It’s that time of the year when most sports lovers look forward to the National Rugby League (NRL) final.
The Penrith Panthers face-off against the South Sydney Rabbitohs in the big decider at Suncorp tomorrow night which, I am certain, not too many would have placed a bet on for finals action.
The Panthers are chasing their third win and will be hoping to clinch victory for the first time since 2003 while the Rabbitohs are gunning for their 22nd title with their last win in 2014.
Many locals are backing the Panthers because of Fijians Billy Kikau and Apisai Koroisau, who are named in the starting 13.
Penrith cult hero Billy Kikau has been in barnstorming form in the second row.
The former Marist boy received a personal boost ahead of the final, being named as the Dally M second rower of the year.
Koroisau will run at dummy half and he’ll be looking for his second premiership crown after being part of the Souths triumph in 2014.
The Panthers lost in the grand final 26-20 to Melbourne last year and Kikau, Koroisau and Panthers will be hoping to have luck on their side tomorrow.
And fresh on their minds will be the 16-10 loss to the Rabbitohs in the qualifiers 21 days ago.
The Panthers run to the final included two close shave wins over Parramatta (8-6) in the semifinal and against last year’s winner, Melbourne (10-6), in the Preliminary Final.
The Souths, under famous coach Wayne Bennett, had an easier run to the big showdown.
Panthers vs Rabbitohs
The Panthers have had nearly a year to get over the 26-20 grand final loss to Melbourne and will hope to avoid back-to-back finals losses tomorrow.
Last week, the Panthers put on a grand defensive game to shut out the Storm.
I watched this game in scraps because the heavyweight rugby Test between New Zealand and South Africa took precedence and from whatever I witnessed, I guess and many would agree, defence wins games and that will be crucial in the final.
In fact, Penrith conceded just a single try against the Eels and Storm in the final series, easily tipping the scales towards a big defensive game from them.
Also, when you beat the Storm, your confidence levels soar and that’s an ace up the sleeve for the Penrith side.
They know that they have ended the season for the minor premiers and perhaps the best side in the NRL at the business end of the year.
The Panthers are riding high, especially after losing to the Rabbitohs in week one finals, but two torrid games later and their spirits are high.
The question will be if the Panthers can control what they need to and chalk the win as they were in a similar ride in a 19-game winning streak heading into the final last year.
The loss of prop forward Tevita Pangai Jnr is a dent in the armour and he’ll be sorely missed by Penrith, but with Nathan Cleary in good form, a strong showing from fullback Dylan Edwards and the great centre pairing of Paul Momirovski and Matt Burton with our own Billy Kikau upfront, they’ll be charging at the Bunnies.
South Sydney will be looking to land a victory for legend Adam Reynolds (captain), master coach Wayne Bennett and mercurial Benji Marshall with a perfect and memorable swansong.
In many battles on field, Bennett’s tactical clash with Panthers mentor Ivan Cleary is just one chapter to this captivating and famous grand final in Brisbane.
In Australian sport, Benny, 71, can be classed as one of the top still around and one who knows his job and has the ability to tune his men to the minute for big encounters.
He reworked his magic back in May to get their campaign back on track when the green and reds looked gone when they suffered smashing losses to the Panthers and Storm.
The Bunnies put on a top-shelf performance in the finals, logging a big 36-16 win over Manly last week.
The Redfern-based side made it into the preliminary finals in 2019 and 2020 and this time, they are in the decider, chasing their 22nd premiership crown.
With Latrell Mitchell out and rookie fullback Blake Taaffe playing with the class of a man five years his senior plus a solid pack which should lay the foundation for victory, Souths look hot to taste victory.
Can the Bunnies reproduce what they did three weeks ago?
Well, we’ll have to wait and see with a lot of Souths players in their first grand final.
While I say that Souths have got, in my books, the best coach in Bennett and Reynolds (captain) is a premiership winner too, plus they have the experience of Marshall.
I pick tomorrow’s decider to be a tightlyfought affair and I’d love to see Kikau and Koroisau doing the lap of honour after the final.
If the Panthers defensive game that won them the last two games holds up – they’ll be right on the money.
But, also remember, those two outings were torrid and Penrith might be a bit more sore and tired compared with their foes.
Souths are on a good roll and while the Panthers are top bets at the Tab, I’m placing my bet on the underdogs for tomorrow’s clash.
Early days of Rugby
League It was in 1992 when rugby league was introduced in Fiji. I was a still a parttime sports reporter with FM96 Radio and still recall how we would chase interviews with Culden Kamea, who spearheaded the birth of the sport.
He was ably supported by the then prime minister Sitiveni Rabuka, who served as the president of the FRL.
Fiji made its rugby league debut at the World Sevens in Sydney and it came at the expense of some star 7s rugby players switching codes from union to league.
Fiji had won the Hong Kong 7s back-toback in 1990 and 1991 and were looking to become the first country to notch a threepeat in 1992, but the late coach, Ratu Kitione Vesikula’s, well-oiled machine had a spanner thrown in with the
introduction of cash contracts, rewards, etc, offered to players in rugby league.
This dominated sports headlines and even made the front page of newspapers along the journey.
Star players of that conquering 1990-91 Hong Kong wins – captain Alivereti Dere, his brother Pauliasi Tabulutu (halfback) and outstanding Noa Nadruku (rover) along with Niko Baleiverata (wing), Acura Niuqila (playmaker) and
a host of other rugby strongmen, formed the first Fijian side to play at a rugby league tournament.
An air of excitement gripped Fiji as many rugby fans, who were religious followers of rugby union 7s, wanted to see how our side would go in a new sport.
The Major-General was in Sydney to throw his support for the team and witness the baptism of fire.
People were glued to their TV sets, just like they used to be in the early days of TV during the Hong Kong 7s as we all watched the action live on Fiji One.
There was live radio broadcast of selected games on FM96 with Graham Eden too.
Everyone wanted to see how the flamboyant Fijians would do in the six-tackle rule game and they took the event by storm, beating the highly fancied Canberra Raiders 12-8.
The rest is history as that heralded the entry of Fiji in rugby league.
Fijian star Noa Nadruku was picked up by the Canberra Raiders in 1993 and Fijians would mostly wait for Sunday afternoon footy on TV with Noa and the Raiders green machine as the star attraction in those days.
The Namatakula man played five seasons in Canberra.
He also won the grand final in 1994 (scored one try) which served as a perfect swansong for Aussie legend Mal Meninga.
I was privileged to meet and interview Meninga on one of his trips to Fiji in those early days.
Rugby league has come a long way with a fledgling domestic, an improving schools’ and power-packed national side – a more solid footing from the humble beginnings of some 30 years ago.
* SATISH NARAIN is a sports commentator with FBC. The views expressed in this article are his and not of The Fiji Times.
