NRL 2022 Grand Final Discussion

[Big Pete]

1. Dylan EDWARDS 2. Charlie STAINES 3. Izack TAGO 4. Stephen CRICHTON 5. Brian TO'O 6. Jaroma LUAI 7. Nathan CLEARY 8. Moses LEOTA 9. Apisai KOROISAU 10. James FISHER-HARRIS 11. Viliame KIKAU 12. Liam MARTIN 13. Isaah YEO 14. Mitch KENNY 15. Scott SORENSEN 16. Spencer LENIU 17. Jaeman SALMON​	1. Clint GUTHERSON 2. Maika SIVO 3. Viliami PENISINI 4. Bailey SIMONSSON 5. Waqa BLAKE 6. Dylan BROWN 7. Mitchell MOSES 8. Reagan CAMPBELL-GILLARD 9. Reed MAHONEY 10. Junior PAULO 11. Shaun LANE 12. Isaiah PAPALI'I 13. Ryan MATTERSON 14. Nathan BROWN 15. Jakob ARTHUR 16. Oregon KAUFUSI 17. Marata NIUKORE​
18. Sean O'Sullivan 19. Matt Eisenhuth 20. J'Maine Hopgood 21. Sunia Turuva 22. Chris Smith	18. Bryce Cartwright 19. Makahesi Makatoa 20. Tom Opacic 21. Ofahiki Ogden 22. Ky Rodwell
Ivan CLEARY​	Brad ARTHUR​
Venue: Accor Stadium Date: Sunday, October 2, 2022 Kick Off: 6:30pm (AEST)	Referee: Ashley Klein Touch Judges: Phil Henderson & Drew Oultram Video Official: Grant Atkins

 

[Big Pete]

Teams are in and the Eels have made a shock selection, recalling Nathan Brown after an 11 game absence. Brad's son, Jakob, has also been named to play which will ruffle the feathers of certain Parramatta supporters.

Meanwhile in Penrith Taylan May has succumbed to his hamstring injury with Staines to retain his spot on the wing. Koroisau has been named to start and it remains to be seen whether coach Ivan Cleary will make another last minute swap.

State of Origin referee Ashley Klein will officiate the game. It will be his second NRL grand final after co-officiating the 2018 Grand Final between Melbourne and Sydney.

Penrith currently sit as favourites on all major betting platforms. Sportsbet has them at a $1.37 with the Eels at $3.10.

 

[Tristan1990]

has anyone ever sat on the bench an entire GF and won a premiership... just curious

 

[Super Freak]

has anyone ever sat on the bench an entire GF and won a premiership... just curious

Nicho Hynes in 2020.

 

[Super Freak]

Staines retaining his spot on the right wing is a plus for Eels.

He's not that good defensively, and that's the Eels favoured side with Sivo there. They should score a couple of tries on that edge.

 

[Foordy]

how the **** does that useless **** Klein get given the GF.

 

[Super Freak]

Penrith currently sit as favourites on all major betting platforms. Sportsbet has them at a $1.37 with the Eels at $3.10.

Considering Eels have beaten them twice this year, the fact that they're $3.10 is quite surprising, but those are some good odds for punters.

Panthers beat them by 19 in Week 1 of the Finals, but Eels also lost two key players before Panthers ran away with it. Then there's their performance last week, I think if they were playing Eels last week, they wouldn't be in the GF.

 

[Hoof Hearted]

Teams are in and the Eels have made a shock selection, recalling Nathan Brown after an 11 game absence. Brad's son, Jakob, has also been named to play which will ruffle the feathers of certain Parramatta supporters.

Meanwhile in Penrith Taylan May has succumbed to his hamstring injury with Staines to retain his spot on the wing. Koroisau has been named to start and it remains to be seen whether coach Ivan Cleary will make another last minute swap.

State of Origin referee Ashley Klein will officiate the game. It will be his second NRL grand final after co-officiating the 2018 Grand Final between Melbourne and Sydney.

Penrith currently sit as favourites on all major betting platforms. Sportsbet has them at a $1.37 with the Eels at $3.10.

Leniu vs Brown will be worth top billing I reckon

 

[Big Pete]

I'd be interested to know what the situation was in 1991-95 as far as interchanges go. As far as I know, it was a two man interchange bench with an additional two replacements. Clubs had six interchanges, but if a replacement was used they couldn't be subbed off as far as I know.

I know Dell was a replacement in 93 and didn't get to come on.

There were a fair few cases, if you go through the 1991-95 GFs you'll notice teams rarely used all four interchanges. I'd be curious to know who some of those replacements were meant to be.

 

[Mustafur]

Is it me or when ever teams play each other twice in the finals the result tends to flip the second time.

 

[ZTop]

Is it me or when ever teams play each other twice in the finals the result tends to flip the second time.

True as to 2015.

 

[Super Freak]

Is it me or when ever teams play each other twice in the finals the result tends to flip the second time.

It's usually the way it goes. This is just in the NRL era.

2021 - Rabbitohs beat Panthers in Week 1, lost to them in the GF.
2015 - Broncos beat Cowboys in Week 1, lost to them in the GF.
2013 - Roosters beat Manly in Week 1, beat them in the GF.
2005 - Tigers beat Cowboys in Week 1, beat them in the GF.
1999 - Dragons beat Storm in Week 1, lost to them in the GF.

 

[1910]

I'd be interested to know what the situation was in 1991-95 as far as interchanges go. As far as I know, it was a two man interchange bench with an additional two replacements. Clubs had six interchanges, but if a replacement was used they couldn't be subbed off as far as I know.

I know Dell was a replacement in 93 and didn't get to come on.

There were a fair few cases, if you go through the 1991-95 GFs you'll notice teams rarely used all four interchanges. I'd be curious to know who some of those replacements were meant to be.

You could name as many as you like, Raiders in 1989 named 11. You could only use four. So those four never knew who they were going to be. Two had to be fresh reserves and two had played reserve grade but that didn't apply to Finals a lot of the time.

Broncos reserve grade in 1990-nine reserves were listed. 1992 Grand Final Bennett listed- Gee, Plath, Ryan, Allen, Hauff, Morganson, Galea, Sailor and Domic.

Somehow Currie, Hohn, Plath and Gee got on.

Hohn and Allen swapped.

 

[Super Freak]

Brown tipped to start with Matterson going back to the bench.

I'm not sure the biggest game of your career is the time to be tinkering with the side. What they have been doing has been working for them, it's got them in the GF.

I just hope Arthur isn't making the mistake a lot of coaches make when making the GF by thinking about it all too much and being too tactical. Brian Smith was that way, and he overloaded his teams with information instead of taking a relaxed approach. He kept losing.

 

[vertigo]

Thanks for doing the weekly threads BP.

I want penrith to lose but they should get home by 1-12. Edwards CCM.

 

[Big Pete]

Best of luck to @ivanhungryjak @tommy and @Waynesaurus ahead of tomorrow's game.

I have a similar feeling going into this game as 2019. Both teams are in eerily similar positions where Penrith are one of the all-time great teams looking cement their legacy while Parramatta have the motivation of breaking a long premiership drought.

Now that game ended up going down to the wire and there were a few what ifs for Canberra. What if Cummins' hadn't incorrectly signalled 6 again and caused Canberra to burn an end of set? What if Leilua had have passed to his unmarked winger? etc.

The thing was, Canberra hadn't beaten Sydney all year whereas Parramatta have beaten the Panthers twice. The Eels tend to match up well against the Panthers, better than most sides since 2020 with the exception of the FW1 game.

The Eels just could not get themselves in the game. They had to rely on Moses' kicking game to create momentum and they surrendered momentum too easily. Waqa Blake in particular struggled to defuse Cleary's kicks and it eventually took it's toll 50 minutes into the game as the Panthers ran away with it. If the Eels can address that, it will go a long way to making the game a lot closer.

The Eels need use both sides of the field more. In their last encounter, the Eels largely tried to play down their left hand side. The Eels have always looked their best when they've been able to go sideline to sideline and attack their short sides. In fact when they shifted right, they got a defensive error out of Taylan May which saw him sent to the bin and later on a defensive error from Leniu which could have easily been another stint, instead it just gave the Eels the lead momentarily. I'm sure Arthur would have recognised this, so I expect to see both Brown and Moses sweep over.

I also would not be shocked at all for the Eels to set up for a sweep only to turn it inside to Gutherson to catch out one of their forwards. The Panthers don't have many weak links, but they can be caught on the inside.

Penrith themselves could be better. Kikau blew two opportunities in the first half that kept the Eels in the game. Also their tactic of resting Koroisau for the opening 20 or so minutes has yet to pay dividends as the defence has been able to get away with better spacing. Like the Eels, the Panthers largely like to attack left but with Simonsson marking up against Crichton, you'd have to think Cleary will try to get him more quality ball.

I think tomorrow night, we'll see the Panthers cement their legacy as one of the all-time great teams. I think 2022 has largely been a one horse race but I expect a more competitive game than their last encounter.

But who cares what I think, Morkel has the inside line, so as long as he doesn't get tracked down and sent away you're better off listening to him.

 

[tommy]

Best of luck to @ivanhungryjak @tommy and @Waynesaurus ahead of tomorrow's game.

I have a similar feeling going into this game as 2019. Both teams are in eerily similar positions where Penrith are one of the all-time great teams looking cement their legacy while Parramatta have the motivation of breaking a long premiership drought.

Now that game ended up going down to the wire and there were a few what ifs for Canberra. What if Cummins' hadn't incorrectly signalled 6 again and caused Canberra to burn an end of set? What if Leilua had have passed to his unmarked winger? etc.

The thing was, Canberra hadn't beaten Sydney all year whereas Parramatta have beaten the Panthers twice. The Eels tend to match up well against the Panthers, better than most sides since 2020 with the exception of the FW1 game.

The Eels just could not get themselves in the game. They had to rely on Moses' kicking game to create momentum and they surrendered momentum too easily. Waqa Blake in particular struggled to defuse Cleary's kicks and it eventually took it's toll 50 minutes into the game as the Panthers ran away with it. If the Eels can address that, it will go a long way to making the game a lot closer.

The Eels need use both sides of the field more. In their last encounter, the Eels largely tried to play down their left hand side. The Eels have always looked their best when they've been able to go sideline to sideline and attack their short sides. In fact when they shifted right, they got a defensive error out of Taylan May which saw him sent to the bin and later on a defensive error from Leniu which could have easily been another stint, instead it just gave the Eels the lead momentarily. I'm sure Arthur would have recognised this, so I expect to see both Brown and Moses sweep over.

I also would not be shocked at all for the Eels to set up for a sweep only to turn it inside to Gutherson to catch out one of their forwards. The Panthers don't have many weak links, but they can be caught on the inside.

Penrith themselves could be better. Kikau blew two opportunities in the first half that kept the Eels in the game. Also their tactic of resting Koroisau for the opening 20 or so minutes has yet to pay dividends as the defence has been able to get away with better spacing. Like the Eels, the Panthers largely like to attack left but with Simonsson marking up against Crichton, you'd have to think Cleary will try to get him more quality ball.

I think tomorrow night, we'll see the Panthers cement their legacy as one of the all-time great teams. I think 2022 has largely been a one horse race but I expect a more competitive game than their last encounter.

But who cares what I think, Morkel has the inside line, so as long as he doesn't get tracked down and sent away you're better off listening to him.

Thx mate.

I don’t think it matters to much to declare that I’ll be going with the safe bet with my tip, or perceived safe bet I should say. Panthers.

will be cheering for the eels though, I don’t mind them. They have actually really stepped up the last couple of games so won’t be the least bit surprised if they do getup. Parra fan tomorrow.

 

[ivanhungryjak]

Thanks @Big Pete - another quality post, please keep them coming.