If you’d taken the odds of 500/1 for an NRL grand final
between the Wests Tigers and the North Queensland
Cowboys at the start of the season you’d probably be feeling somewhere
between pleased with yourself and short
changed today.

Most experts did
not give the Tigers a chance of making the final eight, let alone the grand
final, and after the Tigers absolutely thrashed the Cowboys by 50-6 in the first
weekend of the semi finals everyone (yours truly included) wrote the Cowboys off
completely.

Yet over the weekend, the first and second teams after
the premiership rounds – the Eels and the Dragons – were comprehensively beaten
by the fourth and fifth placed teams to give the NRL a grand final from which
rugby league will be a sure winner.

There are numerous “firsts” in the grand final line up – including
the first grand final appearance for both teams and the first time the
fourth and fifth placed teams have both made the grand final. And it’s
a clash between a joint venture team, the Wests Tigers, and a regional
team, the Cowboys. The kind of mix that will make the NRL very happy.

Read more on the website.