For the first time in the history of the NRL the last four remaining teams in a season are all from Sydney. And the powerbrokers at Rugby League Central say they are not ashamed to celebrate it.
The out-of-town conspiracy theorists may not be pleased about it but for the NRL's bean counters will have been anything but shattered at the late disallowed try that cost Johnathan Thurston and North Queensland a spot in the preliminary finals.
The result is a mouth-watering showdown between South Sydney and Sydney Roosters on Friday - to be followed by Saturday night's clash between two other geographic rivals Penrith and Canterbury - with a projected combined crowd of 100,000 at ANZ Stadium.
Not since the finals seris of the old ARL in 1996 - when Manly, St George, North Sydney and Cronulla reached the last four - have Sydney clubs dominated the last two weekends of a season and while the balancing act between the competition's expansion areas and its traditional base is a perpetual concern for the NRL the way the dice has rolled this season promises an extra monetary windfall.
"In any given year you contemplate the opportunity to have a national footprint versus the opportunity to be in your traditional territory," NRL head of commercial Paul Kind said.
"Where we're sitting now we shouldn't be ashamed to celebrate having the four Sydney finalists and an all-Sydney grand final. You go over the last x-number of years and we've had Melbourne and Brisbane and North Queensland and the Warriors... for anyone who has followed the game for a long time or a short time, to have four Sydney teams I think we can afford to celebrate that."
A crowd of 60,000 is being forecast for Friday's Souths-Roosters meeting, but Kind believes the game could challenge the bumper preliminary final crowds of 2009 (Bulldogs v Eels, 74,549), 2010 (Dragons v Tigers, 71,212) and 2012 (Rabbitohs v Bulldogs, 70,354).
"I think it can," he said. "We've been lucky over the years to have some massive week-three Sydney semis and this one is as big as it gets. And although it would have been a great grand final, which a lot of people had predicted, I think what will happen is we'll get a lot more South Sydney fans because they're playing the Roosters."
Whatever the case there will be a bigger crowd on hand than the last time the two clubs met in a finals match, in 1938. On that occasion, the then Eastern Suburbs defeated Souths 19-10 at the SCG to progress to the grand final against Canterbury.
The Sydney Morning Herald match report said: "The match, which was hard but not spectacular, was watched by 14,161 people".
Bob Fulton, who coached Manly to a premiership the last time four Sydney teams made it to this stage of the competition, believes the success of particular clubs and regions was "cyclical" but said Souths, the Roosters, Penrith and the Bulldogs had not arrived at this point by coincidence.
"The teams that are left have all got very good coaches," Fulton said. "When you look at what Des (Hasler) and 'Madge' (Michael Maguire) have done, and what Ivan (Cleary) has been able to do out at Penrith, they've all had different sorts of situations thrown at them during the year but pulled them together at the right time."
ANZ Stadium managing director Daryl Kerry added: "While the NRL grand final is a major event every year, there is a real buzz around the city now that it's down to the four Sydney teams – and you can make a case for each of the four teams to take it out."
