After 13 years Parramatta made a prelimary final and backed it up with a GF appearance. I will start this by saying classy act from NQ on their twitter wishing us all the best next week, felt that was a nice touch. Anyway, most are either feeling nervous or excited, i am feeling excited to get the game over and done with to get to the result. The wait for the 36 years has been long enough than to wait 9 days for the decider. When they won v NQ, i didn't celebrate per say. More so stood with hands up waiting for the call when Simonsson got the ball, then when whistle blew i fist pumped and stood there looking at the TV with arms on my head, unravling what has happened and what we achieved. My mate got up and congradulated me and i said "Still one more to go" and that is why i didn't really celebrate. During the week of course i put things around outside my house to show my support, but a premiers shirt is the thing i have wanted my whole life. I have heaps of jerseys, training shirts and generic shirts in general from Parramatta, but a premiers one, that is escaping my wardrobe, hopefully come Monday i am wearing one.
In terms of stats, pretty here nor there in terms one team favouring. 46% is impressive in that we actually won the game with that much ball. 75% completion percentage needs to be fixed though, coming up against the best team in the comp, a team that once they get momentum they are almost impossible to stop, which Souths found out the hard way. 6 line-breaks a piece, 40 tackles breaks to our 31, flip that for missed tackles. 15 offloads to their 7 is where we took control of the game, that is our source of momentum, giving us that bit of a breather to get some space in the middle and make met to push the defence back and give us some push. 11 errors to their 6, that is an issue also, makes our win even more impressive.
Most Impressive:
Shaun Lane: May have played his way into a World Cup spot and deservedly so. 135m, 1 try-assist, 1 line-break assist, 5 tackle breaks, 4 offloads and numerous try savers. Simple, Big Lane is here til 2026, and thank god for that.
Mitchell Moses: Guided us around the park with pressure on his mind of getting us to a GF, while also waiting to meet his new daughter. Feelings of pressure to make a GF and being a father, yet he led us there. He did his job and silenced some critics that say Moses is the issue. Kicked two out on the full yet composed himself to continue and brush it off.
Bailey Simonsson: Was nervous to tell the truth about Simonsson playing Centre, considering his defensive performances on the Wing, but the bastard did it. What performance to be out of first grade for 8 weeks then come in a practically unknown and untested position for him in first grade in one of the biggest games of his career and to hold his own to the point where i didn't really notice him too much is amazing. Hopefully Bailey continues against Critta today but man he could turn into a nice Centre for us in 2023. Confidence gained and sorely needed.
Front three: RCG, Mahoney and Paulo are set the platform and set the tone in the second half. RCG with two tries, Reed with a try saver on Holmes near the end and Paulo leading his pack to victory.
NQ twitter message: Complete class from NQ wishing us luck on twitter, they didn't need to but they did and i hope Parra would have done the same had we lost last week.
Honorable mentions: Everyone else
Most Disappointing:
Forward Pass: It happened in the 6th minute yet some claim NQ lost due to that, bad luck. It wasn't forward in my eyes anyway.
First half: Looked nervous and a bit underdone from the whole preparation in the first half. It seemed the lights looked a bit too big. If we do that tonight, it could be Manly on Melbourne in 2008 which was 40-0, give Penrith a start and they are gone.
That is it, sorry it is late had a busy week to write a whole blog like this, had one nearly ready and accidentally uploaded it before it was ready and lost it all when deleted so had to start again.
Enjoy your Grand Final.
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