Today we take a look at the teams that had real hopes of playing in the Premier League but will miss out on the final, the emergence of the incredible Will Warbrick and the nostalgic and completely unrealistic dreams of some of the clubs that joined forces.

Read on to find out the biggest topics covered this week on Real or Not.

Long list of mishaps at the end of the 2024 season

TRUE: It is surprising how many teams in the bottom half of the table would have realistic aspirations of winning the championship at the start of this season.

If you look at the last five grand finals, four of the losing teams have failed to make the top eight this season. The fifth team was Penrith, who lost the 2020 decider to Melbourne but have since won all three grand finals. The remaining teams, Brisbane, Parramatta, South Sydney and Canberra, have all failed to make the finals this season. Add to those teams Gold Coast, who would have high hopes for their formidable Des Hasler-led squad, and the Warriors, who were one win away from the 2023 grand final and who welcomed back Roger Tuivasa-Sheck to their already talented squad.

The Bulldogs, Cowboys and Sea Eagles all improved to reach the finals, with the final top eight spot going to the winner of this weekend’s clash between the Knights and the Dolphins. The Dolphins, in only their second season, will be hoping to play in the finals for the first time.

It would be nice to say that the salary cap is doing its job of giving everyone a chance at Premier League glory, but that would ignore the long-term and ongoing success of teams like the Panthers, Storm and Roosters. Recruitment, development and retention of players, as well as the quality of coaching, all play a large part in determining which teams will be more successful than others. Still, it is surprising that so many powerhouse clubs have fallen so quickly this year.

Melbourne Storm lack outside backs to beat Penrith

NOT TRUE The Storm have built their success on a world-class backbone, combined with a supporting cast of players who do their jobs to perfection. None of the outside backs, apart from perhaps Xavier Coates, stand out as superstars, but you’d be hard-pressed to find a better finisher in rugby league than winger Will Warbrick. He was an absolute wreck against the Broncos on Thursday night, scoring the first two tries with a combination of strength, deception and the form of a 100-metre sprinter.

Warbrick was then brought into clear position by Jahrome Hughes’ pass to the Storm 30-yard line and it looked like he was going to score a third try until Tristan Sailor somehow managed to get to him. He managed to contain Sailor well enough to pass the ball to Nick Meaney, who caught the ball behind him and waited for Hughes to support him. The masterful playmaker had a huge smile on his face before sprinting towards the corner to score.

Warbrick’s opposite number, Corey Oates, was so bad that Kevin Walters sent Alfie Langer on to advise him to try defending on the right wing.

Warbrick could have secured his hat-trick just before the break when Meaney reached for a bouncing ball that looked likely to have gone to the winger. Instead, Meaney deflected it away, prompting a typical Craig Bellamy response despite the Storm being 22-0 up at the time.

In the second half, Warbrick lined up under a Hughes bomb, took a few steps, then fired a pass inside that was intercepted by a Broncos player, who then let Hughes steal the ball and score his third goal of the night.

The statuesque Storm winger wasn’t done, running in on Hughes’ rainbow pass to complete his hat-trick with ten minutes remaining, taking him past Tyran Wishart as the Storm’s all-time try scorer for the season. With the Broncos battered to their backs, the Storm head into the final looking sharp and clear as the team to beat in the title race.

Talk of a Balmain Tigers revival is nostalgia nonsense

FALSE: Earlier this week, a story emerged that caught the attention of rugby league fans but quickly faded like a shooting star. It involved a Balmain Tigers board member who suggested that his club would be better off separating from the Wests Tigers merger and going it alone. It was pure fantasy and was soon dismissed by the club’s higher-ups.

Balmain and Western Suburbs were forced to merge as part of the Super League peace and war deal because neither was particularly flush with cash and the newly formed National Rugby League needed to consolidate the number of teams involved. Adopting the ethos of spreading the game as far as financially possible, it was necessary to reduce the number of Sydney suburban teams.

The St George Dragons and Illawarra Steelers were also merged at the same time for similar reasons. The South Sydney Rabbitohs refused to merge and were thrown out of the competition as a result, while the North Sydney Bears briefly merged with the Manly Sea Eagles before that arrangement fell through and Manly were left standing alone again. The fact that the Rabbitohs regained their own place in the competition through the courts still lingers in the claws of fans of the merged clubs.

All the recent talk of a Bears revival in Perth, while the Jets, another failed Sydney franchise, are looking to re-establish themselves in Brisbane, must have stirred up a bit of nostalgia among fans and officials of clubs that no longer have their historic identities. Almost every long-time Tigers, Magpies, Dragons and Steelers fan would tell you they would prefer to have their own independent identities back. But it’s clear the league can’t take a step back with expansion still a constant goal.