One-armed Cronk guides minor premiers past surprisingly flat Melbourne side as stars fail to fire in grand final
Roosters Storm
F21 6 ormer Melbourne halfback Cooper Cronk defied injury to steer the Sydney Roosters to a stunning 21-6 NRL grand final win over the Storm in Sydney last night.
Cronk saw little of the football as he successfully nursed a serious shoulder injury through the 80 minutes to effectively coach the minor premiers to a dominant threetries-to-one victory over his former club in front of 82,688 fans at ANZ Stadium.
The result saw the Roosters end the Storm’s quest for back-to-back premierships and deny retiring Melbourne fullback Billy Slater a fairy tale finish to his career following a week of controversy after he escaped suspension for a shoulder charge in last week’s semifinal win over Cronulla.
First-half tries to backline trio Daniel Tupou, Latrell Mitchell and Joseph Manu saw the Roosters defy pre-game predictions of a tight contest and all but sealed the result with an 18-0 halftime lead.
Melbourne continued to struggle in the second half before left wing Josh Addo-Carr stole an intercept to race 80 metres to score their first points of the night inside the last quarter but five-eighth Luke Keary kicked a 68th-minute field goal to put the Roosters three scores clear.
Discipline deteriorated in the dying minutes with niggling play threatening to boil over before Storm playmaker Cameron Munster was sinbinned for the second time which allowed Mitchell to cap the scoring with his third penalty of the night.
The Roosters attacked early on but had to settle for a Mitchell penalty before Tupou scored off a cut-out pass from Keary in the seventh minute.
Aggressive defence and hard running saw the Tricolours dominate the ruck and control field position, with Keary running and kicking strongly Joseph Manu scored minutes before the break to give the Roosters a decisive 18-0 lead.
in the No 6 role while Cronk directed play around him.
Melbourne had no answer and their right-side defence cracked again when Mitchell dived over for the Roosters’ second four-pointer, with his conversion making it 12-0 before the end of the first quarter.
The Storm’s struggles continued when Munster was sin-binned for the first time for a professional foul, with Mitchell booting his second penalty before Manu crossed for the Roosters’ third try four minutes before the break.
The Roosters maintained
athe
pressure, with wing Blake Ferguson denied a try after putting a foot into touch. Munster was denied a try by the video ref due to obstruction from Nelson Asofa-Solomona.
The Storm finally got on the board with Addo-Carr going long range against the run of play but a comeback never looked likely before Keary and Mitchell both kicked the Roosters clear.
(Daniel Tupou, Latrell Mitchell, Joseph Manu tries; Mitchell con, 3 pens, Luke Keary field goal).
(Josh Addo-Carr try; Cameron Smith con). Halftime: 18-0.
Roosters 21 Storm 6