Rugby league in September rarely fails to deliver. It certainly did not on the opening weekend of the 2023 NRL finals series in what was one of the most brutal, dramatic, exhilarating and anxiety-driven weekends in recent memory. Two of the greatest finals of the NRL era were matched with an injury that utterly devastated the game, a stunning biting allegation and moments of reckoning that will take some intestinal fortitude to overcome.
With the NRL set to showcase itself to the world in Las Vegas next year, it will unlikely ever get another weekend that demonstrates all that is great, soul-affirming and soul-destroying about rugby league than it did over the last few days. While both the elimination finals were two very different matches stylistically, the common thread was the naked desperation that shows only in do-or-die football. In the furnace, the true nature of football teams is laid bare.
