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At the end of a season like no other, the NRL ended with a result like every year: without discussion, without much competition until the last minutes and definitely without an asterisk.
The nomadic Melbourne Storm, a team that lives out of a suitcase for months and plays to a seemingly perpetual state of lockdown due to the Covid-19 crisis, cemented its status as the best NRL of the last decade with a throbbing victory. 26-20 on minor premieres Penrith Panthers at ANZ Stadium in Sydney.
In front of a crowd of 40,000 at the grand final at only half capacity and with the eye barely able to see a purple stain, Coach Craig Bellamy and Captain Cameron Smith put the exclamation point on their magnificent runs despite that his team ended the game with two players in the sin bin.
The pair share a special bond, almost like a father and son, and their cunning and experience proved too much for the upstart Panthers, led by coach Ivan and his son Nathan.
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Bellamy won’t have a bigger win, even considering the 2012 title he won when his team was ripped apart by the salary cap scandal two years earlier. Grandpa will train the Storm for one more season, but he will have a hard time surpassing the feats of this season.
Cameron Spencer / Getty Images
Storm captain Cameron Smith slides in for a crucial attempt and looks like a horse race at ANZ Stadium.
His heart couldn’t take much more either. His team was in cruise control with 25 minutes to go, but withstood a furious late recovery from the Panthers, which included four unanswered attempts and sin ties to Jahrome Hughes and Brandon Smith.
A coach’s intuition is always the best, and when his team was told to flee Melbourne in June amid the pandemic, Bellamy predicted that they would not return home until the end of the season. Normally, the end of his season was the final big day.
Neutrals yearning for competition were unchanged for much of the grand final, Melbourne clinching a 26-0 lead early in the second half thanks to the first grand final penalty attempt since 2013, an interception and a little of luck. for Smith before a remarkable ending.
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Kiwi giant Nelson Asofa-Solomona was one of the best in the Storm.
Father Time has never been defeated, but there is a rival in Smith who has taken him further than everyone else. Few really know Smith, a sometimes complex man who yearns for a simple life.
Like most of his 430 NRL games, the grand final was played on terms that he largely dictated. Rival teams have rarely been able to read his genius, nor have opposition fans really accept it.
On Sunday night, his name was greeted with thunderous boos during the pregame intro. Then he set about systematically separating the young Panthers, dying with a few side glances and a thousand subtle passes.
There would hardly be a rugby league player more aware of game highlights, and with five seconds left in the break, Smith scored his first big final try in the eighth moment of calling for it.
There was more than a bit of luck involved, his opposite Api Koroisau knocked the ball out of his hands and the veteran No. 9 picked it up and dived to give his team a 22-0 lead at halftime. Smith had 14 of those points.
The scoring was tough for Penrith, who conceded a penalty try when Tyrone May was ruled to have kicked Justin Olam within four minutes and lamented Suliasi Vunivalu’s 80-meter interception when Nathan Cleary’s floating ball was ripped from the sky. night for rugby. Fijian linked to union.
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Nathan Cleary and the Panthers jumped into action after a horrifying first half.
It had been 17 years since Penrith had last played in a grand final, this time his spot was sealed after a remarkable 17-game winning streak. The 18th victory was a bridge too far. As in 2003, there was a father training his son, and he did it for most of the day.
But no one was going to rain on Smith’s parade, even if he didn’t declare it during the week.
At halftime, Smith’s wife, Barb, danced happily in a poncho as the public address system blared. is not no Mountain High Enough while the team led by her husband raised another.
Despite all the green rubbing that went against the Panthers in the first half, it could be said that they got it all back with a reply from Brian To’o after Ryan Papenhuyzen’s long-range attempt. Isaah Yeo ran around Kurt Capewell’s back and kicked his butt to land. Bellamy blew a gasket into the training box and no one could envy him.
Stephen Crichton gave them the weakest of hopes when he slashed the margin to 14 points and decibel levels spiked as Josh Mansour scored immediately after Hughes was eliminated with nine minutes to go. Cleary scored in the final seconds, but it wasn’t enough.
The most outstanding season ended with an unremarkable result and no asterisk.
Melbourne Storm 26 (Suliasi Vunivalu, Cameron Smith, Ryan Papenhuyzen attempts, penalty attempt; Smith 5 goals) Penrith Panthers 20 (Brian To’o, Stephen Crichton, Josh Mansour, Nathan Cleary tries; Cleary 2 goals). HT: 22-0.
