Hodges reprieve sets up epic Grand Final clash

HOOKER Royce Simmons, playing his last game at 33, was the unlikely hero of Penrith’s last gasp grand final win over Canberra, scoring from a Raiders goal-line drop out before emotionally declaring he wanted to have a beer with every single Penrith supporter to celebrate.

With seven grand final wins to his name already, Bennett is to rugby league what Sir Alex Ferguson is to football and Phil Jackson to basketball.

The fairytale had looked a very long way away as a frustrated Cowboys side repeatedly failed to drive home attacking chances in the second half as the clock – and Brisbane’s four-point lead – began to take their toll.

Thurston, who carried groin and calf injuries into the game, refused to let the Broncos tackle him in the dying stages of the game which would have seen Brisbane claim their seventh premiership. Us Sydneysiders just have to get over the fact that they are both Queenslanders. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to be there live?

Find out in The Roar’s player ratings from the NRL Grand Final.

He is lucky to be out there.

Cowboys props Matt Scott and James Tamou have been at their bullocking best in finals wins over Cronulla and Melbourne after the loss to Brisbane. They also have Wayne Bennett as their coach.

Greenberg stood by the judiciary, however, saying it had listened to evidence, which included a personal appearance by Roosters forward and Hodges’s Queensland Origin teammate Aidan Guerra, that he deliberately dived forward in a tackle in a bid to milk a penalty.

“A lot of people have commented on that game as a spectacle”, Cowboys coach Paul Green said.

Thurston, who this week won a record fourth Dally M medal for player of the season, was equally adamant he has shaken off a groin strain.

But they couldn’t hold the Cowboys out in the final seconds.

Pour one up Queensland, you’ve either got a reason to celebrate or commiserate, and a public holiday tomorrow to sleep it off. Lead image by Cameron Spencer via Getty. To be the Clive Churchill Medallist.

They will talk about the 2015 grand final in years and decades to come with the same reverence that they do the 1989 decider, such was the ferocity and drama that this year’s most important was played with.

A MOMENT of madness when a grand final was decided on the biggest call in history.

More importantly it is Johnathan Thurston against the best the Broncos can muster.

Thurston made his debut for Australia in 2006 and has represented the Kangaroos in 32 Tests. Against the Storm he ran for almost 70 metres more than either of his Finals matches in the weeks prior. A surprising stat is only three offloads, but that probable just highlights the clear mind he plays his footy with.

He dumped Wally Lewis as captain in 1990 and the player soon left when his salary demands were ignored.