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The coaching performance from Wayne Bennett to pilot South Sydney into a position to challenge for the Rabbitohs’ 22nd premiership must surely rank as one of the old fox’s greatest achievements.

When Latrell Mitchell got suspended for six weeks the widespread view around rugby league was put the red pen through South Sydney.

There were doubts about the Rabbitohs credentials anyway but without Latrell the wheels had come off for the Bunnies at the wrong stage of the season.

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Bennett understands better than anyone defence is what wins big games and so the supercoach quietly set about telling the red and green playing group this was going to be a victory for the “true believers”.

Every one else was writing South Sydney off, yet now after orchestrating a classic September upset in week one of the finals the Rabbitohs are within reach of the Provan-Summons trophy.

And Bennett lines up in his 10th grand final since joining the Canberra Raiders to coach alongside the late, great Don Furner in 1987.

It’s a phenomenal achievement in a season where the Rabbitohs will also farewell champion halfback Adam Reynolds, centre Dane Gagai and backrower Jadyn Su’A.

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Then there’s been the astute signing of champion playmaker Benji Marshall as the perfect No.14 foil in case of injuries to either Reynolds or five-eighth Cody Walker.

What a storyline if all of these players and Bennett can win the Pride of the League club’s 22nd premiership.

There are brilliant narratives in both grand final team camps with the Penrith Panthers attempting to follow a similar path to the club’s inaugural grand final winning side of 1991.

Back then the Panthers had a champion halfback in Greg “Brandy” Alexander and had endured the pain of losing the 1990 grand final to the Canberra Raiders.

Fast forward 30 years and it’s Nathan Cleary playing with a busted shoulder yet still producing brilliant plays like the cross-field kick out of dummy-half for Stephen Crichton against the Melbourne Storm.

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Of course what could go wrong for the Storm did go wrong on Saturday afternoon but the Panthers deserve enormous credit for such a stoic performance of scrambling defence.

Penrith missed 56 tackles against the Storm yet somehow this young gun side found ways to repeatedly repel one of the best attacking juggernauts we’ve seen.

For the Storm it was always going to be hard to overcome the early losses of Christian Welch and Brandon Smith and there’s no doubt Cameron Munster and Harry Grant felt the pressure of the big-game blow torch.

Both grand final teams will need to overcome injury issues with Bunnies halfback Reynolds unable to goal-kick during the club’s preliminary final win over Manly.

The Panthers also looked busted-up with Tevita Pangai Jr only able to make a blockbusting cameo in the opening ten minutes against the Storm before succumbing to a medial injury.

Fellow front rower Moses Leota also missed the preliminary final with a calf issue while Kiwi enforcer James Fisher-Harris looks to have been playing busted for a couple of weeks now.

It’s a similar story with the Panthers NSW Origin flyer Brian To’o who had his ankle heavily strapped in the preliminary final.

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Given what’s at stake there’s no question both coaches will be pushing to have their best sides available.

For Panthers coach Ivan Cleary it’s his third grand final appearance and he deserves enormous credit for getting Penrith back up after the disappointment of week one of the finals.

Cleary has currently coached 369 NRL games across 15 seasons without being able to win a decider.

The Panthers coach also gets his own shot at history if he can defy the trend of no NRL coach having won a premiership after coaching more than 250 games.

Who have you got winning the 2021 grand final?

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