This weekend’s NRL semi-finals – Canberra hosting Cronulla on the Saturday and Canterbury and Penrith a day later – is rugby league’s great case study of the haves and have-nots.

Between them, the Bulldogs and Panthers boast truckloads of juniors, star power, premierships, and poker machines to make all of the above happen.

Those genuine NRL powerhouses have worked for and earned everything they have.

Historically, the Raiders and Sharks have done the same with far less, and with a chip on their shoulder.

Ricky Stuart loves it. Craig Fitzgibbon is learning to.

With premiership heavyweights Brisbane and Melbourne making up the rest of this year’s finals series, Canberra and Cronulla are the NRL’s ugly ducklings making good with significantly less to work with. Albeit from opposite corn

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