.
While I was unlucky to be at the Broncos end, it turned out to be a blessing as I watched Cleary first run towards me to set up the Leota try, before running towards me at a different angle for the match winner.
It will go down as one for the ages, and probably be spoken about as one of the best for years to come.
It wasn’t too long ago I thought that the days of back to back premierships were a thing of the past, thanks to the salary cap & full time professionalism levelling the playing field. Wild horses couldn’t stop the threepeat. Do we dare to dream of four?
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Great reading the thoughts of all in this thread - very good points raised by all.
I have now had a chance to collect my thoughts after that amazing last 20 mins of the game. We sat there in Bay 143 amongst the Panthers throng & watched the lead get to 10 & I was still confident we could come back. When it got to 16 I started to doubt. We’ve come so far on this amazing journey & is the fairy-tale going to end?
The team spirit kicked in, and when Nathan put Moses in & it was back to 10 points, you could feel the energy rise, on the park & in the stands. The 40-20 & then Critter crashing over brought the 3-peat back on the table. Nathan kicks the goal from wideout & it just felt like “we are going to do it!”.
The clock seems to race thru the next few minutes & then Nathan just gets the ball and set sail for the line. TRY!!! The sound was deafening. Then the goal puts us ahead. We let our emotions loose, believing that we have got this. Strangers are hugging, high-fiving and just letting everything go.
Just get the ball from the kick-off is all I can think off. A minute to tackle them is all we need I’m thinking. Then the whistle goes and we’ve WON!!! Unbelievable.
I am truly blessed to have been on this journey with all of the Panthers team & the fans - truly the best. I have got to share it with our 2 sons & we just hugged in the stands at fulltime.
Yesterday my wife, who loves the team so much & watches all the games, but doesn’t attend the games as she is not keen on crowds, joined Matt & I at the fan day to share the wonderful times.
Very happy today. Do we dare to dream of 4?
SIMPLY THE BEST.
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So impressive that Moses was the player following Nathan to the try line. Clear demonstration of his passion.
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I remember back in the day that Glen Lazarus was considered as one of the best ever front rowers to play the game built on his displays in Grand Finals.
Surely Moses is in the same exalted territory based on '22 & '23 GF games - simply incredible.
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A bit surprised that Nathan got the Clive Churchill medal for basically the last twenty minutes when you consider Alfie Langer’s contribution over the full eighty.
Should have gone to Alf, he spent 97 of the 80 minutes on the ground, and ran more metres than anyone else
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As much as Broncos fans will hate to hear it, their fate was sealed the moment Ezra Mam scored his third try. There was a shift in their momentum, they seemed relaxed and thought the did enough to put that game away. I think they will chalk that up to inexperience.
What can I say about Cleary that hasn’t already been said, he switched on ‘God Mode’ with 20 minutes left on the clock, and it looked like nothing was going to stop him.
I don’t really like how it was framed in the media how Cleary “carried the team on his back”, granted he was instrumental and was the driving force, but a lot of players out there were behind that drive. The forward pack especially. Leota was phenomenal, shifted gears and made sure Cleary had all the field position he needed to execute the come back. Lindsay and Garner were absolute metre eaters with some nice PCM. Sorensen and Martin helped get those huge metres in the middle of the field. Kenny was a deadset superstar, high tackle rate and applied maximum pressure to ensure the Broncos would have to fight for every metre.
…and that’s just the last 20 minutes. I’ll have to make another post about the rest.
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