Penrith beat Melbourne for fourth straight NRL title
A crowd of 80,552 watched Penrith Panthers clinch their sixth NRL Premiership title
- Published
NRL Grand Final
Melbourne (6) 6
Tries: Grant Goals: Meaney
Penrith (10) 14
Tries: Turuva, Martin, Alamoti Goals: Cleary
Penrith Panthers sealed a historic fourth consecutive NRL Premiership title by beating Melbourne Storm in a bruising Grand Final at Sydney's Accor Stadium.
The 14-6 victory draws Penrith level with South Sydney and St George in winning four consecutive crowns, but they were made to work hard for the honour.
Melbourne led courtesy of Harry Grant's charge to the line from dummy half, but just six minutes later Sunia Turuva cut the deficit.
The Panthers led 10-6 at the break after Liam Martin linked up with Nathan Cleary to touch down, while Moses Leota teed up Paul Alamoti to clinch victory with just under 20 minutes left on the clock.
The game - a rematch of the 2020 Grand Final which was won by Melbourne, prior to Penrith's current dynasty - was not without controversy in a frantic second half.
Just before Alamoti's decisive second-half try, Melbourne thought they had got within touching distance of the Panthers when Jack Howarth went over in a crowded dash to the line following Cameron Munster's clever kick and Xavier Coates' handled assist.
Having been sent to the bunker, in conjunction with video referee Grant Atkins, referee Ashley Klein judged that the ball did not touch the line and Penrith kept their advantage.
Television replays showed the ball appeared to have been successfully grounded, but reports in Australia, external suggested the bunker had access to a different angle in which Howarth had not grounded the ball.
Later, with five minutes left, Melbourne stand-off Munster and Alamoti came together with the former put on report for an alleged bite on the Penrith try-scorer.
Melbourne: Papenhuyzen; Warbrick, Howarth, Meaney, Coates; Munster, Hughes; Kamikamica, Grant, King, Blore, Katoa, Loiero.
Interchanges: Wishart, Welch, Vaalepu, MacDonald; Anderson.
Penrith: Edwards; Turuva, Tago, Alamoti, To’o; Luai, Cleary; Leota, Kenny, Fisher-Harris, Sorensen, Martin, Yeo.
Interchanges: Schneider, Smith, Henry, Garner; Eisenhuth.
Referee: Ashley Klein.