The Penrith Panthers successfully defended the National Rugby League Premiership title for the third consecutive year after edging the Brisbane Broncos 26-24 in a sold-out grand final at Accor Stadium in Sydney tonight.
The defending premiers came into the final as favourites once again, after yet another season where they finished top of the table despite the off-season departure of Fiji Bati stars Viliame Kikau and Apisai Koroisau.
Referee Adam Glee blew time on to get the match underway with the Panthers having first use of the ball.
There was a little concern for the Broncos in the 5th minute as as Reece Walsh was limping after their first set while fellow teammate Billy Walters kicked back in a 40-20 on the back of a series of strong runs towards the half way.
In the 8th minute, Broncos youngster Ezra Mam was on the edge of opening the scoring but on his way to score while he was chased by Scott Sorensen, Mam slipped and fell out just before the tryline.
Adam Reynolds went with a short restart for the Broncos which turned out to be an absolutely perfect one for the Panthers that just crossed the 10 meter line but Mitch Kenny sneaked inside the line to gather the ball and scored in the 17th minute.
Stephen Crichton who took the kicking duties for the Panthers slotted the ball in between the sticks for full 6 points.
Reynolds got the restart wrong this time, sailing it out on the full as well as not reaching the 10 meter line and Glee awarded a penalty to the Panthers.
In 29th minute, experienced Nathan Cleary resumed his kicking duty and banged the first penalty of the match to give the Panthers an 8-0 lead.
After strong 10 minutes of tussle and just before the break, Tyson Smoothy entered the field from the Broncos interchange and jumped out of a dummy half.
Smoothy escaped away from the Panthers tackle to hit a pass with a flat ball to Thomas Flegler and he smashed towards the sticks to plant the ball on the line to put the Broncos on the board in the 39th minute.
Reynolds converted yet, the Panthers narrowly led by 8-6 at the break.
The reigning champs kept fighting hard in the opening three minutes of the second stanza as Cleary through his powerful long strikes kept pushing the Broncos back in their half.
But once Payne Hass secured the ball from a long Panthers start, he dummied his way to the opponents defence and spin the ball to an unmarked Mam as he squeezed his way through the Panthers defence and dived on the left corner bring the Broncos crowd to their feet in the 44th.
Reynolds beautifully converted to give the Broncos a 12-8 lead for the first time in the match.
In 52nd minute, Smoothy kept the ball alive although he was tackled down by three Panthers players but he swung the ball to Hass and he crossed it over to again an unmarked Mam to go over and grab his second try of the final.
Reynolds booted the conversion to increase Broncos lead to 18-8 in the 54th minute.
Just a minute later, Broncos started the match with Reynolds which Jordan Riki jumped in the air to collect and race his way beating a Cleary tackle and passed it to Mam to get his hat-trick in the match and Reynolds converted, giving them an impressive 24-8 lead in the 56th minute.
Some good fighting spirit by Cleary in the 62nd minute saw him beat arounf three Broncos players and set up Moses Leota to go over the try line and get the Panthers back in the match with their second one.
Cleary converted to merge the gap at 14-24.
Five minutes later, Crichton caught a long kick from Cleary and dragged his way to the left corner flag to paste the ball on the ground, scoring the third try for the Panthers. Cleary amazingly converted to cut the point gap at 20-24 in the 68th minute.
Just four minutes away from full time, the atmosphere at Accor Stadium intensified when Cleary put his man of the match performance borrowing the ball from James Fisher-Harris and barged his way into the Broncos defence to score at the back of the post and converted to seal the win.
The teams:
Penrith Panthers: Dylan Edwards, Sunia Turuva, Izack Tago, Stephen Crichton, Brian To’o, Jarome Luai, Nathan Cleary, Moses Leota, Mitch Kenny, James Fisher-Harris, Scott Sorensen, Liam Martin, Isaah Yeo.
Reserves: Jack Cogger, Lindsay Smith, Spencer Leniu, Luke Garner, Tyrone Peachey.
Brisbane Broncos: Reece Walsh, Jesse Arthars, Kotoni Staggs, Herbie Farnworth, Selwyn Cobbo, Ezra Mam, Adam Reynolds, Thomas Flegler, Billy Walters, Payne Haas, Kurt Capewell, Jordan Riki, Patrick Carrigan.
Reserves: Tyson Smoothy, Brendan Piakura, Kobe Hetherington, Keenan Palasia,Corey Oates.
