Ivan Cleary – 4 consecutive premierships, 6 consecutive Prelim Finals, and somehow 0 Coach of the Year awards.

Well friends, here we are at the penultimate week of season 2025, Preliminary Final week hitting off the back of some compelling Semi Finals, as the Bulldogs-Panthers Sunday afternoon Semi was a fantastic success for both ratings and crowds, with 56,872 at Accor Stadium (Which means the 3 best attended games in 2025 are all Bulldogs games), and an average TV audience of 2 million people across Fox League/Channel Nine/Sky, the most-watched Semi Final in NRL history, which gives a compelling argument for returning to an afternoon Grand Final…

Of course, just about the only group that game wasn’t a success for was Canterbury, with the Panthers having the game won with a superb 1st Half to dump the Doggies out in straight sets 46-26, a brutal end to the season for the home team after they’d started 6-0 and topped the ladder up to Round 15, only for the recruitment of Lachlan Galvin to blow up in Phil Gould’s face.

And the night before, the Canberra Raiders, off the back of one of the most brutal finals defeats the league has ever seen, got swamped in the last 30 minutes by a damn good Cronulla Sharks team to become the first minor premier dumped out in straight sets since 2009 St George-Illawarra, as the Sharks won 32-12 and come from 5th to emerge as a viable premiership contender after successfully swimming under the radar for pretty much the last 3 months to sidle into Melbourne with blood in their nostrils, ready to rip Craig Bellamy’s legs off the second the Storm misunderestimate them.

As the old saying goes, you should never underestimate a shark when he is in trouble, especially when he is underwater.

And, once again, the 50-point curse is the most consistent statistic in the history of rugby league – Ricky rested half the Raiders team before the Round 27 game against a Dolphins team who were No.1 for scoring, and look what happened – 62 points, CURSED.

Of course, this season features the return of the Sunday afternoon Preliminary Final for the first time since 2007 (Melbourne played Parramatta at the Telstra Dome that year), and I’ll bring up a Sunday Prelim that occurred 20 years ago this weekend – the 2005 Prelim between minor premiers Parramatta and North Queensland at Telstra Stadium, with the Eels a pretty clear premiership favourite after winning in Week One and the Wests Tigers defeating St George-Illawarra in the Saturday night Prelim, while the Cowboys, called “The Other mob” by Fatty Vautin on Channel Nine, were hideously belted 50-6 by the Tigers in Week One, then had to take out the Melbourne Storm in the Semi Final to take on an Eels team who defeated them 50-12 during the season…

Of course, the Eels are always the accident waiting to happen, so the Cowboys won 29-0 and qualified for their first Grand Final in their 10th anniversary year.

And that game wasn’t even the most memorable Preliminary Final from that weekend, because that Tigers-Dragons game at the SFS (Wests winning 20-12) was an outstandingly good game, so much so the NRL YouTube page uploaded a full replay…

Unfortunately for Dragons fans, the Sydney Swans were the only Sydney team in Red & White that won on September 24, 2005.

Now, on to this week, and we’ve got the awkward scenario of a Friday Prelim and a Sunday afternoon, in large part because the NRL can’t play the Melbourne Storm-hosted Prelim on Saturday evening due to the timing and proximity to the AFL Grand Final:

– The Storm host the Sharks at AAMI Park on Friday night in yet another finals clash between the two heated rivals, the second year running that they’ve met at AAMI Park in a Final, the second time they’ve played a Prelim at AAMI Park (After 2018) and the fifth final between the teams since 2008 (The Storm lead 3-1 but the Sharks did win the 2016 Grand Final), Jahrome Hughes, Ryan Blore and Ryan Papenhuyzen are all available for the Storm, the Sharks have to replace the concussed Tom Hazleton with Oregon Kaufusi, and they’ll go in full of beans knowing they did knock off the Storm 31-26 at Shark Park… although, we do note that the Sharks defeated the Storm at AAMI Park last year, and look how the finals played out.

Interesting fact – If the Sharks do win, they’ll join the 2005 Wests Tigers as the only teams since the advent of State of Origin to make the NRL Grand Final without having a player appear in that year’s Origin series.

– In an epic finals rematch of the 2023 Grand Final, the Brisbane Broncos, with Adam Reynolds and Ezra Mam back in the lineup, host the Penrith Panthers at Suncorp Stadium on Sunday afternoon, the Panthers into a record 6th consecutive Preliminary Final with their record run of finals victories now up to 14 consecutive finals since 2021, and it looks like absolutely nobody in their right mind wants to play Penrith in a Final, and the Broncos are probably in the same boat because the Panthers slaughtered them 32-8 at Lang Park in Magic Round, back when Penrith were in their autumn slump that saw them last in Round 12, and until somebody actually defeats the Panthers in a Final, you’d have to be clinically insane to go against them – They are as inevitable as death itself.

Also, two other interesting little pieces of history – Due to various NRL rules the Broncos have only ever played 3 Prelim Finals in Brisbane (1998, 2015, 2023), but have won them all, and we mentioned the 2005 Wests Tigers before, they are still the last legal team to win the NRL Premiership from 4th on the ladder (Melbourne’s 2009 premiership from 4th now struck from history), with 2013 Manly, 2019 Canberra and 2022 Parramatta all since making the decider from 4th but going on to lose.

All in all, outside of the pandemic year of 2021 when everyone was in Queensland, it’s the first time since 2015 that we haven’t had a Preliminary Final in Sydney.

Semi Finals Tips = 1/2

Progressive Score = 120/202 (59.4%)

And now, for a Preliminary Final weekend tribute, here’s Gloria Gaynor!