Melbourne storm home to NRL title
The Parramatta Eels were hoping to complete a remarkable comeback as they took on a Melbourne Storm team that was playing in their fourth straight NRL grand final. The Eels at one stage in the season were looking likely to challenge for the wooden spoon. They then won 10 of their next 11 matches and found themselves in the grand final.
The grand final started well for the Storm as Ryan Hoffman ran onto a Brett Finch pass out wide and crashed through a weak tackle from Parramatta’s no. 7 Jeff Robson before diving over for the first try inside of five minutes. The try came from nothing as the ball was played near the 20m line and a two man decoy run did not really fool the Parramatta team. It was a stong run at Robson by Hoffman 15 metres out that saw him brush aside the halfback leaving a clear run to the line. The conversion from out wide made it 6-0.
Over the next few minutes team just traded the ball several times before the crowd had a moment to get excited. Hayne took the ball down the left side of the field and chipped ahead. Luke Burt tried to chase down the ball however Billy Slater saw the ball harmlessly roll over the dead ball line.
Up until the 23rd minute nothing much happened. The ball went back and forth until out of nowhere Melbourne again scored. Just like the first try it was poor defence that lead to the try. Brett Finch switched play to the right with a long pass to Cooper Cronk, he then burst through two Parramatta defenders just outside the Parramatta 30m line. He then sprinted towards the tryline, as the defence closed in he passed inside to a hard running Adam Blair who crossed out wide to make it 10-0.
That is how the first half ended. Melbourne were on top but still with work ahead of them to win the 2009 premiership. Parramatta were not that dangerous in the first half.
In the second half the Parramatta Eels came out hungry to score first. That is exactly what they did. In the 43rd minute Feleti Mateo made an excellent break down the left side to see the Eels attacking from within the Melbourne Storm 10m line. After Robson went to within 2 metres of the line on the fifth tackle the Eels spread the ball out wide to the right and after a bouncing Hayne pass was collected by Eric Grothe with 8 metres in front of him and four Melbourn players to beat he did just that as he cut inside to slam the ball over the tryline. Parramatta were back in the game, especially after the conversion made it 10-6.
Parramatta now had momentum on their side. The crowd was getting right into it and the Eels were looking likely to score again.
From the kickoff Parramatta just ran four plays and then kicked. Melbourne took the ball back to the Parra 30 metre line after making 55 metres. Then came yet another blunder by the Eels. Cronk put up a well placed bomb that came down 5 metres from the tryline. The Parramatta players circled the ball but noone committed themselves to taking it. Greg Inglis came through and said thanks fellas and caught the ball unchallenged. He was now two metres out with just Hayne to beat. He did so easily to rush over and score under the posts.
It got worse for Parramatta in the 56th minute when Cronk passed short to a hard running Blair who crashed through a Daniel Mortimer tackle 20 metres out from the tryline. With Hayne coming across he found support in Billy Slater. From that distance there was no stopping him and Slater scored to make it 22-6.
The match could easily have seen the Storm charge away from the Eels but to the credit of the team from Parramatta they mounted a fightback.
In the 69th minute on the last tackle a Robson kick out to the right saw Joel Reddy jump high to grab the ball and slam it down for the Eels’ second try in the match. The conversion made it 22-12.
The Eels were making good ground on every set and looked likely to score again. In the 71st minute a Mateo offload to Kevin Kingston kept the ball alive, Kingston then found Fuifui Moimoi 23 metres out with plenty of work to do. He wound himself up and ran hard to the left corner of the field. With about four Storm players around him he sent them flying before crashing over with two players trying to hold him up. After a review by the video ref the green light was shown. The score was now 22-16.
Could the Eels pull off the unexpected? The answer was no. The Storm got a penalty which gave them good field position and from that they saw Greg Inglis slot over a field goal to make it a seven point margin. From that they closed out the match to win 23-16.
The Storm now have their third premiership and second over a period where they have reached the last four grand finals. Sadly for the Eels they could not quite complete the fairytale end to the season.
It basically came down to a few key errors from the Eels. Each time the Storm scored a try from running play there had been a line break and the Inglis try was soft.
All credit to the Storm who are now the 2009 NRL premiers. The Clive Churchill medal went to Billy Slater.
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