Storm romp to second NRL title
Two years of domination finally turned into silverware for Melbourne, the Storm securing their second NRL premiership with a brilliant 34-8 win over Manly in Sunday night's grand final at Telstra Stadium.
The Storm atoned for the bitter disappointment of last year's upset grand final loss by steamrolling the Sea Eagles, Clive Churchill medallist Greg Inglis the star of the show as Melbourne ran in seven tries to Manly's two to run away with the contest in the second half.
The Sea Eagles tried their best to rattle the visitors early but, once the emotion went out of the contest, Melbourne's class shone through, the premiership trophy just reward for a two-year spell in which they lost only eight games.
Coach Craig Bellamy, who was forced to defend his side's ability to perform on the biggest stage, was left laughing and drenched after copping a bucket of sports drink from his players.
"Some of these guys have worked hard for five years and I suppose we had a bit of a monkey on our back from last year," Bellamy said.
"Everyone was saying we were going to choke again this year.
"These guys have been great, they've been a credit to the club all year."
For Storm captain Cameron Smith, even the anguish of an horror night with the boot which allowed the Sea Eagles to stay in the contest longer than they should have been allowed, couldn't stem his delight.
Smith described the memory of last year's debacle against Brisbane on the same patch of turf as a distant memory, the Storm making it title No.2 following their 1999 success.
"This is unbelievable, five years of hard work has finally paid off," Smith said.
"Disappointment last year, but we don't care about that.
"I haven't thought about (last year) once since we walked here and that whistle blew.'
There was no hiding Manly's intentions early as they hit Melbourne with everything they had, Kiwi centre Steve Matai in particular looking like a man on a mission with Brett White and Dallas Johnson both left legless after two big hits.
The Storm may have been groggy, but they did have Inglis on their side and he combined with his skipper to send Anthony Quinn over for his first.
Inglis did it all himself for the second try but the Storm undid all their good work when Smith dropped a Michael Monaghan bomb to allow Matai to score for a 10-4 scoreline at the break.
Brett Stewart was an early casualty when he came off second best as Billy Slater and Michael Crocker sent him into Disneyland, that hit the start of a horror half for the Sydneysiders.
Crocker compounded the damage when he went over four minutes later for the start of a deadly 11-minute spell in which the Storm raced in three tries to put the game away - Matt King getting one in his farewell and Inglis confirming his man of the match performance with is second of the night.
Manly threatened when Chris Hicks backed up a Jamie Lyon bust, but another couple of tries to the Storm started some early celebrations.
"It's the wildest of wildest dreams, I just can't describe it," said Clint Newton, who's NRL career was on the scrapheap four months ago when he walked out on Newcastle.
"I watched the boys from Newcastle win in `97 and 2001, I didn't think it was possible, it is a dream come true."
Manly legend Steve Menzies, who had a tough night as he filled in at centre, suffered his third loss in grand finals from four starts.
"That's as bad as it gets," he said.
"We had some chances, but we didn't complete our sets and we didn't put them pressure.
"We knew we had a chance at halftime, but we didn't get any momentum going."
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