Conventional wisdom says a winger can’t win the Clive Churchill Medal for best player in the NRL grand final.
It’s never happened in the awards’ 37-year history, with playmakers and occasionally forwards dominating the list of past winners as outside backs get left out in the cold.
The bookies are expecting it to happen again, with Brisbane’s Reece Walsh and Penrith’s Nathan Cleary warm favourites to take it home after Sunday’s decider.
But if ever a winger could win it, it’s Brian To’o, and if he can’t do it then it probably can’t be done at all because it’s hard to see a winger doing more than what To’o has managed in Penrith’s most vital wins over their remarkable four-season run.
The spotlight is always drawn towards spine players but To’o has quietly put together a reputation as one of the best big-game performers in the entire sport. It’s hard to imagine a winger doing more on the biggest stage.
He was at it again in Penrith’s 38-4 win over Melbourne in the preliminary final when he scored three tries, ran for 181 metres and broke nine tackles.
After the match, To’o was limping around on a sore calf and looked like he’d just been in a car crash, but that’s not unusual for the nuggety Samoan international. The bumps and bruises he wears aren’t an occupational hazard — they’re why he does what he does on the field.
“I always have the urge to come off that field and feel busted up, but I always want more of it. I can’t get enough of it,” To’o said.
“It’s always a part of the job but I love it. I love the physicality, the battle between two teams.
“With the big occasions, everyone has to play their role and do their part. That’s all I’m trying to do; I just want to do my job to the best of my ability.”
The best of To’o’s ability has proven itself to be pretty damn good, and the numbers he’s put up over the past few finals series are absolutely wild.
He’s got 182cm and 97kg of Samoan steel at his disposal and, by God, he’s going to use it the only way he knows how — by running the ball over and over and over again until there’s nobody else to run it at.
To’o has scored 12 tries in 11 finals matches since the start of 2020, including at least one in each of Penrith’s four preliminary final wins and in three across two different grand finals.
Over the past three finals series, To’o has averaged 24 carries, 229.5 metres and 6.75 tackle busts per game and shown a great knack for peaking at the right time.
In 2021, it was his try just after half-time that put Penrith in control in their epic preliminary final win over Melbourne, which he scored on a busted ankle.
Last year he was at it again with a long-range intercept try that flipped the script in the prelim win over Souths and on the way he sent Cody Walker to the land of wind and ghosts with a hellacious fend.
And, like all big-game specialists, To’o never peaks too early. In each of Penrith’s two grand final victories he’s produced his highest run metre total of the finals.
And last year, when he scored two tries and churned out 299 yards on the ground, only a sterling display from fullback Dylan Edwards kept him from claiming man of the match honours.
It was the second year in a row To’o could claim runner-up status for the Clive Churchill Medal — he ran for a whopping 299 metres from 24 runs in the club’s 14-12 win over South Sydney the year before, missing out to halfback Nathan Cleary.
But the legend of Big Game Bizza has kept growing all the time, and he’s already got a little bit of hardware to prove it after To’o claimed the Brad Fittler Medal as New South Wales’ best player in this year’s Origin series.
To’o is humble to a fault and brushed off any talk he could make history on Sunday against Brisbane.
According to him, his strength, durability, and inhuman willingness to keep taking on every opposition defender he can find comes from his teammates.
“I get it from our middles, because I know they’re busting their arses,” To’o said. “I get motivation from them. They do the hard yards and they’re more busted than me.”
“I get back and do my job for them.
“My drive comes from not only my family and my faith but from the boys we have here. Everyone is willing to come and put the hard work in, and it’s an infectious energy.
“We have that will to grind hard for each other.”
