Managing expectations and energy is a constant challenge in the finals.
This week Cooper Cronk was on the Matty Johns podcast discussing what teams could expect in the weeks leading up to the NRL grand final.
Grand final week, with all the pomp and circumstance that comes with it, they said, was its own beast.
At least one grand finalist will have someone in the running for the Dally M Medal on Monday night. Then there are all the media obligations, including countless hours filming promos standing in front of neon signs with fire and machines blaring while giving sultry looks to camera.
One team, usually the less experienced of the two, can mishandle things and lose the game before they even get on the park, Cronk said.
It’s a weird time.
And that’s partly why Johns and Cronk both agreed preliminary final week was the most nerve-wracking and final pure football week of the season.
Who’s shaping up well for NRL preliminary finals?
For Melbourne and South Sydney, coming off a week’s rest, this is the first time this year they’re playing a sudden-death game.
The difference is Melbourne’s win over Manly was pretty routine, but Souths played the game of their lives in the first week of the finals.
South Sydney will look to rattle Manly as they did Penrith in the first week of the finals.(
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Without Latrell Mitchell, they took down the presumptive premiers and last year’s runners-up.
It was a gargantuan feat and clearly a game into which every member of that team, including the coaching staff, had poured an unbelievable amount of effort.
Coming off that release of energy, into a week off, then maintaining the rage for a clash with the Sea Eagles is a major challenge.
But a master coach is just what is needed in these scenarios. Thankfully for them, they have Wayne Bennett.
The Rabbitohs have gone 0-3 in the preliminary finals in the past three seasons, but this is the first time they’ve taken the direct path, which should give them a better shot.
The return of winger Josh Addo-Carr gives the Storm their best 17 of the year.(
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On the other side of the draw, Melbourne and Penrith are playing the grand final rematch a week earlier than anyone expected.
While not performing at their lofty best play in the first two weeks of the finals, Penrith should be battle-hardened for this clash, and there’s no way they would ever come into a must-win game against Melbourne underdone anyway.
For the Storm, though, the Panthers represent a huge step up after their cakewalk over Manly in the qualifying final and a bye in the second week.
You’d expect Craig Bellamy would have his side (possibly at full strength for the first time this year) ready to go, but an early shot from the mountain men could rock them.
Either way, both teams have to put every ounce of their being into this game, and then one of them with have to somehow do it all again next week.
Tom Trbojevic (centre) may be forced to carry a lot of weight on his shoulders, but have you seen his shoulders?(
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Manly is probably the least polished of the four teams left — seemingly rising and falling with the fortunes of freakish fullback Tom Trbojevic — but they’re also the only side that appears to be ramping up properly into the grand final.
Dominated by a well drilled Melbourne side in week one of the finals, rediscovering their form and taking revenge on another set of perennial professionals in the Roosters last week, then facing off against a genuine contender tonight before hopefully meeting another in the last game of the year.
And while they do rise and fall with Turbo, he’s good enough to actually carry that load just as Jarryd Hayne was for the Eels in 2009, even if the Eels did ultimately fall at the final hurdle.
It’s not the grand final, but everything’s on the line
Friday’s Souths-Manly clash and Saturday afternoon’s Storm-Panthers game come with all the pressure of do-or-die deciders, but with none of the promise of the proverbial silver medal.
Just to be clear, no-one enjoys losing the grand final.(
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Despite Billy Beane’s sentiment in Moneyball that “if you lose the last game of the season, nobody gives a shit”, reaching the grand final is seen as an achievement. People do remember the team that was beaten.
But, rightly or wrongly, the teams that fall at the penultimate hurdle are rolled into the other four teams that were just making up the numbers in the top eight.
It’s why Bennett was right when he said on Thursday that his Rabbitohs were overlooked as a top side despite reaching four successive preliminary finals.
Perhaps we need to tweak that Beane quote, because it really does seem no-one gives a s**t if you lose the second last game of the year.
Source:: ABC News
