It is the very nature of sport.

Sometimes you can pit the two greatest teams of their generation, packed with off-the-charts talent and firepower, into the most important match of the season and you get explosive action throughout, an unending series of fireworks.

You know, like Origin III this year, which was as good and as intense as football gets.

And other times you get matches like the 2024 NRL grand final between Penrith and Melbourne. No-one could doubt either side’s talent, pedigree, nor their intensity of purpose. It was just that for most of the opening half it was a straight-out arm wrestle rather than wild swings.

If this was, as they say, the Big Dance, to this little black duck at least, it didn’t feel like the band was playing that old-time rock’n’roll like I expected. Not that it was exactly a fox-trot, either – just not Origin III, which probably spoiled us this year for truly memorable football.

For what happens when an irresistible force meets an immovable object? You get Penrith attacking the Storm’s line for the first 22 minutes for no nudge on the scoreboard of nil-all and nothing particularly memorable, and versa-vicky.

And yes, the impasse was broken first with typical individual brilliance by Melbourne’s captain Harry Grant finding a gap in the Riff line that was completely invisible to the rest of us. Bravo.

Ditto, double-ditto, double-bravo, foxtrot, Roger for the two tries Penrith scored in reply to go to a 10-6 lead at half-time. It was great football, just not put-this-in-a-bottle-and-take-it-out-in-20-years-as-a-super-vintage-GREAT football.