The tiny grand final moments turned on a dime by NRL’s biggest marquee buys

October 5, 2026 — 5:35am

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As it was in the beginning, Newcastle had no right to get anywhere near the premiership trophy.

As it was in the beginning, the Roosters, with their bevy of proven title-winning, marquee recruits, had the star power to get them home.

But only just. And only in the detail do we see the devil of how they truly did it. This was a one-point, 19-18 victory that came rolling down a grand final mountain where 89 per cent of the game was played at one end, yet was in the balance until the final whistle blew.

Where the game swung for a long time toward the inevitable, thanks to the consequential play and consequential, single plays – however minute – that came before it.

Fortune favours the plucky and the Ponga

Newcastle deserved their first two tries for the small Everests of defensive grit and grout they piled up in front of them.

When heads cool and blood slows, though, Kalyn Ponga should have been sin-binned for hitting Victor Radley square in the temple a moment before one of the more inspirational plays of a season full of them from the Newcastle skipper.

In any other game, his forceful contact to Radley’s head was worthy of a 10-minute breather. Not for nothing though: a week after Newcastle’s 1997 premiership-winning captain Paul Harragon waxed lyrical about Ponga’s actions-over-words leadership style, the true depth of the intercept try that followed is also worth highlighting.

Ponga’s 50-metre tracking from marker to crumb a Mark Nawaqanitawase bat back wasn’t the........

© The Sydney Morning Herald