Sydney Roosters coach Trent Robinson described Luke Keary best as “a man possessed”.
How, with the rugby league world crumbling around him and everyone writing the the Tri-colours off, the 26-year-old looked a Clive Churchill Medal winner more than a week out from kickoff.
Sunday night’s grand final should have been Keary’s toughest test. With his halfback Cooper Cronk barely able to use his left arm due to a broken scapula, Keary was forced into a role he hadn’t played all year.
In the biggest game of the season, against Melbourne – the best team of the modern era.
But instead of flunking, Keary fired. So much so, he not only guided the Roosters’ to a 21-6 win and a premiership, but he was also an obvious choice for man-of-the-match honours.
“His performance was big on Sunday morning (after Cronk was injured against South Sydney),” Robinson said.
“Luke got his head on straight away …Honestly he was a man possessed from Monday onwards about, ‘we’re going to do this. I’m going to do it this way’.
“He was ready for when Cooper played, but he wasn’t going: ‘Coops are you going to play?
“He won that Clive Churchill medal sometime on Sunday night in his own head, that’s when he won it.”
Keary’s increased workload told the story.
Playing on both sides of the ruck, he had 71 touches – the most in any game he’s played in Roosters colours.
He also kicked 18 times, easily his most of the season and four-and-a-half times his average of four per game for the rest of the year.
And he was still almost faultless in attack, but for a late intercept that allowed Storm winger Josh Addo-Carr to run 90 metres to score.
Keary set up the Roosters’ first with a loopy cut-out ball for winger Daniel Tupou on the Tri-colours’ ever-dangerous left edge, before icing the win with a field goal 11 minutes from time.
“He owned it and he played the game of his life tonight,” Cronk said.
“It was all set up for him, I was basically going to run a decoy on the other side of the field and he ran with it.
“He was outstanding. He was tough, he had a high skill set, and he just wanted it. He didn’t hesitate. He saw something and he went for it.”
Meanwhile, Keary claimed at no point during the week had he felt the weight of pressure sitting upon his shoulders.
“I knew the situation and we’d worked so hard to get there,” he said.
“We got all the way to this week and you don’t s**t yourself because one bloke got hurt. You go out and get the job done.
“I knew if he wasn’t there, what I had to do. And if he was there, what I had to do. His presence was underestimated tonight.”