It’s edgy expectation versus partial fulfilment.
asserted
It → ’ → fulfilment
The penultimate weekend of a season, where four teams fight for the right to advance to the Big Dance, often has players and coaches nervous and uptight.
asserted
players → fight → Dance
They are aware that a tiny slip-up could end their season days short of what could have been a premiership.
uncertain
what → end → ?
Grand final teams tend to be more relaxed, some clubs simply secure at having already achieved their place in history.
asserted
clubs → tend → history
“Players can lose their edge going from a prelim to the grand final,” says Storm coach Craig Bellamy.
asserted
Bellamy → lose → final
Even the most vigilant coach can’t counter the doorman whispering to grand final players before kick-off, “No matter what happens today boys, you have done the club proud.”
asserted
you → counter → club
It follows that a defeat in the preliminary final can be more devastating than losing a grand final.
asserted
defeat → follow → final
Bellamy, coach of more preliminary and grand final teams than anyone over the past quarter-century, has been more gutted after losing preliminary finals than I have seen him after narrow defeats in deciders.
asserted
I → lose → deciders
In 2011, after the Warriors won in Melbourne, he isolated himself from everyone, desperately desolate.
asserted
he → win → everyone
His team had been expelled from the previous year’s competition as punishment for salary cap cheating, stripped of all honours and a galaxy of star players.
asserted
team → expel → players
A grand final win would have been redemption for all the world to see.
asserted
world → see → ?
“That was the worst,” admits Bellamy.
asserted
Bellamy → admit → ?
Ten years later, a Storm winger dropped the ball with the line wide open, and it was the Panthers who advanced to the grand final against the Rabbitohs.
asserted
who → drop → Rabbitohs
The Panthers were still a little fragile, relying on a Stephen Crichton intercept to launch their dynasty.
asserted
Panthers → rely → dynasty
It denied Bellamy the one prize which eluded him – successive premierships – and he fumed at the front of the bus during the silent journey to the team’s Queensland COVID base where they had been isolated almost all season.
asserted
they → deny → base
As coach of St George in 1984, I felt a one-point loss in the preliminary final more than a one-point loss in the grand final the following year.
asserted
loss → feel → final
Lose a grand final, and you can console yourself with having had the experience.
asserted
you → lose → experience
Also, the disappointment is ameliorated if your two lower-grade teams win, as the Dragons did in 1985.
asserted
Dragons → ameliorate → 1985
Lose a preliminary final, and you walk away with nothing.
asserted
you → lose → nothing
Many a player has declared after losing a preliminary final, “I won’t watch the grand final.”
asserted
I → declare → final
Yet, paradoxically, the culture both in the NRL and the AFL says there is only one winner in a season.
asserted
culture → say → season
Every team that failed to stand on the dais on grand final day is a loser.
asserted
that → fail → day
So how can losing a prelim be more devastating?
asserted
losing → lose → prelim
It’s the opportunity missed factor, the nagging feeling that if you reached the big day, you would have won.
asserted
you → ’ → day
It hurts more when, throughout the season, your team has dominated the team it could have met in the decider.
uncertain
it → hurt → decider
Perhaps coaches feel the loss of preliminary finals more than players.
asserted
coaches → feel → players
Young players at the top clubs believe they will be back the following year.
asserted
they → believe → clubs
Melbourne’s Christian Welch won a grand final in 2020; lost grand finals in 2016, 2018 and 2024 and lost preliminary finals in 2021 and 2023.
asserted
Welch → win → 2021
He counts losing grand finals as far more devastating.
asserted
He → count → finals
“Having to stand on the field watching the premiership rings being handed out, you picture yourself in their position on the stage singing the team song,” he says.
“You are so physically close to your lifelong dream but in reality, closer to the boys who won the spoon a month earlier.
asserted
who → have → spoon
You can feel the euphoria of the winners; they are 10 metres away from you.
asserted
they → feel → you
A grand final loss is just so much more confronting and visceral, whereas a prelim loss you can justify in your head that you weren’t that close to premiership glory.
asserted
you → justify → glory
One thought I can’t reconcile in my head is how today’s NRL champions don’t display the prime trait of their generation.
asserted
champions → reconcile → generation
The social scientists insist the Gen Z population is the most risk-averse generation in history.
asserted
population → insist → history
They fear failure, yet today’s dressing shed disappointment is like non-stick cookware.
asserted
disappointment → fear → cookware
Maybe it’s the attack-focused nature of today’s rules that promotes the rocks-and-diamonds players, such as Reece Walsh and Scott Drinkwater.
asserted
that → ’ → Walsh
It follows that these preliminary finals may not be the nervous, mistake-dreading encounters they were in the past.
uncertain
they → follow → past
The lottery luck of some of the decisions sees players concede “12-point tries”.
asserted
players → see → tries
That is when a try is denied and the opposition scores immediately afterwards.
asserted
opposition → deny → ?
An NRL official, not authorised to speak publicly, says an incorrect bunker ruling followed by an opposition try occurs far more than is reported.
asserted
ruling → authorise → try
…and 3 more, not listed.
The Aporia
