Panthers halfback Nathan Cleary, who scored the winning try for his team, was awarded his second Clive Churchill Medal for being judged as the man of the match.

This was the first NRL grand final between the Penrith Panthers and the Brisbane Broncos, and the first to feature both a New South Wales and Queensland based side since 2005.

[4] Both teams also achieved dominant wins against the third-placed Melbourne Storm and fourth-placed New Zealand Warriors in their preceding qualifying and preliminary finals matches.

Coached by Kevin Walters and captained by Adam Reynolds, the club were based at the Clive Berghofer Centre and played their matches at Suncorp Stadium.

[5][6]Dylan Edwards, Stephen Crichton, Brian To'o, Jarome Luai, Nathan Cleary, James Fisher-Harris, Liam Martin, Moses Leota and Isaah Yeo made their fourth-straight grand final appearance for Penrith.

[10] Co-headlining with the cast of the musical were Indigenous Australian rock band King Stingray, who also provided the soundtrack for Fox League's 2023 Finals advertising campaign.

[9][11] Adam Gee refereed his first NRL grand final, with touch judges Chris Sutton and David Munro.

However, due to strong Brisbane scramble defence on their own line, Penrith were unable to score any points until the 17th minute when an attempted short kick-off by Adam Reynolds was knocked back by Herbie Farnworth, and with no Broncos player in position to gather the loose ball, it bounced back towards the try line and was picked up by Mitch Kenny to score the opening try of the match unmarked.

[16] However, in the 62nd minute, Penrith halfback Nathan Cleary forced a clean line-break on the Brisbane 40m line, fending off former teammate Kurt Capewell and passing back inside to Moses Leota in support who scored under the goalposts.

An error by Broncos lock Patrick Carrigan on the half-way line handed Penrith another opportunity in attacking field position.

[citation needed] Brisbane continued to play their expansive style of football, with Reece Walsh managing a line-break with 10 minutes to go.

With five minutes remaining, Stephen Crichton forced yet another line drop-out with a precise grubber into the corner, and Sunia Turuva tackling Kotoni Staggs back into the in-goal.

This repeat set would prove decisive, where on the fifth play, dummy-half Mitch Kenny passed the ball on the short side to his co-captain Nathan Cleary, who identified a tiring Broncos defence, stepping around four defenders and bursting through a last-ditch tackle from Reece Walsh to score the match-winning try with only two minutes remaining.

[citation needed] The Panthers farewelled triple premiership winners and local juniors Stephen Crichton and Spencer Leniu, who departed for the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs and Sydney Roosters respectively.