Both Brisbane and Canberra were changed by their extra-time semi-final last year. (Getty Images: Mark Nolan)
There are some defeats so cruel a team cannot survive even if it doesn't kill them and some triumphs that never leave a team even if they go on to greater glories and sometimes, if we're lucky, both things happen at the same time.
That's what Canberra and Brisbane are both reckoning with ahead of their match tomorrow night, the first meeting for the two clubs since last year's double-extra time semi-final that ended with Broncos winning 29-28 in the 94th minute.
It's scheduling malpractice on the NRL's part that we've had to wait so long for a sequel, which now has a direct-to-video quality when it could have been a blockbuster.
Brisbane and Canberra went to the great beyond in their golden point finals match and it was Reece Walsh who led the Broncos to the promised land.
Perhaps they hoped this match would have finals implications but history didn't say it was likely.
Canberra and Brisbane are two of the NRL's great boomtowns — the Raiders haven't made the top four in consecutive seasons in 30 years and the Broncos haven't done it in 20.
Each club has spent 2026 trying to come to terms with what happened to them, both on that day and since, and both have struggled to carry the weight of what came next.
It was match where Canberra's wave broke and broke hard just as Brisbane's was beginning to crest.
That crest became a tsunami in the weeks to come, as part of a series of matches that can stand equal with any in NRL history.
The Raiders win was their greatest escape, as they came from 16-points down with 15 minutes remaining in a game that defied belief even as it was happening.
The Panthers win in the preliminary final was their most cathartic as they exorcised the demons of their 2023 grand final loss with their best all-round performance of the finals.
The win over Melbourne in the decider was their most glorious, capping as astounding a run to paradise as any team has ever had. They will almost certainly win more grand finals in the future but they will definitely never win one like that again.
After a 20-year drought, it was the premiership of a lifetime, great enough that even a fanbase as varied, voracious and expectant as the Broncos was able to forgive their rough start to life as champions.
But a start was all they could forgive because they cannot forget. Their eyes had seen the glory and the coming of Reece Walsh and they basked in the memories of Brisbane reaching a level of brilliance, ferocity and belief that made them a terrible and wonderful sight to behold.
