STORM BLOWS PAST PENRITH
The Melbourne Storm have held off a late-surging Penrith Panthers outfit to win the 2020 NRL premiership.
Melbourne looked set to run away with the game on the biggest day of the NRL calendar before Penrith mounted an incredible comeback.
DON’T whinge about the ref. And this time we can’t blame it on the wrestle.
The Melbourne Storm won that one fair and square.
And anyone who’s blowing up about referee Gerard Sutton supposedly favouring Cam Smith’s celebration needs to pull their heads in and get over it.
The fact is the Storm were the better team on the night and their experience exposed the young Penrith Panthers on the biggest night of their lives.
Smith was tremendous and earned every accolade for another outstanding show of leadership.
Nathan Cleary?
Well, the young playmaker will learn from what went wrong in the first half.
But he showed the way he finished off the game that he will come back the better for it. As will all his teammates. But when all is said and done and we have time to look back on the season that was, what we should appreciate as much as anything to come out of Sunday night is that we now have our wonderful game of rugby league back from the choke hold that dominated the last decade.
That’s not to say both teams weren’t guilty of pushing the boundaries in the ruck and with line speed.
But from my seat bang on halfway it went both ways.
What was just as obvious is that the breakneck speed of the football right until the fulltime siren was befitting of the occasion.
But it was the Storm who weathered the Panthers’ opening onslaught (and a majority of possession that went against them in the first half) to fight back through sheer professionalism and perseverance.
What they also did was make their opportunities count.
In contrast Penrith made crucial mistakes at vital times.
And while their fightback was brave, there is no use complaining about the so-called controversial calls that went
against them early.
The fact is the match officials got the most crucial of them spot-on.
For starters, Tyrone May might not have meant to get his foot in the way but it can’t be denied that it robbed Justin Olam of a tryscoring touch down.
So it was worthy of a penalty try.
As for the try denied to Josh Mansour, Stephen Crichton was guilty of obstruction as the rules are set out.
So again it was the right call. And there was just no denying the Storm’s 22-0 halftime was thoroughly deserved.
Then when another call went against the Panthers early in the second half and Ryan Papenhuyzen put the foot down, it was always going to be incredibly tough to come back from.
They sure gave it a red hot crack but it all came too late.
Even though they won the second half 20-4 it just wasn’t enough.
The young Panthers will be shattered by the result and especially how they allowed the scoreboard to run away from them.
But they really should be proud.
They had a tremendous season and no team has more reason to come back with more confidence in 2021.
For now, it’s Melbourne’s time to celebrate.
Smith and Craig Bellamy have done it again.
Over the years there have been plenty of reasons to question and criticise some of their tactics. But what we can’t question is an attitude that sets them apart.
No matter how the game is played they just find a way.
That no one can dispute.