Rugby league has long referred to itself as “the greatest game of all”. Few who witnessed the 94-minute all-time classic between the Raiders and Broncos on Sunday afternoon would argue otherwise. In a match that is already being hailed as arguably the greatest finals match of all time, a long distance Ben Hunt field goal in golden point as darkness fell on the nation’s capital sent the Broncos to the preliminary final and broke Raiders hearts in a match that had everything. The most talented of Hollywood script writers would have struggled to conjure such a chaotic, dramatic, epic finale.
On the back of their first minor premiership since 1990, the Raiders seemed to have a home preliminary final all but secured when Ethan Strange burst over with 25 minutes to go, giving them a 16-point lead. It capped arguably the most dramatic five minutes of the season, when the Broncos had seemingly imploded. Reece Walsh was lucky to only be sin binned for headbutting Hudson Young – and the Broncos were incredibly fortunate referee Ashley Klein not only binned Young as well but gave Brisbane the penalty. Kaeo Weekes soon scooped up a loose ball though and was off to the races with a 95-metre try before forward Patrick Carrigan joined Walsh in the bin for a high shot. When Strange scored the second try in four minutes following the Walsh binning, it appeared over. Even though Jamal Fogarty’s simple conversion miss was a bad sign, few saw it as a portent of things to come.
