Unscripted thriller leaves no time to even check the score

Lights, camera, Reece Walsh. And action. And action. And action.

Put this movie in a time capsule and bury it. Send it to Mars with a poster of Walsh in case the future ever needs to know why this provincial little football code, this unscripted suburban drama, was the greatest game of all.

Two years ago, the Brisbane Broncos’ super trio Walsh, Payne Haas and Ezra Mam inspired one of the most thrilling rugby league grand finals ever played. This time, they did all that and won, too.

For most of this eye-popping match, it was difficult to keep in mind what the score even was. You couldn’t look away long enough to check what mattered most.

By full-time, it was Broncos 26, Storm 22. Broken hearts mended.

The game will be remembered for the tries: the second-fastest in 117 years of grand finals, an all-time high of six in the first half, including a Walsh special when he beat five tacklers and a goalpost. The first half was the most exhilarating 40 minutes of sport imaginable.

But the 2025 grand final will also be remembered for a second half played to a standstill, with both teams battling their way through invisible swampland. Brisbane’s desperate covering defence saved try after try, after try. There were too many to count, but the last, on Ryan Papenhuyzen, was out of this world – executed by Walsh.

Where to start? The beginning. These teams couldn’t wait. While we were still taking our seats, Walsh set up his right-winger Deine Mariner, who tempted all sorts of curses by almost overstepping the dead-ball line and shooting an albatross.

By the thinness of a rime, Mariner stayed in and set the spectacle in motion. It was a symbolic act. Scoring a try was not enough; Mariner had to risk ruining one.

No sooner were Brisbane ahead than they were almost hopelessly behind. Melbourne had been spectators for the first five minutes, involved in the game only as tacklers.

For the next 15 minutes, the Storm possessed the ball. Melbourne’s three quick tries showed the kind of precision and co-ordination that has made Craig Bellamy’s team the envy of the NRL for two decades.

Set-moves to Brisbane’s shaky left-side defence, kicks to chasers who knew where the ball was going when it was still a twinkle in the kicker’s eye. Perfect Storm.

Defence? Caution, fear? Robotic game plans? Yeah, nah. The rugby league stars of 2025 have a first thought and go with it. They are drilled in structure and put through rehearsals like film actors, but are also set free to ad lib, to express themselves, to vacate their minds and trust their instincts.

It is the gift of two grizzled old mentors, Bellamy and Michael Maguire, to strive for total disciplinary control while setting young spirits free.

No player is as instinctive as Walsh, but his first try, as marvellous as it was, may have been another bright flash in a losing effort. When Jahrome Hughes replied with his own solo, Melbourne went to half-time poised to apply their winning formula to the second half.

As madcap as it was, the first half wasn’t messy. Melbourne and Brisbane held the ball for a combined 42 sets in the first half and failed to complete only three. The quality of the football was that rare jewel: for the purists as well as the tourists.

At half-time, thoughts turned to the pundits who had been saying this match would open up after the teams’ fatigue set in. Eh? Either the fatigue was there from the first minute or both teams were saying “bugger it, let’s just play footie”.

For the second half, it was reasonable to expect the Storm and Broncos to be too tired to up the pace. But the second half was even more exciting. Straight away, end to end, Melbourne’s Tui Kamikamica and Brisbane’s Gehamat Shibasaki crossed the line, only the latter holding the ball and bringing the score to – what was the score again? Melbourne 22, Brisbane 16.

Something had to give, and it was inevitably one of Adam Reynolds’s 35-year-old tortured legs. When Ben Hunt took a bad knock, Brisbane had to finish the game without their old heads.

But they had Walsh, and that was plenty. His searing passes put his flankers over on both sides, and Brisbane were somehow ahead.

He threw a Harbour Bridge-shaped one for another, which was disallowed for being forward. There were more near-gets and near-misses, and the result was in doubt until the very last seconds. It always seemed that Melbourne might win, until a last try-saver from the last Bronco defender. What a game. You couldn’t make it up.

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