If you looked hard enough, a crazy game of rugby league broke out on Friday night. Just a small distraction to the year-round contract capers. It's how rugby league works now.
The Broncos won, with a dubious 78th-minute field goal from Anthony Milford who appeared to fumble in the lead-up. It was two hours of rugby league madness on the field after months of madness off it. But were the Broncos really the winners?
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Brisbane pip souths through Mildford field goal
Anthony Milford's late drop goal enough for the Broncos to edge past the Rabbitohs.
Aren't the winners only those who have a stat line good enough to show prospective new employers? Isn't the 80 minutes of throwing pigskin around merely the shop window to bump up values and add zeroes to the next bottom line? On that score, let's say Darius Boyd was the real winner. Maybe Milford. They were two of six Broncos off contract having another audition and both shone brightly again. Add another zero to their bottom lines in their next Brisbane deals.
But surely there was enough to talk about for silly season to subside for a day. Maybe. The Bunker copped a pasting from the Bunnies fans as many scrambled for the rugby league rulebook after a bizarre Korbin Sims try and equally baffling one to Tautau Moga. The Bunker boffins got it right. Possibly.
Milford – yes, he's off contract too – went down from a Sam Burgess bruiser, hopped up to kick the ensuing penalty goal and then meandered off for a concussion check after Broncos medico Peter Hackney reviewed footage on the sideline, as he's supposed to do.
Milford missed the last minute of the first half, passed his check at half-time and went straight back on, only for George Burgess to try to shoulder him back into oblivion shortly after and then watch as Brisbane's  No.6 won the game.Â
And what of Robbie Farah? He was shoved out of a Tigers contract before finding a new one at Souths and rode that many kilometres on the bike as an unused substitute in the first half he might have been angling for a Tour de France deal. Then he climbed off the pine to set up two second-half tries.
Enough to talk about. But chequebooks is where rugby league is at. So how much will Boyd be worth in his next deal? The match-winning Milford?
Bryson Goodwin won the Rabbitohs' rugby league roulette wheel at ANZ Stadium on Friday night. He spiked a bomb into Robert Jennings' grateful hands to get the hosts right back into it in the second half when 10 points down. Throw a bit more money at him.
Sam Burgess played strongly and was again the controversy magnet we have all come to know. Because he's not off contract this year you might have missed he had to fight – and beat – a serious shoulder charge sanction at the judiciary on Tuesday night just to run out this week. He might have a permanent spot there after decking Milford, albeit buckling at the knees, high late in the first half prompting the concussion confusion. It was the flashpoint of a first half where a flying Corey Oates scored twice to chalk off Damien Cook's opener.
In the second half, Souths were gone, down by 10 points. Then weren't. The Broncos were then gone. Then weren't. And then Milford, after missing an easy one with his right, snapped a  field goal with his left to win it.
How much is he worth again?
Originally published on The Sydney Morning Herald as South Sydney Rabbitohs edged out by Brisbane Broncos in two hours of madness.
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