The trouble with grand final experience is that there is only one way to get it.
Parramatta came to ANZ Stadium riding a wave of momentum but the young Eels found themselves in foreign territory and learnt very quickly you can’t fake experience.
The rookie grand final team were guilty of rookie mistakes.
Unfortunately Dally M medal winner Jarryd Hayne, the star who’d carried them to an unlikely grand final appearance, started the snowball rolling when he packed two left boots in his playing bag.
It took a police escort for a team official to go back to Hayne’s home for the classy fullback to have the correct footwear for the biggest game of his life.
But while the right shoe arrived on time, you could be forgiven for thinking Hayne was playing with two left feet if you looked at his kicking game.
Kicks that for the past 11 weeks hit targets were now rolling dead, being caught on the full in goal, or worse still going out on the full.
Parramatta’s only premiership winning halfback Peter Sterling slammed the Eels’ first half attack.
“The last play options from Parramatta have been disgraceful to be honest,” said Sterling.
Melbourne on the other hand were everything you’d expect from a team playing their fourth straight grand final – clinical, committed and composed.
It started with Cameron Smith’s discreet grubber that resulted in Cooper Cronk pinning Hayne in his goal area in just the fourth minute.
Then Ryan Hoffman running off Brett Finch to bust through some weak defence by Jeff Robson to score the opening try after just five minutes.
Hoffman had more trouble breaking the Melbourne Storm banner when he ran onto the field at the start of the game than Robson’s one-armed attempt.
It was the perfect case of two Storm players in their third grand final picking on an Eels halfback who until this season had played most of his rugby league a world away from the 82,538 fans that greeted him on Sunday.
Rookie Eels prop Tim Mannah was the next victim caught with stage fright, as Cronk drifted past his out-stretched arm to put Adam Blair across for a 10-0 lead after just 24 minutes.
Parramatta settled their nerves with an early second half try to Eric Grothe, but it all fell apart again only four minutes later as no fewer than four Eels watched Greg Inglis snatch an uncontested bomb and score beneath the posts.
The killer blow came soon after when Billy Slater capped a brilliant game by running off a superb offload from Blair to score a try and give the Storm a 16-point lead with 25 minutes to play.
And an experienced team like Melbourne never loses from that position.
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