This is it, the moment we've all be waiting for – the NRL Grand Final! It's been a long and exciting season for many, but now just two teams remain to fight out for NRL glory; the Penrith Panthers and the Brisbane Broncos. As you already know, Dabble’s experts provided NRL tips for each and every round of the 2023 NRL season, and don't worry because we'll be back bigger and better next season!
Our NRL footy tips cover all the key factors of every game, of every round in the Finals. So, if you are as obsessed with the NRL as the team at Dabble are, you have certainly come to the right place! Get your scrolling finger ready, all you need to do is read and scroll, our experts will take care of everything else for you.
Check out all our expert NRL tips for the Grand Final below:
Grand Final – Penrith Panthers vs Brisbane Broncos, Sunday 1st October, 7.30pm
We finally have the Grand Final everyone has been waiting for – between the two hottest teams in the land! Both were excellent throughout the final series, and I see this as potentially one of the great Grand Finals of the modern era.
The Panthers are favourites to make it three in a row and deservedly so – they have been a model of consistency throughout the season and won the Minor Premiership in fine style. They are also on an eight-game winning run in finals footy – something no team has managed since the mighty St George side of the 1960s.
But the Broncos have an ace up their sleeve – the best player in the game at the moment in Reece Walsh. The dynamic fullback simply destroyed the Warriors last Saturday night and no team has been able to contain him in the final series.
Walsh is cocky and confident, and the big match pressure doesn’t seem to faze him – he plays the game like backyard footy, takes risks and more often than not they pay off. Early in the Warriors game he gave away an intercept try and that could have seen other players fall to pieces. But Walsh just put it to the back of his mind, got on with the job and set up three tries for his outside men.
The only question mark over the Broncos is that many of their players have never experienced the Grand Final pressure cooker. That could get to some of their lesser experienced players – especially as they will be playing in Sydney in front of a crowd that is likely to be 80% pro Panthers.
One exception to that is halfback Adam Reynolds, who has played in a winning Grand Final team with Souths. Reynolds is in career best form although he was strangely quiet in the big win over the Warriors – content to let speed men Walsh, Ezra Mam, Herbie Farnworth and Selwyn Cobbo do the damage out wide.
Against the Panthers, Reynolds will need to step up and play a leading hand, just as the in-form Nathan Cleary has been doing for the Panthers all season. For the Broncos to have any chance, they will have to blitz Cleary, reducing his decision-making time, and hopefully force him into errors. But he is a class act, cool under pressure, and it’s a job easier said than done.
With the Broncos’ lack of big-match experience in mind, and the fact that the Panthers have a slight edge in toughness in the forwards, I think the Panthers will achieve the three-peat – the first since the mighty Parramatta Eels of 1981, 1982 and 1983. With their power up front and finishing ability out wide, I see the Panthers covering the start in a high scoring and entertaining affair.
We told you our NRL betting tips were on point! If reading our NRL preview for the Grand Final has got you all fired up, make sure you head on over to the Dabble app, get all your bets sorted and share your thoughts in the Banter channel.
