MYLES HOULBROOK-WALK, REPORTER:\u00a0 This weekend millions will watch the NRL’s showpiece event: the grand final between the Brisbane Broncos and Melbourne Storm.<\/p>\n
FOOTBALL COMMENTATOR:\u00a0And they\u2019re heading to the grand final again.\u00a0<\/p>\n
FOOTBALL COMMENTATOR:\u00a0Brisbane Broncos are about to go back to the NRL Grand Final.\u00a0<\/p>\n
RYAN HOFFMANN, FMR STORM PLAYER:\u00a0 Last game of the season with all the hype, all the buildup. It’s a very, very special day.<\/p>\n
MYLES HOULBROOK-WALK:\u00a0But for one player, this game is a chance for redemption.<\/p>\n
FOOTBALL COMMENTATOR:\u00a0From right to left ….\u00a0<\/p>\n
MYLES HOULBROOK-WALK:\u00a0Ten years ago, Ben Hunt made a calamitous error during extra time in the grand final against the Cowboys.\u00a0<\/p>\n
One of Hunt\u2019s close mates was mere metres away when it all happened.<\/p>\n
ANDREW MCCULLOUGH, FMR BRONCOS PLAYER:\u00a0 That moment obviously it was pinned on Ben, but I just look back down the whole game and think if only we did certain things differently, we shouldn’t have got to that point.<\/p>\n
MYLES HOULBROOK-WALK:\u00a0Andrew McCullough was a longtime teammate of Ben Hunt and has a sense that the Bronco could put to bed the moment that has haunted him.<\/p>\n
ANDREW MCCULLOUGH:\u00a0For him to go through all that now and the way he’s progressed and got out the other side, it’s quite a remarkable story.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I do want him to win, but my minds already made up with him. I’m really proud of the person that he is.\u00a0<\/p>\n
MYLES HOULBROOK-WALK:\u00a0Standing in Ben Hunt\u2019s way is a sporting juggernaut – the Melbourne Storm.<\/p>\n
RYAN HOFFMAN:\u00a0 I think they’ve played in 10 out of the last 11 preliminary finals, which is absolutely unheard of. You’re right, 11 grand finals since 2006. It’s a great testament.<\/p>\n
MYLES HOULBROOK-WALK:\u00a0Ryan Hoffman has experienced both sides of grand finals – the ecstasy of premiership glory ecstasy of premiership glory and the agony of defeat.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He played in the 2006 grand final when the Broncos beat the Storm.\u00a0<\/p>\n
RYAN HOFFMAN:\u00a0 It\u2019s a devastation and it\u2019s a feeling that can bubble up in a number of emotions. For me, for the first one, I sat in the middle of Stadium Australia there and balled my eyes out.<\/p>\n
I was fortunate enough to win the next year in 2007, it’s elation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
MYLES HOULBROOK-WALK:\u00a0One player pivotal to the Storm\u2019s premiership challenge is their play-maker, Jahrome Hughes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
FOOTBALL COMMENTATOR:\u00a0Hughes is there, Jehrome Hughes plants it down.\u00a0<\/p>\n
MYLES HOULBROOK-WALK:\u00a0He\u2019s made a miraculous comeback from a fractured arm just weeks ago.\u00a0<\/p>\n
BRIEN SEENEY, PHYSIOTHERAPIST:\u00a0 When I first saw it, I thought Melbourne we’re going to be in a lot of trouble heading into the final series.\u00a0<\/p>\n
MYLES HOULBROOK-WALK:\u00a0Brien Seeney is a physiotherapist in Queensland and runs the renowned social media account NRL Physio.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He was stunned Hughes could return after his injury.<\/p>\n
BRIEN SEENEY:\u00a0 Last week when he played, he scored an absolutely barnstorming individual try, palming off with the arm that is fractured. Yeah, just insane.\u00a0<\/p>\n
MYLES HOULBROOK-WALK:\u00a0He might be captain of the Melbourne Storm but Harry Grant started his journey in Central Queensland.<\/p>\n
TERRY HANSEN, FMR COACH:\u00a0He’s crafty and tenacious. He was always destined to be captain because he’s always led by example. He’s a cool head.\u00a0<\/p>\n
MYLES HOULBROOK-WALK:\u00a0In Yeppoon, Harry Grant honed his craft under the stewardship of junior coach, Terry Hansen.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The wisened coach also mentored Ben Hunt who he thinks will shake off the past.<\/p>\n
TERRY HANSEN:\u00a0 Nobody drops the ball on purpose. It is what it is. It was a mistake. And there’s a game of rugby league and there’s lots of mistakes in the game made by lots of different players.<\/p>\n
MYLES HOULBROOK-WALK:\u00a0With the gift of hindsight, we asked Ben Hunt what he\u2019d tell his younger self.<\/p>\n
BEN HUNT, BRONCOS PLAYER:\u00a0All I\u2019d say to myself back then is keep your head up and keep on moving. That’s kind of what I ended up doing, tried to live life and tried to put it behind me as best I could<\/p>\n
MYLES HOULBROOK-WALK:\u00a0For some the way to avoid heartbreak on the big day is pre game rituals and superstitions.<\/p>\n
Brisbane’s Reece Walsh has perhaps the most strange.<\/p>\n
REECE WALSH:\u00a0 You just, toilet water…\u00a0<\/p>\n
MYLES HOULBROOK-WALK:\u00a0The star went viral after filming himself drinking toilet water, joking it helped him with his recovery. It’s become a running gag since.<\/p>\n
Before both teams close ranks and focus on the game we asked whether the ritual had become a group activity.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Obviously we know Reece Walsh has taken to one pre and post game superstition around toilet water, have any of the other Broncos taken it on?<\/p>\n
BEN HUNT:\u00a0 No.<\/p>\n
MYLES HOULBROOK-WALK:\u00a0Whatever preparation each player takes on, the match will be settled on Sunday.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MYLES HOULBROOK-WALK, REPORTER:\u00a0 This weekend millions will watch the NRL’s showpiece event: the grand final between the Brisbane…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":185070,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,4428,4466,761,762,158,22408,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-185069","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nrl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-brisbane-broncos","11":"tag-melbourne-storm","12":"tag-national-rugby-league","13":"tag-nationalrugbyleague","14":"tag-nrl","15":"tag-nrl-grand-final","16":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185069","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185069"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185069\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}