JT's Succinct NRL Tips: Finals Week One, 2023

JTithers

Sep 7

A quick reminder to Fox League - This is the NRL FINALS, not the PLAYOFFS...

Bunch of Seppos.

Anyway, here we are, the first week of the finals for 2023, and it seems the main talking point that I've witnessed is the choice of finals venues for Week One, namely the Cronulla Sharks hosting the Roosters at Shark Park in front of 15,000 fans, at the expense of locking 25,000 fans out of the game by not playing it at the SFS.

First of all - Why would the Sharks be made to host a final at the Roosters' home ground.

And second, this is part of a problem that existed for almost a century, which is teams having to forfeit home ground advantage in finals so that the NSWRL/ARL/NRL could get more bums on seats by playing finals at a bigger venue, which does still exist for some Sydney clubs after Week One.

In fact, between 1931 and 1994, with the lone exception of a Semi Final at Belmore in 1936, EVERY SINGLE FINAL WAS PLAYED AT MOORE PARK (Be it the SCG, the Sports Ground or the old SFS).... that's if you don't count the 5th-place match at Parramatta between 1988 to 1991.

Heck, you know when and where the first final played outside of Sydney was?

The 1995 Qualifying Final between the Broncos and Raiders at Lang Park.

The Broncos had won 2 Premierships before they even got a chance to host a final in Brisbane, and that was despite being 2nd on the ladder in 1990 and winning a minor premiership in 1992.

It took decades for Sydney teams to finally get the right to host finals at suburban grounds, the NRL finally compromised and allowed it for Week One, and no matter how much Shark Park barely scrapes into acceptable standards for a First Grade stadium, the Sharks earned it.

On that note, time to look at Week One, and the recurring theme in 3 out of 4 games is the protege coach against the master:

- The Brisbane Broncos, after missing out on the minor premiership, once again host the Melbourne Storm at Suncorp Stadium in the 2nd vs 3rd final, as Kevin Walters takes on Craig Bellamy once more, the connection being that Walters was Bellamy's assistant between 2011 to 2013, and Bellamy's time as an assistant to Wayne Bennett in Brisbane (1998-02) were smack bang in the twilight years of Kevvie's playing career.

- The Penrith Panthers made it 3 minor premierships in 4 years in pursuit of the first premiership Threepeat in 40 years, and they host the New Zealand Warriors at Panthers Stadium in the 1st vs 4th final on Saturday afternoon, as Ivan Cleary takes on Andrew Webster, who was his assistant during 2021 and 2022 prior to getting the Warriors job, and even coached the Panthers in Round 9 of last year as Cleary dealt with an infection.

Of course, Cleary featured in both of the Warriors' Grand Final appearances, as the 2002 Grand Final was his last game as a player for the 'Wahs', and he coached the Warriors to the 2011 Grand Final, after which he took the Penrith job for the first time.

- A game I mentioned very briefly off the top is the Saturday night 6th vs 7th Elimination Final between the Cronulla Sharks and the Sydney Roosters, who helped complete South Sydney's fantastic Greg Norman-esque collapse in 2023 last Friday night, and this is another great coaching contest because it features Sharks coach Craig Fitzgibbon, one of the great figures in the modern era of the Sydney Roosters, first as a Clive Churchill Medal winner + club record pointscorer, and later as a long-term assistant to Trent Robinson.

- The last game is the Sunday afternoon 5th vs 8th Elimination Final between the Newcastle Knights and the Canberra Raiders, the first final played in Newcastle since 2006, and this is the game that sticks out like dog's balls, given there's no formal connection between Adam O'Brien (Who was a Bellamy & Robinson student) and Ricky Stuart.

That reminds me, wasn't there a Seinfeld episode about proteges...

I just can't remember the title.

Now, it's time for the random tip generator to do its thing, as we finished the home & away season batting at 65%.... should be a bit easier this time, we only need to get 3 to score 75% for the week...

So I expect to score 1.

Round 27 score = 5/8, Progress Score = 136/204 (66.66666%)

Finals Week One Tips =

Lock Of The Week

Because when you're right 52% of the time, you're wrong 48% of the time!

'We' ended the home & away season on a good note as Manly absolutely thumped Wests and I can say with some degree of certainty they sang the Eagle Rock in the changerooms after the game, in celebration of Jake Trbojevic's 200th game.

LOCK OF THE WEEK = LOCKED.

So, that means I need to somehow find a Lock from a grand total of 4 games to choose from, and I think I did this one a few weeks back, so I may as well do it again:

THE NEWCASTLE KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND TABLE TO KNOCK OUT THE INVADING RAIDERS TO MAKE IT 10 IN A ROW!