The Sydney Roosters are through to their first NRL grand final in seven years after dishing up a 36-20 demolition of the Dolphins.
The Roosters dazzled in front of a sold-out crowd at Suncorp Stadium with Mark Nawaqanitawase leading the charge.
Here are three things we learned from Friday's preliminary final.
Roosters direct game plan plays off
From the outset it was clear that the Roosters had a plan in mind to attack the Dolphins though the middle of the field -- a healthy diet of offloads, late passes into the line and a boatload of support runners was the clear direction from Trent Robinson, and we saw it from the opening set.
The Dolphins are a team who've been able to weather the storm of other teams' middles all year, and then throw counter punches with diminutive players like Jeremy Marshall-King, Kurt Donoghue and Max Plath. But there wasn't any of that tonight, it was a dominant performance from the Roosters from the first minute, and it never really shifted.
There was some pretty justifiable logic that the Roosters would jump out to an early lead but the Dolphins, notoriously slow starters that they are, would find a way back into the contest. And while that did happen when it was 16-10, those points came from an extremely dubious Bunker decision and James Tedesco dropping a bomb. There was no period of sustained dominance for the Phins, and instead it was the Roosters who went right back on with the job after their 16-point lead was cut to just six.
At no stage in the night did the forward battle ever look like going any way other than a dominant victory for the Tricolours. A superb platform that their talented backline worked off superbly, and through to the Grand Final they go.
Robert Toia wins heavyweight clash in style
The one-on-one matchup that most of us were truly excited for heading into Friday was the centre battle between Robert Toia and Herbie Farnworth -- and it was won by the Roosters young gun in style.
Farnworth has been the best centre in the game for a couple of years now, but it was Toia who came out on top in almost all of their skirmishes. Even ignoring his powerful try, Toia was a handful every time he carried the ball up, contained his opposite man defensively and looked every bit the superstar he's grown into this year.
There needs to be some sort of collective effort from the entire rugby league community to keep Mark Nawaqanitawase
I understand that he came from rugby union originally, but how are we letting Mark Nawaqanitawase leave this sport? No player that I've ever watched does as many cool things in a single game as he does, and it's truly remarkable that the feats of athleticism he treats us to are so routine now that it isn't even shocking -- it sure is fun to watch though.
From the intercept to the absurd flick pass to the raw power for his game-sealing try (and what a pass from Victor Radley, by the way) it is a privilege to watch this guy play footy every week.
I didn't want to dedicate much column space to complaining about the Bunker, so I'll just mention it here. He was probably out when he threw that pass and it DEFINITELY went forward, but it's far easier to not fire up about that when just a few minutes earlier, Jamayne Isaako put the ball on the sideline and that was given the all clear as well. What's doing?