NRL GRAND FINAL 2025
- Thread starter danknights
- Start date
HarVeeGee13
Danny 'Bedsy' Buderus
I don’t know that he gives up the Blues job to take the Knights one.
Roundtable
Shane Christensen
Cracking game. Walsh has gone to a new level in last few games. Great refereeing
Hard Yards
Rodney Howe
Storms much hyped spine was MIA tonight, apart from Hughes who had a decent first half.
I thought the refereeing was good, and both sides rode their luck with 50/50 calls, but a shoulder to the head by Reece Walsh was considered different to Trent Lieros effort. Reece lucky not to be binned at a crucial point in the game. Same as the headbut against the Raiders .He was by far the best player out there tonight, but he’s had plenty of luck along the way.
I thought the refereeing was good, and both sides rode their luck with 50/50 calls, but a shoulder to the head by Reece Walsh was considered different to Trent Lieros effort. Reece lucky not to be binned at a crucial point in the game. Same as the headbut against the Raiders .He was by far the best player out there tonight, but he’s had plenty of luck along the way.
Kurriboy
Danny 'Bedsy' Buderus
Lol, thats not the point though is it.
HarVeeGee13
Danny 'Bedsy' Buderus
Don’t think he would have been right for us anyway. He’s not ever proven himself to be someone you can build with long term and Brisbane’s problems, which they needed someone like Madge for, are basically the opposite of ours. Brisbane blew sides off the park too easily - lack of steel, low resilience, no discipline, bad attitudes when things started going wrong. I wish these were our issues.
I didn’t come on here for the second half, decided just to enjoy the game without subjecting myself to the endless refereeing complaints on here.
Great game! I don’t remember a player going on a next-level run like Walsh has and taking it all the way to a premiership … it seems like Hayne, Ponga, Taumalolo, usually it burns out before they lift the trophy. He was exceptional.
Also for me Brisbane really earned it in those final few minutes as players dropped like flies and they defended their own line. There were some close calls, but they looked solid throughout. Premiership winning defence.
Also I’ve felt the Broncos have had about 10-15 minutes of unstoppable football in these final’s games - last night it was more like 3/4s of the game. They have improved every game throughout this finals series … for a team that wasn’t even guaranteed a top four spot until the final round, it’s pretty amazing. Last night was definitely their best performance.
Kamikamica’s dropped ball in the second half was the Storm’s best chance for points - that will go down as a Mundine-moment in this GF, I think. Score there and they probably go on with it.
And last of all, the Tigers must be wondering what they did with Maguire. I don’t think you can question his credentials now, he’s done everything at every level, and when you look at his time at Souths, it was only really two average seasons. Also he would have been the one for us to go after with the endless lists of have-been coaches, in hindsight lol.
One of the best grand finals for a while! I just personally dislike Brisbane and am not looking forward to the next 12 months, they won’t stop letting everyone know about it, that’s for sure.
Great game! I don’t remember a player going on a next-level run like Walsh has and taking it all the way to a premiership … it seems like Hayne, Ponga, Taumalolo, usually it burns out before they lift the trophy. He was exceptional.
Also for me Brisbane really earned it in those final few minutes as players dropped like flies and they defended their own line. There were some close calls, but they looked solid throughout. Premiership winning defence.
Also I’ve felt the Broncos have had about 10-15 minutes of unstoppable football in these final’s games - last night it was more like 3/4s of the game. They have improved every game throughout this finals series … for a team that wasn’t even guaranteed a top four spot until the final round, it’s pretty amazing. Last night was definitely their best performance.
Kamikamica’s dropped ball in the second half was the Storm’s best chance for points - that will go down as a Mundine-moment in this GF, I think. Score there and they probably go on with it.
And last of all, the Tigers must be wondering what they did with Maguire. I don’t think you can question his credentials now, he’s done everything at every level, and when you look at his time at Souths, it was only really two average seasons. Also he would have been the one for us to go after with the endless lists of have-been coaches, in hindsight lol.
One of the best grand finals for a while! I just personally dislike Brisbane and am not looking forward to the next 12 months, they won’t stop letting everyone know about it, that’s for sure.
HarVeeGee13
Danny 'Bedsy' Buderus
Have seen a lot of people happy about a faster, more open game, but also complaining about the early penalties and six agains.
Footy fans, darlings, bubbies: If you want the faster, more open game, the referee has to punish ruck infringements and offsides. You literally can not have the first thing without the second.
Penrith grinding teams out of games the way they do is assisted by nothing ever being penalised.
Footy fans, darlings, bubbies: If you want the faster, more open game, the referee has to punish ruck infringements and offsides. You literally can not have the first thing without the second.
Penrith grinding teams out of games the way they do is assisted by nothing ever being penalised.
I'll get scorned for this, Bbut... BUT.
MaGuire took over a start studded Rabbits. Won the GF, then it deteriorated
Took over Tigers - A consistently low team and moved them up the ladder a bit but still had many poor performances .
Took over NZ International - Pretty stacked - Won that nicely
Took over a strong NSW squad full of elite players - Won Origin
Took over a stacked Broncos team 2 years after a GF - Won the GF.
He has had great success with teams already stacked to the hilt, not so much when the club is not stacked. So I question whether he is able to sustain it amd bring talent through, especially when Renoylds/Hunt retire.
He's obviously able to get the best out of elite teams which is a great achievement in itself no doubt and I am genuinely happy for him. The next phase will be interesting for him, which is coming up for Brisbane as a few of them are close to retirement.
MullosLefttoRight
Tim Maddison
Wayne built quite a revered legacy playing with stacked decks.
Madge winning a comp in his first season at three different clubs (Wigan being the third) is a fairly astonishing feat. IMO it's one thing to be able to attain results with a stacked side at a club you've built systems with over a long period of time - the ability to get those results within 12 months at a new club is quite a phenomenal achievement in comparison.
I think most now accept that Madge probably has a limited shelf-life, albeit I've seen quite a bit to say that his approach continues to evolve over time. Maybe he finds a way to make his methodology effective for longer periods - even if he doesn't, he's built a reputation that will have those perennial preliminary final clubs looking at him as an option that could get them over the hurdle (Cronulla are probably the best current example).
EDIT: My brain had confused Robbo 2013 with Madge's 2014 and incorrectly identified Madge as winning the comp 3x in his first season at a new club - Correct stat is 2x with Wigan (2010)/Broncos (2025) + 1x in his third year with Souths (2014) - General point nonetheless remains. Thank you to cheese for correcting me below.
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Refs really can’t win haha.
The template is probably Bill Harrigan’s 2-1 penalty counts back in the day, but he’d built up a lot of respect over the years. And I think teams push things a lot more now. Plus Bill wasn’t averse to reducing the Eels to 10 men vs us that time lol.
For sure, but short of Roy Masters’ and Warren Ryan’s illegitimate love child, I don’t think anyone is getting anything out of that Tigers side. Or wasn’t back then.
Most successful coaches will have a quality side under them, you don’t find many who win premierships with plodders. Personally he took the Kiwis from a complete rabble at the 2017 World Cup to number one ranking in the world … no mean feat.
He took Wigan to a premiership in 2010, his 1st season as coach. It was their 1st premiership in 10 years and 1st GF appearance in 7 years. In 2011 Wigan won the Challenge Cup their 1st in 9 years.
He took over South Sydney in 2012. The club had only made the finals once (2007) since 1989. Madge immediately took them to back to back preliminary finals before winning the premiership in 2014, their 1st since 1971.
Now this year he help a powerhouse club break a 19 year premiership drought in his 1st season in charge their.
Winning with talent is obviously easier than trying to win without it but many have failed to deliver even with a loaded team. Winning the ultimate prize is not easy. He may have an expiration date at a club but no matter what anyone thinks about his coaching abilities he gets results.
HarVeeGee13
Danny 'Bedsy' Buderus
On the flip side, Holbrook’s 38% win rate at the Titans was with a side that won at 16% before he got there and then it was 25% under Des.
Madge did a little better with Wests than most coaches do overall.
Let’s wait and see how Holbrook does before we stress about whether we’ve made a mistake not throwing everything at Madge.
Madge did a little better with Wests than most coaches do overall.
Let’s wait and see how Holbrook does before we stress about whether we’ve made a mistake not throwing everything at Madge.
HarVeeGee13
Danny 'Bedsy' Buderus
I really want someone in the media to push back on the “let the game flow/let the players decide it” catchphrases the pundits trot out. Deciding not to penalise stuff is just as much of an active decision as blowing a penalty.
People say they want consistency, what they really want is for there to never be any penalties. That’s all it is - they don’t like penalties.
I don’t think it was a mistake, just that we’d have done well under him. But people were even more adamantly calling for Flanagan to take over, and he’s been rubbish at the Dragons. So it’s a lottery, hopefully we’ve got a winning ticket with Holbrook!
MullosLefttoRight
Tim Maddison
That Kiwis 2023 Pacific Championships win doesn't get enough respect because it happened in a Test match, which are overwhelmingly overlooked by RL media.
Not to mention just 12 months prior in 2022 Madge was 2 points from preventing the Kangaroos from reaching a RLWC final for the first time since the inaugural RLWC in 1954.
NZRL not enabling Madge to coach NSW/NZ simultaneously is one of the all-time administration blunders.
Made even worse by the fact that by the time the Kiwis played again, he’d already resigned from the NSW job to take on the Broncos lol. Which was the original situation, he first joined the Kiwis when he was Tigers coach.
Since he left we’re back to players pulling out left, right and centre, and getting beaten by Tonga again. All so a few talkback hosts in NZ could work themselves up into a lather about Stacey “bringing back the passion”.
I couldn’t fault them too much, Hughes best by far maybe followed by Grant. Paps was well contained a lot of the time but gee whiz he’d have that flick pass to Warbrick again on the first tackle. Munster yeah some hits and misses but not as threatening. Maybe they’d hope Grant takes a few more darts and honestly was waiting for it but Broncos kept it tight around the middle.
The Storm do have a knack of playing a big of panic football when things aren’t going their way or another team gets the momentum but when they’re in front they rarely let go. This was more Brisbane raising the tempo and full credit to them for earning the win.
Crazy considering hunt and Reynolds both went off but Hunt was playing good in that stretch as well. Happy for them and guys like Haas and Madge.