Brisbane may have found the template to beat Penrith in the NRL grand final after an offloading spree enabled them to run riot in their preliminary final win over the Warriors.

The Broncos had 23 offloads in the 42-12 triumph on Saturday night, with all of their seven tries featuring offloads in the lead-up or act of scoring.

It is a style of play that Parramatta have used with success in the past against the back-to-back premiers. The Eels have won four of their past six clashes against the Panthers, including a 32-18 win in round 26 this year, by asking questions with a more expansive approach.

Brisbane coach Kevin Walters said his team weren’t known for their offloading prowess so put the statistics against the Warriors down to chance.

“The Warriors are a team who like to offload and we’re not a team known for doing that. It was a bit of a surprise, and it was working as well,” Walters said.

“It was just how it happened on the field. We were smart enough to capitalise on those offloads.”

The coach was not about to give away his game plan before Sunday’s season decider so he played down offloads as being a key plank in his strategy against the Panthers.

His son, Broncos hooker Billy Walters was more forthcoming.

“I think offloads rattle a lot of teams so it might work against Penrith,” Billy Walters said.

“They are pretty smart our coaches. They are a tough team to break down but we will be ready.”

The Broncos’ offloads against the Warriors came from forwards and backs. Middle forwards Pat Carrigan, Payne Haas and Thomas Flegler had 11 between them. They allowed fullback Reece Walsh, who had two, to move freely on the back of second-phase play and create havoc.

Second-rower Kurt Capewell, who won the 2021 title with the Panthers, said the offloading against the Warriors was part of the Broncos’ attacking artillery that would be vital to beat his former club.

“You have got to use everything in your bag to beat Penrith. Their defence is the best in the comp and we will be trying everything in our kit bag to try and break it apart,” Capewell said.

“Offloading is instinctive. It is off-the-cuff. That is how we like to play. It is our Broncos brand of footy and these guys are great at it.”

Need to be better

Kevin Walters said his players “weren’t great” against the Warriors.

“We have to be great next week. The boys have been good, but our best performance is still in front of us this year,” he said.

Melbourne coach Craig Bellamy, after his side was thumped 38-4 in their preliminary final by Penrith, said that to beat them their grand final opponents “must create chances and finish them.”

“Then you’re putting them into a place where they don’t go too often,” he said.

Warriors won’t blame Walsh forward pass

Warriors coach Andrew Webster has refused to blame a blatant Reece Walsh forward pass for his side’s loss.

With the Warriors clinging on to hope of a comeback to keep their fairytale run alive at 24-12 down, Walsh spotted an opening in the visitors’ defence and attacked down the right edge.

After breaking through, the Broncos fullback passed to winger Selwyn Cobbo, but the ball appeared to travel metres forward before play was allowed to continue.

Cobbo then also produced a questionable ball back inside for Jordan Riki, who put the final nail in the Warriors’ season with a try to make it 30-12.

Despite that, Webster refused to be overly critical of the decision after the match and said the miss by referee Gerard Sutton and sideline officials could not be blamed for the loss.

“It is pretty clear to say the forward pass was so wrong it wasn’t funny,” Webster said.

“But they made a line break, we’d allowed the line break, and then the forward pass comes off the back of that.

“We weren’t defending well in that period, the forward pass was wrong.

But we’re not crying over that. It certainly didn’t cost us the game.

“We’ve got to give ourselves an opportunity to win and we have to take the referees out of it.

The pass is likely to again raise questions over the bunker’s inability to call on forward passes, with the NRL concerned over camera angles causing issues in decisions.

The league has also toyed with the idea of chips in balls to detect forward passes, and while technology was tested in the NRLW last year, further use is yet to be approved.

2023 NRL grand final at a glance

Sunday, October 1

Penrith Panthers v Brisbane Broncos at Accor Stadium, Sydney, 7.30pm (AEDT)

Played 60 times – Panthers won 24, Broncos won 35, 1 drawn
Most recent match: Panthers beat Broncos 15-4 at Suncorp Stadium in round 11.
Premierships: Panthers 4, Broncos 6,
Grand Final history: Nil

THE FORM

*Penrith (H&A first, 18 wins, 6 losses). Arguably enter this year’s decider in better form than they have the past three. Have completely dominated their finals series with a 32-6 win over the Warriors and 38-4 demolition of Melbourne, and won nine of 10 games to finish the regular season. Cracking the Panthers’ defence will be the Broncos’ biggest challenge, with Penrith having conceded no more than 12 points in their past eight finals games.

*Brisbane (H&A second, 18 wins, 6 losses). The only team to have matched Penrith’s form in recent weeks. Also enter the decider off two big wins over Melbourne (26-0) and the Warriors (42-12). The Broncos also won seven of their last eight to finish the regular season, with the only loss coming when they left out several of their stars in the final round against Melbourne. Have a 1-1 record against the two-time defending premiers this year.

THE KEY PLAYERS

* Nathan Cleary (Penrith): Cleary’s record is already remarkable, but on Sunday night he has the chance to win a third premiership as a halfback before his 26th birthday. It’s a feat not even achieved by some of the game’s premier playmakers, including the likes of Andrew Johns, Johnathan Thurston, Cooper Cronk or Ricky Stuart. The Panthers’ attack is nigh impossible to stop when Cleary and the other key cogs in Jarome Luai, Dylan Edwards and Isaah Yeo are on song, as they were against Melbourne on Friday night.

* Reece Walsh (Brisbane): Can the NRL’s most electric player carry his form into the grand final? Had a role in three of the Broncos’ seven tries on Saturday night against the Warriors, and has now set up 22 for the year to go with the nine he has scored. Walsh’s status as the NRL’s most error-prone player was highlighted during the State of Origin period, but the Broncos won’t mind if their star fullback puts one or two balls down in attack if he keeps providing chances at the rate he currently is.

THE COACHES

* Ivan Cleary (Penrith): Can become the first coach since Jack Gibson with Parramatta in the early 1980s to claim a three-peat. Since a chance meeting brought him back to the foot of the mountains in 2019, Cleary has converted Penrith’s burgeoning junior talent pool into an NRL juggernaut, with the current Panthers firmly in the conversation for the best team of this era.

* Kevin Walters (Brisbane): Hard to believe this is the same coach who had two of his own players talk him down in podcasts last year. Taking over after a wooden-spoon season in 2020, Walters enjoyed minimal gains in 2021 before landing his big catch in Adam Reynolds for 2022. A late-season fade cost the Broncos a finals spot last season, but Walters has timed their run perfectly this year for a shot at ending the club’s 17-year title drought.

—AAP