Hard to narrow it down to 5, but here are my top 5 from last night.
Reece Walsh - Do I need to say anything? The best individual performance in a Grand Final I've ever seen, singlehandedly scored or set up 4 of our 5 tries. He kicked the clutch goal from the sideline to put us out by 4, which changed the outcome of the game, given the Storm got multiple penalties afterwards in kicking range. Saved the Kamikamica try, which I think would've gone close to breaking our backs early in the second half. Saved the try when Papenhuyzen made the break down the sideline by mowing him down and forcing him to throw a dodgy flick pass. Arguably saved a try after the Warbrick linebreak and Mam tackle with the pressure he put on Utoikamanu - if he doesn't make that effort and Uto rolls forward and gets an offload, we're shot to bits on the other side of the field. And finally, saved the try in the last minute with one of the smartest defensive reads I've ever seen on Papenhuyzen. He calculated in the space of 1-2 seconds that Pappy was the only danger, Karapani was hunting Katoa down, even if Eli dummied, Karapani would've got him. Such an insane read to make. Best individual GF performance of all time.
Deine Mariner - What the **** has Madge done to this bloke? Every single run he made he was bending the line and busting tackles. Ran for 210 metres, and had the most post-contact metres in the entire game. He also contained Coates phenomenally well all night, never gave him a sniff of that sideline. That was as good of a winger performance as I've seen in a GF as well. Easily on par with Brian To'o in the last 4 years in terms of impact.
Gehamat Shibasaki - I'll get the bad out of the way first, he got absolutely torched defensively all night by Katoa & Meaney. On the other side of the ball he was absolutely immense, he had 3 opportunities to get on the outside of his man and he took all 3. To go from a train and trial deal and basically out of the NRL less than 12 months ago to an Origin champion and NRL Premiership winner is probably the most absurd storyline out of last night. Very proud of Gehamat.
Ezra Mam - Similar to Shibasaki, got torched defensively all night, but was phenomenal with ball in hand. Not a great deal to say about Ezra, other than I think we would've won easily if he was 100% fit and came in with as much as confidence as he did in 2023. If Madge can somehow get Ezra 2023 GF form and Walsh 2025 GF form for the run home next year, nobody will beat us.
Xavier Willison - 2 games back from a long lay off with a broken arm and he's been in our top 2 forwards in both the prelim and the grand final. He's an absolute ****ing beast. Roughly 150m in both games playing 40 minutes off the bench, with stints on the left edge. Every single run he took had venom, his runs in that last 15 minutes or so may have genuinely been the difference between us winning or losing. Needs to be starting at prop and playing 50+ minutes per game next year.
. Happy to say they proved me wrong in a huge way, Especially Walters, he was such a key part to the year, really happy for him to get his moment.
low point (in more ways than just the result) nearly two months ago,, this team didn’t lose another game in 2025 
