CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT
Just minutes away from the 2021 NRL Grand Final, and countless fairytales are on the line.
Will the Penrith Panthers take home the silverware in their second premiership decider appearance or will they experience the same heartbreak as last year.
Or will the South Sydney sentimentalism take control.
Adam Reynolds, the son of a street sweeper from Redfern, will depart his beloved Rabbitohs at full time tonight.
Benji Marshall, in his first grand final appearance for 16 years, could be finishing his career on the highest of highs.
It’s also Wayne Bennett’s last season as a coach, as far as we can tell, and in it marks up his 10th grand final.
However, with a real hype coming out of Western Sydney in 2021, the Gen-Z choccie soldiers from Penrith are going to be the toughest opposition that the Bunnies can have.
Speaking, to his team tonight, Wayne Bennett kept it simple.
“I don’t know what to say really.
Three minutes
to the biggest battle of our professional lives
all comes down to today.” said
“Either we heal as a team
or we are going to crumble.
Inch by inch
play by play
till we’re finished.”
“We are in hell right now, gentlemen
believe me
and we can stay here
and get the shit kicked out of us
or we can fight our way
back into the light.
We can climb out of hell.
One inch, at a time.”
“You know when you get old in life
things get taken from you.
That’s, that’s part of life.
But, you only learn that when you start losing stuff.
You find out that life is just a game of inches.”
“So is football.
Because in either game
life or football
the margin for error is so small.”
“I mean one half step too late or to early
you don’t quite make it.”
“One half second too slow or too fast
and you don’t quite catch it.
The inches we need are everywhere around us.
They are in ever break of the game
every minute, every second.”
“On this team, we fight for that inch
On this team, we tear ourselves, and everyone around us
to pieces for that inch.
We CLAW with our finger nails for that inch.
Cause we know
when we add up all those inches
that’s going to make the fucking difference
between WINNING and LOSING
between LIVING and DYING.
“I’ll tell you this
in any fight
it is the guy who is willing to die
who is going to win that inch.
And I know
if I am going to have any life anymore
it is because, I am still willing to fight, and die for that inch
because that is what LIVING is.
The six inches in front of your face.”
“Now I can’t make you do it.
You gotta look at the guy next to you.
Look into his eyes.
Now I think you are going to see a guy who will go that inch with you.
You are going to see a guy
who will sacrifice himself for this team
because he knows when it comes down to it,
you are gonna do the same thing for him.”
“That’s a team, gentlemen
and either we heal now, as a team,
or we will die as individuals.
That’s football guys.
That’s all it is.
Now, whattaya gonna do??”
