NRL Match Thread - Finals - Week 3 - 2021

[Farmduck]

Players are shaking hands, Brandon Smith still can't use his right arm at all from the HIA he failed.

[Sports Prophet]

I didn’t fancy Bennet to beat Bellamy. I didn’t think Manly could beat Panthers either. So one of the two grand finals I wanted leading into the weekend eventuates.

[THE RED ROOSTER]

Penrith v Souths, I feel like Prince Charming with the two ugly sisters.....

[bobbruce]

2 hours ago, Farmduck said:

Players are shaking hands, Brandon Smith still can't use his right arm at all from the HIA he failed.

You do know he also caught a boot in the head in that tackle. 

[bobbruce]

I know he won’t get a ban because there’s no way they are banning him for the grand final. If Cleary wins the Dally M on Monday then they did give him a ban for his on report tackle. Would the have to take it off him?. As I say more a process question as I don’t think he will be getting a ban. 

[Davo5]

Just finished watching the game,how bad was Munster & Grant,neither offered anything & how comes Sutton officiates big games differently,plenty of messing about in the ruck,especially from Penrith in the last 20 mins.

[Dunbar]

Well Melbourne didn't miss Cam Smith all season until today.

They have been overwhelming teams all season and haven't looked at all like they have missed the tactical brain and captaincy of Smith.  But today they were too frantic when they needed a cool head, they made 4 times as many mistakes as the same game last year and they made basic errors and kicking out on the full.

You would have expected Smith to have made the difference to grab the team by the scruff of the neck and force the discipline and pressure needed.  That's why he was a champion player.

[Davo5]

6 minutes ago, Dunbar said:

Well Melbourne didn't miss Cam Smith all season until today.

They have been overwhelming teams all season and haven't looked at all like they have missed the tactical brain and captaincy of Smith.  But today they were too frantic when they needed a cool head, they made 4 times as many mistakes as the same game last year and they made basic errors and kicking out on the full.

You would have expected Smith to have made the difference to grab the team by the scruff of the neck and force the discipline and pressure needed.  That's why he was a champion player.

They missed Brandon Smith more than Cam Smith tonight.

[Sports Prophet]

37 minutes ago, Davo5 said:

Just finished watching the game,how bad was Munster & Grant,neither offered anything & how comes Sutton officiates big games differently,plenty of messing about in the ruck,especially from Penrith in the last 20 mins.

Yeah the ruck was appalling. 

[DavidM]

Plenty of frayed edges but a really absorbing and exciting contest to watch. Melbourne looked way off , I’ve rarely seen them look so lost and toothless in attack . Penrith fully deserved that and a GF without Melbourne is always a good thing . It should be interesting 

[unapologetic pedant]

4 hours ago, Sports Prophet said:

Yeah the ruck was appalling. 

In what way?

4 hours ago, Davo5 said:

 & how comes Sutton officiates big games differently,plenty of messing about in the ruck,especially from Penrith in the last 20 mins.

Specifically what sort of "messing about".

[unapologetic pedant]

3 hours ago, DavidM said:

Plenty of frayed edges but a really absorbing and exciting contest to watch. Melbourne looked way off , I’ve rarely seen them look so lost and toothless in attack .  

Always hard to judge these things, but I thought Melbourne looked pretty slick and dangerous in the first half. The fact that they were scoreless at that point I`m attributing to fantastic, sometimes last-ditch, Panthers defence. I reckon The Storm would have notched minimum 18 points in the first 30 mins against any other defence in the comp.

There was a moment quite early at 6-0 where George Jennings put the ball down when he looked in for all money. Had it gone to 6-6, the game could have panned out differently.

[The Rocket]

On 26/09/2021 at 03:01, unapologetic pedant said:

Always hard to judge these things, but I thought Melbourne looked pretty slick and dangerous in the first half. The fact that they were scoreless at that point I`m attributing to fantastic, sometimes last-ditch, Panthers defence. I reckon The Storm would have notched minimum 18 points in the first 30 mins against any other defence in the comp.

There was a moment quite early at 6-0 where George Jennings put the ball down when he looked in for all money. Had it gone to 6-6, the game could have panned out differently.

I was going to put this up any way but saw your post and thought you might be interested.

Half way through the article there is a prelim highlights reel, it`s a little different from the other highlights reels I`ve seen, has a lot of close-ups and the crowd noise is, well some of it feels like your on the field watching, let`s put it that way. 

NRL 2021: Blake Taaffe, South Sydney Rabbitohs fullback to break grand final record for fewest games - NRL

For anyone interested have a look at the highlights reel halfway through the article, lot of it shot in close-up.

Late edit: the highlights reel was changed, no longer in close-up. Sorry.