Dragons v Roosters
ANZ Stadium, 7pm tomorrow
Discipline. That's the common denominator for tomorrow's NRL grand finalists. It's what got the Roosters and Dragons to the big show, under the guidance of two of the NRL's most authoritarian coaches.
For the Dragons, that discipline has been evident in their rigorous adherence to their game plan. They may be formulaic - but what NRL team isn't? But the Dragons do it best. They do not waver. They do not panic. They are a reflection of their coach's unflinching personality.
For the Roosters, maintaining order off the field has been just as important as discipline on it.
The Roosters weren't just last on the competition ladder last season. They were last by a distance in terms of morality and human decency. Behaving like idiots was the only thing they excelled at.
With the tone set by a coach who felt compelled to fine himself after finding himself standing in his undies banging drunkenly on the wrong hotel door, what chance did they really have?
Time to get Brian Smith on the phone, pronto. A technically brilliant coach with the ability to bring out the best in players who buy into his philosophies, Smith has spent his recent years doing a pretty darn good impression of Harvey Keitel in Pulp Fiction. He's the NRL's cleaner. He takes out the trash. First it was the flighty Knights, now it's the raging Roosters. After spilling booze, blood and excrement pretty much everywhere they went last year, the Roosters sure needed some scrubbing.
Smith is a curious figure. Given that players either love him (actually more deeply respect him) or hate him, it is tempting to label him as polarising. But that would be to suggest the existence of two poles. In Smith's world there is only one. His one. And if you don't gravitate to it, you're gone.
There's no doubt the Roosters have all been pulling in the same direction this year. Remarkable, really.
Former Kiwi Robbie Paul rated Smith the best coach he ever had. Smith was incredibly demanding. He insisted players do everything possible to get the best out of themselves and didn't suffer failure or excuses. It was the making of many players, the breaking of many more.
Bennett is an equally uncompromising figure, although he prefers to dump his trash in the dead of night, quietly releasing those who don't conform to his ideals in the off-season or finding them jobs in Super League.
His public persona may be that of a flat-lining fun policeman, but Bennett possesses a common touch with his players. An ex-cop, he considers career criminal John Elias, who played for him at Brisbane Souths, a close friend.
In a chapter he wrote in Elias' book, Bennett revealed how Elias had reacted with threats and intimidation to not initially making Souths' first-grade side. Bennett stared him down, teaching Elias a lesson about earning something rather than demanding or just taking it.
Bennett also learned from Elias. He hadn't picked the hard-hitting back rower because he was purely a defensive specialist. At that time, Bennett only had eyes for flair players. When he did finally pick Elias, Bennett discovered the value of players whose greatest strengths were effort and workrate. Souths won the title that season, defeating Wally Lewis' much-fancied Wynnum Manly Seagulls in the grand final. Elias was man of the match.
That 1985 awakening for Bennett looks suspiciously like the genesis of this Dragons side.
They aren't exactly flair-free, but the Dragons are willing to subjugate their individual instincts for a greater cause.
The Roosters, too, have come together for the greater good.
The question is whether Smith, who has been around as long as Bennett but is 0-3 in grand finals, has also learned his lessons.
DRAGONS v ROOSTERS
Dragons
Darius Boyd
Brett Morris
Mark Gasnier
Matt Cooper
Jason Nightingale
Jamie Soward
Ben Hornby (c)
Neville Costigan
Dean Young
Michael Weyman
Beau Scott
Ben Creagh
Jeremy Smith
Interchange: Nathan Fien, Trent Merrin, Matt Prior, Jarrod Saffy, Nick Emmett, Kyle Stanley, Jon Green, Luke Priddis (4 to be omitted).
Roosters
A. Minichiello
Joseph Leilua
Kane Linnett
S. Kenny-Dowall
Sam Perrett
Todd Carney
Mitchell Pearce
Jason Ryles
Jake Friend
F. Nu'uausala
Nate Myles
M. Aubusson
Braith Anasta (c)
Interchange: Martin Kennedy, Jared Waerea-Hargreaves, Daniel Conn, James Aubusson, Nick Kouparitsas, Tom Symonds, Lopini Paea, Phil Graham (4 to be omitted).
