Melbourne Storm 34
North Queensland Cowboys 6
Cooper Cronk signed off his Melbourne Storm career in style with a 28-point victory in the 2017 NRL grand final. The last game for the ‘Big Three’ in purple was a fitting premiership victory for three modern day greats.
Cronk will play his 2018 football in Sydney with the Roosters, after announcing mid-season that his 14th year with the Storm would be last. That brought added pressure on to Melbourne to send him out a winner as it was the final time the halfback and his partners in crime Cameron Smith and Billy Slater would play together in the NRL. There may have never been a better spine in rugby league history than Slater, Cronk and Smith, the three crafty Queenslanders.
The Storm ploughed through the NRL season like a team on a mission. Only four losses were racked up in 24 games, with Parramatta and Brisbane accounted for in the semi-finals. After the heart-break of 2016, when they were seconds away from a grand final win over Cronulla, they would not be stopped. Only the fairytale run of North Queensand, shorn by injury of their big guns Johnathan Thurston and Matt Scott, would stand in their way in the decider.
But the Cowboys could not muster enough firepower, nor withstand the constant siege of the determined Storm. With Smith leading the way at the ruck, Cronk directing traffic at first receiver and Slater controlling things at the back, Melbourne were simply magnificent.
North Queensland’s job got even harder three minutes in with a horror injury to Shaun Fenson. The ex-Canberra forward’s night was over just as it had began.
As they often do, the Storm wait for their opposition to blink first before striking. A kick was collected by Will Chambers and he beat a few defenders before finding Josh Addo-Carr. The winger showed a clean pair of heels as he galloped 75 metres for a try. First blood to the Storm.
Melbourne lifted their intensity and plotted a second score. Cronk dummied left and went right, finding Slater who put Felise Kaufusi through a huge hole. Try number two, 12-0 and the Cowboys were struggling. Another North Queensland error was soon punished and Slater got over the line for try number three. At half-time Paul Green’s side were starring down the barrel of an 18-0 deficit.
But they didn’t wilt, didn’t back down and came back with a try of their own. Te Maire Martin brushed past a tackle to score. At 18-6 some hope remained, however, it quickly vanished. Dale Finucane barged through some weak defence for try number four, before Curtis Scott added try number five. The rout was completed when Tohu Harris put Addo-Carr over for try number six. A job well done.
Slater might have been awarded the Churchill medal, but the evening belonged to Cronk. Slater and Smith will go on for the Storm in 2018, fighting against Father Time, but Cronk has gone on to pastures new. For a man who had to battle hard to break into this star-studded team, who had to scratch tooth and nail to make it to the top, it was the most perfect send-off you could imagine.
