Graham Lowe: NRL grand final the real deal

Opinion

Yeah , don't you just love it?

September (and now early October) in Australia is grand final season and we in New Zealand can learn plenty from our friends across the Tasman about promoting and celebrating a culture of winning.

Go to any local footy park in New South Wales or Queensland in September and you'll experience what a focus on being the best is all about.

And guess what? You'll never hear a word of PC rubbish about winning not being important.

Park football will pit kids from 4 or 5 years old against each other in grand final games to decide the premiers in every grade. Winners will be applauded and will celebrate, losers will be applauded and shed tears.

That's the way it is with Aussies, and they don't feel the need to apologise for it.

They have no problem with the concept of keeping score.

That culture starts from the bottom and extends all the way to the top and how good will Sunday night's grand final between Brisbane and Melbourne be.

Here's a starter for 10: name the last four losing NRL grand final teams. No chance? That's because winners are grinners in Australia, and losers - well, they can please themselves.

That explains the intensity and passion that have drawn thousands of New Zealand league fans to Sydney for grand final time each year.

For years the Winfield Cup showpiece at the Sydney Cricket Ground was never to be missed by diehard league supporters but remained totally off the radar to supporters of the national game.

The Warriors' sole grand final appearance in 2002 really opened New Zealanders' eyes to what a spectacle the grand final is.

Yet there still remains something of a paranoia about league increasing its popularity in this country.

Obviously I struck a raw nerve in this column several weeks ago when I compared the two rugby codes.

One rugby writer last weekend wrote that the NRL is lurching its way through a final series hamstrung by a confusing system, low-quality league and hopeless mismatches.

What planet has this guy been on? He went on to criticise Channel Nine's league commentary team and offered the length of the season as an explanation.

You won't hear any NRL player or coach complaining about still playing in the first week of October their 27th or 28th week of football (and without a rotation system or lay-offs during the season).

Nor can I recall any losing coach blaming fatigue from too many games as a losing factor, probably because the opposing team will have played just as many.

The grand final is what the season is all about, and there are legends forged in the white-hot atmosphere of league's showpiece end to each season.

Over the years, many remarkable events have added to these legends, and become league folklore.

One of the most remarkable would have to be the performances of a father and son more than 30 years apart.

In 1970, John Sattler was a teak-tough prop and captain of South Sydney when his jaw was broken by a punch from a Manly opponent after 10 minutes. Sattler played out the match in an inspirational performance, with Souths winning 23-12. In 2003, his son Scott turned the grand final for Penrith when he ran down Roosters wing Todd Byrne to save a certain (and likely match-winning) try.

In 1989, Canberra bench player Steve Jackson wrote himself into history with an extra-time try to allow the Raiders to beat Balmain 19-14.

And in 1991, Penrith's captain Royce Simmons famously promised everyone in Australia a beer after he scored the winning try against Canberra to claim the Panthers' first premiership.

The most brutal grand final was in 1973 when Manly played Cronulla. The game was marred by an all-in brawl after 30 minutes and fighting throughout the match after Manly's Great Britain star Mal Reilly was kneed in the back and put out of the contest.

The Sea Eagles' Bob Fulton scored two tries (one a brilliant run across the field before straightening up and scorching 22m to touch down) in Manly's 10-7 victory.

Perhaps the most spectacular grand final try came from Canterbury wing Steve Gearin, who gathered a kick from his fullback, Greg Brentnall, on the full and soared over the line in the Bulldogs' 18-4 win over Parramatta in 1980.

And the most controversial involved top referee Bill Harrigan (who else?) who awarded the only grand final penalty try, to Melbourne against St George Illawarra in 1999.

Jack Gibson is regarded as one of the great league coaches, winning premierships with both Easts and Parramatta.

It was Gibson who took the Eels to their first grand final win in 1981, (they beat Newtown 20-11) when he famously announced at the Parra Leagues Club, "Ding Dong, the witch is dead".

Gibson went on to take the Eels to the next two premierships as well.

I was never fortunate enough to coach a Sydney Winfield Cup or NRL grand final team, but I did get to the British Challenge Cup at Wembley twice, and was on the receiving end of a historic piece of Winfield Cup brutality involving one of my Wigan players.

In 1988, I allowed our star Wigan loose forward, Ellery Hanley, to play for Balmain in Australia in the English off-season. Hanley was a superb player who almost single-handedly took the Tigers through to the grand final, where he played in the centres. He was certainly the opponent the Bulldogs most feared going into the match, and very early in the game he was absolutely flattened by a high tackle from the Dogs' nuggety stand-off and captain Terry Lamb.

Hanley played no further part in what turned out to be a win to Canterbury. My star player was still suffering from the hit when he arrived back in Britain a month later.

This Sunday's game will be the ultimate advertisement for the NRL's ambitious plan to expand the game well beyond Sydney - in fact, it's the first time no Sydney side will feature in the big one. But league fans couldn't ask for better.

The Storm are lacking in grand final experience but that will count for little when Broncos coach Bennett lays out his game plan.

Bennett is not a sentimentalist and wouldn't subscribe to the theory that you have to lose a grand final before you can win one.

Melbourne's attacking options could tear the game apart if Brisbane show weakness in any area; but Brisbane have shown that they, too, have regained their momentum and will be dangerous all over the park.

Harsh criticism by former great Broncos players has stung the Brisbane side and they have noticeably lifted.

I'm told that a particularly savage burst by former great centre Steve Renouf at a team meeting was what really did the trick. The "Pearl" was one of the most mild-mannered players I ever coached, and for him to deliver such a team talk would have really got the attention of all the Broncos players.

Whatever he said has galvanised his former club and they are now favourites in the eyes of many judges.

One of the reasons is the transition of New Zealand second-rower Brad Thorn.

He is now a mobile Bronco as compared to the lumbering draft horse he was when he returned from the All Blacks.

And it is obvious Bennett has flicked back to the contract football section of his play book and his team are thriving with this style of play.

Contract football was developed in the 1920s by one of the Australian Rugby League's Hall of Fame men, the late Duncan Thompson.

Thompson was a halfback playing for Towoomba on Queensland's Darling Downs.

In the 1920s Towoomba became known as the league capital of the world because its team was so good, beating all challenges from within Australia and from New Zealand and Britain. Thompson went on to become one of the most influential coaches in the game, coaching up until the early 1960s.

His theory on contract football has influenced many coaches over the years, including me, and Bennett also.

Wayne has always been a disciple of the system and each of his great premiership-winning Broncos sides owes much of their success to it.

For some reason he allowed the Broncos to drift into a different style of play in the past couple of years but it is now clear it is the centrepiece of his game plans, and with great effect.

Contract football has the forwards making the ball available to a trailing player at close quarters from a spin or twist in the tackle.

Because up to three or four support players can be around the ball, it attracts extra defenders.

When this happens, gaps start opening up out wide and the outside backs are left with plenty of running space.

Obviously that's a pretty condensed version of the plan but in fact it's the simplicity of it that makes it so difficult to counter.

The Storm do have more game-breakers and if they are allowed to cut loose, look out.

But from where I sit I see the Broncos forwards (who have re-invented themselves) getting control of the game and not letting go.

And, with the ghost of Duncan Thompson organising around their rucks, I can see a Brisbane victory.

But we will see!