With a few minutes to go at Stadium Australia on Sunday night, the Brisbane Broncos found themselves in a familiar position - minutes away from glory and nervously staring up at the clock on the big scoreboard. The ghosts of 2015 and 2023 firmly in their minds, it was as nervous a setting you could find given the Broncos were winning, and the crowd was about 90 percent draped in maroon, gold, and white.
Ben Hunt, the pariah of 2015, was off the field. Adam Reynolds, who has twice experienced Grand Final heartbreak this decade, was too. But somehow, someway, this team that's refused to accept defeat all year long did it one more time and claimed the premiership for the first time in almost 20 years.
As had been the case in week one of the finals against Canberra and last weekend against Penrith, Michael Maguire's team found themselves down by double digits. The only difference was they didn't wait too long to run down their opponents, instead taking the lead in the 57th minute and never letting go.
Melbourne, to their immense credit, showed up with a gameplan and an attitude in the first 40 minutes that worked perfectly.
The wrestle and grind tag hasn't really been applicable to the Storm since well before their last premiership, and it certainly wasn't the case tonight. If the big question going to the game was how you stop the unstoppable force that is the Brisbane attack, then apparently the answer is to simply never let it catch up to you.
And for the first half, it was an excellent plan. The Storm were razor sharp, slicing through the Broncos defence with skill, shape, and precision for three of their scores, and brute force in the form of Jahrome Hughes, who continues to defy medical science.
But the problem with that plan is when you come up against the firepower of this Broncos team, you can only trade punches with them for so long before you hit the canvas, usually courtesy of their prime knockout artist, Reece Walsh.
There are some people who, even this year, opined about Walsh's maturity because of a couple of harmless off-field videos. The reality is that when he's been on the field this year, Brisbane have been close to unstoppable. If Payne Haas is the unsinkable ship that continues sailing ahead, Walsh is the tide that lifts the entire fleet of Broncos.
From the first minute to the last he was the driving heartbeat of a team that lives and dies with his fearlessness. Right down to the try-saving tackle with twenty seconds to go, a more complete and deserving Clive Churchill Medallist you will never see.
Walsh is the face of this team and hopefully, mercifully now with a premiership under his belt, any discourse about him and his attitude (which was already stupid) will go away forever. Haas led from the front as he so often does, charging back into the fray as the Broncos ran that lead down and never taking a backward set. Even in the last set of the match when Brisbane were running the ball into the corner, he still broke a tackle and, for a moment, looked for an offload. That moment perfectly sums up this team; all gas, no brakes, all the time.
Ezra Mam, still healthily booed when shown on the bench before his introduction to the game, was immense as well in both attack and defence. And let's not forget Kotoni Staggs who found career-best form in the second half of this season and came up with a key defensive tackle alongside Deine Mariner to keep Brisbane's lead intact.
Then there's the coach. The final piece in this puzzle for a Brisbane team that got so close to winning it all in 2023. Michael Maguire, a proven winner in the Super League, with Souths, with the New Zealand national team, the NSW Blues, and now, the Broncos as well.
This was not a Broncos team that ever played 80 good minutes in a big game, but when you're this good when it all comes together, you don't really need to. It's quite the culture shock compared to the methodical and machine-like Panthers who won the previous four Grand Finals, but that's the beauty of this sport. It can't be solved. There's no 'correct' way to do anything that applies to everyone. You just find what works and go with it.
And for a couple more bursts tonight, as they've done all year, Brisbane trusted what got them here and it paid off. The rugby league world needed a worthy successor to the Penrith dynasty, and they got one. A team not built on rigidity and processes, but sheer ability and self-belief.