Melbourne Storm (2nd) vs Brisbane Broncos (4th) – Sunday night (Accor Stadium)

Game details

Date:Sunday 5th October 2025

Time: 7.30pm kick-off (NSW time)

Venue: Accor Stadium, Sydney

Team list - Melbourne Storm*

1. Ryan Papenhuyzen
2. Will Warbrick
3. Jack Howarth
4. Nick Meaney
5. Xavier Coates
6. Cameron Munster
7. Jahrome Hughes
8. Stefano Utoikamanu
9. Harry Grant
10. Josh King
11. Shawn Blore
12. Eliesa Katoa
13. Trent Loiero
14. Tyran Wishart
15. Ativalu Lisati
16. Tui Kamikamica
17. Alec MacDonald

Team list - Brisbane Broncos*

1. Reece Walsh
2. Josiah Karapani
3. Kotoni Staggs
4. Gehamet Shibasaki
5. Deine Mariner
6. Ben Hunt
7. Adam Reynolds
8. Corey Jensen
9. Cory Paix
10. Payne Haas
11. Brendan Piakura
12. Jordan Riki
13. Patrick Carrigan
14. Ezra Mam
15. Kobe Hetherington
16. Xavier Willison
17. Tyson Smoothy

*Team lists are subject to change and will be updated as soon as possible.

Game preview

Whatever the outcome on Sunday, the result can be framed as a redemption story, and in more ways than two. The Storm lost the 2024 Grand Final to Penrith, and the Broncos lost the 2023 Grand Final to Penrith. The Storm were competitive but not quite good enough, while the Broncos all but had their hands on the silverware, until Nathan Cleary stole it back with multiple moments of Nathan Cleary things. In 2021, the first of the Panthers four-peat, former Rabbitoh Adam Reynolds had an opportunity to tie the game late, but missed. Ben Hunt is back with the team he never wanted to leave. He's about to play NRL game number 355, but his career has a shadow hanging over it, thanks to a brief moment in the 2015 grand final. Hardly fair, and Hunt getting the Broncos over the line on Sunday would be my preferred version of the redemption story. The Storm have had an easier ride into the grand final, but they earned that right. Two games, both played at home, the first against an under-strength Bulldogs whose season peaked early in the year. The second against the Sharks, who did better than they often do, but are a team that typically fall short at the business end of the season. By comparison, the Broncos had to travel to Canberra and come from behind to beat the best team all season. Then they had to come from behind again, against the team that have won the last four premierships. The Broncos hadn't scored a point at half time against Penrith, but they didn't let Penrith score a point in the second half. In previous seasons the Broncos wouldn't have had the fortitude to fight back like that - this team is a little bit different.

The Storm were the last team to win a premiership before the Penrith reign at the top. Incredibly, just three players from that grand final victory remain in the Storm seventeen. That said, they're three important ones - Papenhuyzen, Munster and Hughes. Add Grant to that trio, and the Storm spine is the best in the business, by a stretch. They have the skills and the experience to win this, and in contests between these two sides in recent years, it's the Storm who generally prevail, and often by a space.

The Broncos are a juggernaut of the NRL, but it's been a long time between premierships for the biggest sporting club in the country. The last premiership was in 2006, against the Storm no less. That Storm team included four of the all-time greats - Smith, Slater, Inglis, Cronk. Still, the Broncos found a way. It was possibly the strangest team to win a premiership in a long long time. The 2006 Broncos had a forward pack that would compete today - Webcke, Civoniceva, Thorn, Thaiday, Carroll, Parker, Carlaw, Hannant. But almost every member of the backline played out of position. Lockyer, a fullback, played in the halves. Hodges, a centre, played at fullback. Hunt and Boyd, both fullbacks, played on the wings. Stagg, a backrower, played at centre. Berrigan, a centre, played at hooker and claimed Clive Churchill honours. Their halfback that day, Shane Perry, was a terrific local footballer, but still had a full time job away from football. He's the last halfback to win a premiership that didn't play representative football, but he didn't even have an NRL contract at the time and was working for match payments. He steered the team around that day and took down an opponent that included the Beatles of rugby league. Hard to fathom. 

Many of us will be favouring the Storm to claim honours on Sunday, and rightly so. They deserve to be favourites and they do appear to have an advantage in those key positions. But the Storm have been inconsistent this season, and the Broncos have a rare kind of momentum. Thinker Manor is twenty minutes from the Broncos home ground, but I could hear that crowd in the game against Penrith from my joint. There's a strange kind of magic in the air, and the Broncos are feeling it. They'll ride the feeling, and they win this.

Verdict - Broncos 20 to defeat Storm 16

Result - Broncos 26 defeated Storm 22

First try scorer - Deine Mariner

Clive Churchill medalist - Reece Walsh

Wally Lewis - Grand Final selection (in bold)

Note: tips from Wally will be published on Wednesday night or Thursday morning

• Storm (2nd) vs BRONCOS (4th)