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Coach Craig Bellamy may finally believe the Warriors are Melbourne’s bogey side after the visitors ended the Storm’s season a game short of the NRL grand final.
Melbourne hoped to cap a miracle season – coming after last year’s salary cap saga – with a premiership but the Warriors ended that fairy-tale with a gripping 20-12 win in their preliminary final at AAMI Park.
They will now face Manly in the grand final in Sydney next Sunday, their second trip to the NRL decider after their loss to the Sydney Roosters in 2002.
The fearless Warriors were unlucky not to win by an even greater margin, dominating the minor premiers for the bulk of the match in front of 28,580 screaming fans.
They broke through for the try to seal the win with just three minutes remaining, when halfback Shaun Johnson raced across field, throwing repeated dummies before finding centre Lewis Brown who touched down.
Brown looked to have scored eight minutes earlier but the try was disallowed due to an earlier knock-on.
Five-eighth James Maloney added the extras, with the margin too great for Melbourne to peg back in two minutes.
Despite the Warriors’ impressive win-loss record against the Storm, including a victory in Melbourne this season, Bellamy dismissed talk prior to the game of the Warriors having the wood on his side.
But from the opening whistle the visitors showed no fear of the minor premiers and could have led by more than 14-12 at halftime.
Melbourne did open the scoring in the fifth minute, through bullocking secondrower Sika Manu, but the Warriors weren’t rattled.
They levelled seven minutes later, also on the back of a penalty at the tackle, when Johnson put a bomb cross field that Krisnan Inu was able to bat back for Bill Tupou to pounce on.
The teams then traded tries, before Maloney, a former Storm player, broke a 12-12 deadlock with a penalty kick as the teams ran to the sheds for the halftime break.
Both teams looked worthy of a grand final berth in a thrilling second 40 minutes but the Storm couldn’t penetrate the visitors’ rock solid defence; their usual attacking weapons like Billy Slater held in close check by the Warriors.
he Warriors “out-Stormed” the Storm on their home turf.
In a Melbourne-like fashion they made plenty of ground from dummy half, used a smart kicking game and repeatedly probed the fringes of their opponents’ defence.
Coach Ivan Cleary, who will take the head job with Penrith next year, was delighted with his side’s composure under relentless pressure.
“I thought we controlled possession and field position in the second half and that’s what you need to do against Melbourne,” Cleary said.
“In the end it was good enough to win the game.
“We were very patient and never wavered from what we wanted to do.”
He hailed the performance of his young halfback, saying it was Johnson’s best contribution of the season.
“I don’t expect it but I know he’s capable of it,” he said of Johnson setting up the match-winning try in only his 15th first grade appearance.
“In that arena, in that type of game, he did very well.”
Shattered Storm coach Craig Bellamy and his skipper Cameron Smith said it simply wasn’t their night.
“I’m bitterly disappointed … it was one of those nights when things didn’t go our way,” Bellamy said.
“We couldn’t get any field position at all.”
Smith said he was “in shock” over the loss but praised his side for their effort.
“I was really confident coming into this game, we’d had a great preparation,” he said.
“We knew what we had to do to win, but it didn’t go that way.”
Bellamy spoke of the pride in his players, who chalked up a club record 12 successive wins through the season.
“This club’s come a long way to what we were this time last year.
“They’ve given me, each other, our staff and our supporters one hell of a ride this year and I’m really proud of them.”
2011 NRL grand final:
Head to head: Sea Eagles 13, Warriors 7
Head to head in 2011: Manly 20 – 10 at Brookvale Oval, (rd 6)
Head to head in grand finals: Never met
Road to the grand final
Manly
beat North Queensland 42-8 (qualifying final)
beat Brisbane 26-14 (preliminary final)
Warriors
lost to Brisbane 40-10 (qualifying final)
beat Tigers 22-20 (semi-final)
beat Storm 20-12 (preliminary final)
Grand final week focus
Manly – The Sea Eagles will welcome back Glenn Stewart and Darcy Lussick from suspension, but will spend the first few days sweating on the NRL match review committee clearing Tony Williams and Steve Matai of any possible ban.
Warriors – They can go home and escape some of they hype in a country in the midst of the Rugby World Cup but, having taken down two of the competition’s heavyweights, confidence will be high that they can take down a third.
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