NRL GRAND FINAL 2025

[R_A]

I tend to agree. That was more my point with my comments around not suiting Newcastle at the start of the year. Not stacked enough.

We haven’t been stacked for 1/4 of a century… though I guess Bennett had some handy units for a bit.

lol stacked, nearly every origin roster is loaded with talent and some that can’t make it because the incumbent doesn’t deserve to be dropped.

NSW had a player sent off and had their backs going to the wall needing to win in QLD which was an arm wrestle for a lot of it, Madge’s fingerprints all over it.

Similar with this Broncos team, that missed the 8 with Kevin Walters coaching them. The decision was justified. Broncos should have won 2023 and not looked close to missing last year.
It wasn’t as if they had an easy finals run either. Beat two teams who were considered ‘hot’ in the finals including the best regular season team on the road.

They weren’t expected to win in 2025 but you put another coach there who was considered im not sure if they do it. Even taking out of account the added pressure of just coaching the Broncos Madge handled it all like a pro as he always does.

 

[MBQLD]

lol stacked, nearly every origin roster is loaded with talent and some that can’t make it because the incumbent doesn’t deserve to be dropped.

NSW had a player sent off and had their backs going to the wall needing to win in QLD which was an arm wrestle for a lot of it, Madge’s fingerprints all over it.

Similar with this Broncos team, that missed the 8 with Kevin Walters coaching them. The decision was justified. Broncos should have won 2023 and not looked close to missing last year.
It wasn’t as if they had an easy finals run either. Beat two teams who were considered ‘hot’ in the finals including the best regular season team on the road.

They weren’t expected to win in 2025 but you put another coach there who was considered im not sure if they do it. Even taking out of account the added pressure of just coaching the Broncos Madge handled it all like a pro as he always does.

Oh cool man

 

[HarVeeGee13]

Very likely Madge is important but it's also the sting of blowing it the way they did two years ago that drove them.

Very different sequence of results but it's a little like our 2000 and 2001 teams. Absolutely cruising against a Roosters team that simply was not that good, come in at half time and as the players tell it they were basically sniffing their own farts. Warren Ryan is telling them: Kick to the corners, don't give them a sniff, and the players are basically like "lol shut up old man this is over, we've won." And we all know what happened next.

The 2001 roster may have been weaker but they were men on a mission in the finals next year.

2024 the Broncos had a horror run with injuries which explains some of their issues that year but the hangover was a long one too I think and they did need a fresh voice. But yeah the 2025 roster is absolutely weaker than 2023 yet this time they won every big moment in every big game, and the defence to close out the GF win was about ten times better than in 2023.

On the flip side... Zac Hosking doesn't run through Walsh's leg and they have to play four finals straight with no week off in the middle. Who knows how much gas they have for the prelim and GF then. Easy to just say "coach x is a winner, coach y is a choker" but gee a lot of things went their way hey lol.

 

[KPGreatness]

I will say can someone send that game to Ponga, Walsh did what KP just can’t seem to do, he toke the role of leader.

Running through the middle beating defenders to the line at his weight and height just goes to show just how much he wanted it, he stood up when the time needed it, he wanted his hands all over the ball because he wasn’t going to let this one slip and he wanted to give himself and his team the best chance and that meant him getting involved a lot.

That’s what KP NEEDS to do

Walsh had an almost perfect game I’d say 9/10

Honestly watching Walsh go up what seemed to be three gears I wonder if Ponga can actually do the same and even reach the same heights.

 

[cheese]

I will say can someone send that game to Ponga, Walsh did what KP just can’t seem to do, he toke the role of leader.

Running through the middle beating defenders to the line at his weight and height just goes to show just how much he wanted it, he stood up when the time needed it, he wanted his hands all over the ball because he wasn’t going to let this one slip and he wanted to give himself and his team the best chance and that meant him getting involved a lot.

That’s what KP NEEDS to do

Walsh had an almost perfect game I’d say 9/10

Honestly watching Walsh go up what seemed to be three gears I wonder if Ponga can actually do the same and even reach the same heights.

I think KP needs to play more selfish. Instead of trying to ball play and set up others I think he should be taking the line on way more. He's so strong and difficult to handle when ever he decides to run straight and hard.
One thing noticeable to me was how tough Walsh played during his hot streak. He was often just running through defenders with speed and power rather than fancy footwork.

 

[HarVeeGee13]

If that’s not a 10/10 from Walsh I don’t know what is. They scored 5 tries and he set up 3 and scored one of the great individual tries to boot. Saved at least two tries. So about a 32 point difference mostly attributable to him.

I hope we don’t need Kalyn to be that good because no one ever has been IMO. That is the new gold standard individual grand final performance.

BUT we’re only 12 months removed from Kalyn being a Dane Gagai drop away from a 3 try assist performance in a final for a side that was overmatched through the middle for most of the game, so it’s not like he’s not a big game performer.

Honestly the bigger swing factor for mine is whether Holbrook brings back the standard Dylan Brown got to in 2022-23 and then continues him on the trajectory he seemed to be on then. Walsh is on another planet right now but when I tipped them to win the comp repeatedly for the last couple of years it wasn’t just because of Walsh - it was the Walsh/Mam tandem, which I regard as the most dangerous combo of two players in the game.

In the end Mam was at like 60% (he low key got cooked a lot in D late when he had to move laterally) and found other ways to impact the game, and it ended up being mostly Walsh. If they had both fit all year they probably do the minor premiership/premiership double and blow everyone away more convincingly/boringly.

Whether Kalyn is a big game performer is less in dispute than if this team as a whole can come into a season with an effective game plan which makes best use of available talent and includes a repeatable attacking approach which generates easy regular season wins.

We can worry about if Kalyn can reach those heights Walsh did once we get to a position where it would actually mean we won if he did lol.

 

[Die Hard]

Code sports gave Walsh an 11, which is hard to argue against.

 

[Lefty]

We were privileged to watch Reece Walah’s performance last night. Definitely the best performance I have seen in a grand final.

If he wants to do things like drinking out of a new toilet, it’s fine with me.

 

[sherpa]

If Walsh isn't in that team they don't win any of the finals game regardless of who's coaching them.

 

[frankLauda]

What if, we had two gun props, and one or two elite halves. Could Ponga have had a similar performance to Reece and won us a premiership?

 

[Billy]

I wish I knew a Broncos fan, so I could tell them that Walsh has gone past Lockyer as their best ever fullback.

 

[KPGreatness]

What if, we had two gun props, and one or two elite halves. Could Ponga have had a similar performance to Reece and won us a premiership?

Doubt it very much, Ponga at times looks disinterested, you can be in a well beaten pack and still look like you’re trying.

Hope I’m wrong but we have had what over 8 years? And he has had one good year where he strung performances together and that was with a halves combo of Hastings and Gamble, I’ll repeat HASTINGS AND GAMBLE, and that’s because he actually cared and went hard for 80, week in and out.

This year he started meh against the Tigers, played great against the Dolphins and decided to clock out, I just think Walsh is better and really wants to reach his crazy potential meanwhile Ponga is happy with what he has achieved so far (lots of money, Dally m medals and knights awards etc) and will ride of to union.

I get people will ride him until the day he leaves (he is certainly not retiring here) and I don’t hate him or anything I think he is the best fullback we have had since Robbie personally, I just see a huge waste of potential from a guy that could have gone down as a modern day great.

I’m not saying anything here that hasn’t be echoed by media, fans and former players (Joey) he just doesn’t seem to get involved as much, that 20 minutes of Walsh being everywhere to help his team wasn’t because of forwards or halves hell he turned it on when Hunt and Reynolds came off.

It’s about knowing the time to jump in and even push people out of the way to back yourself, KP has literally never done it, he has tried and he normally ****s it up, I remember back to the raiders final at home, he tried to do it and screwed up badly and was lucky the ref saw a high tackle to give the penalty.

The cowboys game is another where he gets the ball out the scrum, lines his man one on one and steps to many times and falls over.

I just think KPs potential has lowered over time and what you see now is what he will be, sorta like how Latrell had the potential to be a immortal (his 2018/19 seasons were insane, never seen a single person toy with premiership winners before) now he is what he is and is nowhere close to that conversation.

Potential isn’t linear it can go down and I’m just saying I think Walsh has overtaken him, especially as a leader knowing when to stand up and own the big moments

 

[jamesgould]

Doubt it very much, Ponga at times looks disinterested, you can be in a well beaten pack and still look like you’re trying.

Hope I’m wrong but we have had what over 8 years? And he has had one good year where he strung performances together and that was with a halves combo of Hastings and Gamble, I’ll repeat HASTINGS AND GAMBLE, and that’s because he actually cared and went hard for 80, week in and out.

This year he started meh against the Tigers, played great against the Dolphins and decided to clock out, I just think Walsh is better and really wants to reach his crazy potential meanwhile Ponga is happy with what he has achieved so far (lots of money, Dally m medals and knights awards etc) and will ride of to union.

I get people will ride him until the day he leaves (he is certainly not retiring here) and I don’t hate him or anything I think he is the best fullback we have had since Robbie personally, I just see a huge waste of potential from a guy that could have gone down as a modern day great.

I’m not saying anything here that hasn’t be echoed by media, fans and former players (Joey) he just doesn’t seem to get involved as much, that 20 minutes of Walsh being everywhere to help his team wasn’t because of forwards or halves hell he turned it on when Hunt and Reynolds came off.

It’s about knowing the time to jump in and even push people out of the way to back yourself, KP has literally never done it, he has tried and he normally ****s it up, I remember back to the raiders final at home, he tried to do it and screwed up badly and was lucky the ref saw a high tackle to give the penalty.

The cowboys game is another where he gets the ball out the scrum, lines his man one on one and steps to many times and falls over.

I just think KPs potential has lowered over time and what you see now is what he will be, sorta like how Latrell had the potential to be a immortal (his 2018/19 seasons were insane, never seen a single person toy with premiership winners before) now he is what he is and is nowhere close to that conversation.

Potential isn’t linear it can go down and I’m just saying I think Walsh has overtaken him, especially as a leader knowing when to stand up and own the big moments

For someone with the username KPGreatness, you sure think Ponga sucks.

 

[HarVeeGee13]

The thing about Walsh is… that may have honestly been the best performance, ever, in any game of rugby league, by a single player, that I’ve seen. It’d be crazy if Walsh repeated it let alone anyone else do it.

But also it absolutely was enabled by how his forwards got on top during key stretches and most of the second half. Eg that amazing Walsh try, isn’t him picking an arbitrary time to “step up”, it comes off the back of a lightning fast PTB and no markers. It’s a small opportunity that doesn’t become a try *in that way* for anyone else but also it’s a very similar situation to Grant’s play that sealed the Sharks game a week prior. It’s just a fact that Ponga hasn’t played behind that kind of momentum as often.

Kalyn was clearly encumbered by injury most of this year when you watch the tape back and once he was finally getting going again he copped a season ending injury… just a year to forget.

It’d be quite a rapid fall from grace if he never hits late 2024 form again (which was post the first lisfranc injury). I would be shocked if most of his burst and elusiveness actually is gone so quickly, so young.

I don’t know… was the issue with the team in that loss to the Cowboys in the finals last year really that Kalyn didn’t play good enough? Gee you’re a tough marker if that’s the thing you’re identifying.