It was a script that Hollywood screenwriters would have been proud of, not a Rocky Balboa-style against-all-the-odds win for North Queensland, but a fitting finale for Melbourne maestro Cooper Cronk as the halfback helped the Storm secure a dominant 34-6 grand final victory.

After 14 seasons Cronk is relocating to Sydney and leaving his club for love. The romantically minded 33-year-old made it a night to remember as he and his veteran brothers in purple, Cameron Smith and Billy Slater – the latter who picked up the Clive Churchill medal – steered Melbourne to an expected premiership triumph.

It was one challenge, one game too far for the plucky Cowboys who couldn’t cope with the ruthless efficiency and clinical composure of the magnificent Melbourne machine.



The game came alive just three minutes in when Jesse Bromwich busted a Shaun Fensom tackle. That impact cruelly ended Fensoms’s night prematurely and Bromwich dummied, failing to pass to Cameron Munster who was in the clear, and was hauled down mere metres from the try-line.

Both teams were focused on completion and yardage, waiting for the other to blink to first and cough up the ball. It was a case of high-stakes chicken with the competition’s best defence against one of its most electric attacks.

The Cowboys rode their luck again in the 10th minute, when Cronk’s grubber bounced back luckily into the arms of Ethan Lowe, and not on the on-rushing Slater.

Then the opening the Storm were hunting for, and duly deserved, finally came. A bomb was spilled to Chambers and he brushed past a few tacklers and offloaded to Josh Addo-Carr.

The fleet-footed flyer tore down field, running 75 metres and beating five defenders to score a stunning solo try. The first try was always going to be vital and so it proved, as the Storm started to turn the screws.

First Smith forced a dropout. Then on the next set Cronk dummied left and went right, finding Slater who put Felise Kaufusi through a Sydney Harbour-sized hole to cross. It was rugby league perfection from Craig Bellamy’s charges, the kings of building pressure.

Already it was 12-0 after just 28 minutes and things were grim for North Queensland. Melbourne with this kind of early lead between their teeth are like a mangy dog with a bone.

Then Antonio Winterstein knocked on a Cronk grubber right on his own try-line. Melbourne don’t waste gift-wrapped presents like these. The Storm shifted their attack to the right and Slater dummied and slid over. At half-time North Queensland were on the wrong end of an 18-0 deficit. Everest looked easier to climb.

The stats, as they often do, explicitly told the tale. Melbourne had made 335 more metres, four more line breaks and 10 more offloads than their northern counterparts.

The Cowboys had to come out firing in the second half and they did sustain set after set on the Storm’s line. Enter plucky young Kiwi Te Maire Martin, deputising for the injured Immortal-in-waiting Johnathan Thurston. He took a pass from Michael Morgan, skipped past a defender to touch down. A glimmer of hope emerged.

But the inevitable came, as it always seems to be when Bellamy’s team are in the fight.

With 17 minutes left Dale Finucane busted through after some silky Smith sleight of hand. There was still time for Curtis Scott to get in on the action, Addo-Carr swooping on a loose pass to put the young centre in.

It was typical Big Three interplay for the next try – Smith to Cronk, back to Smith and on to Slater in space. Rugby league lovers will miss it. The fullback then kept the ball alive to Tohu Harris who threw an audacious cut-out pass for Addo-Carr to get his double and cap off the victory.

“There’s no fairytales in rugby league, all there is working really hard and results go your way,” Cronk said. “But this is one hell of a football team to come back from the disappointment of last year and continually do the hard work and continually do the hard things that make you a good footy team.”