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Opinion
The fortunes of each team on Friday night at Accor Stadium were ultimately going to rest with their star playmaker.
Nathan Cleary was near perfect, Cameron Munster was nearly invisible.
Jarome Luai came into the game with question marks over his dodgy shoulder after suffering a dislocation less than a month ago but it was his rival wearing No.6 for other team who played like he was wearing a dinnersuit.
Munster at his best is the game’s most damaging five-eighth with the ability to break the line from close range with a combination of size, strength and pure will to get the Steeden over the stripe.
Where has that player gone?
If you see his photo on the side of a milk carton please contact the Melbourne Storm offices to let them know you have located the player they paid massive coin to keep from the Dolphins’ clutches at the end of last season.
(Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)
The Storm went into the match with a plan to attack down Munster’s left edge to pit Justin Olam against Izack Tago, who looked rusty in defence after playing just once in the past two months due to leg and hamstring problems.
It worked in the 10th minute when Olam scored Melbourne’s first points after Tago came up with a ginger grab on the PNG powerhouse.
Melbourne halfback Jahrome Hughes, also not 100% fit after a week out with a knee injury, often took the ball deep into the Penrith defensive line to cop a bruise as he passed wide to support players surging into the space he’d created for them.
But while he took the attack to the Panthers, his halves partner was benign.
Munster ran the ball just three times in the first half, less than any of his backline comrades, and was far too happy to catch and pass. He managed eight hit-ups in the second stanza but all up, he gained just 68 metres for his side and a solitary tackle break from his 11 runs while passing 43 times.
Ratio, as the self-professed cool kids write in the Twittersphere (or is that Xsphere now?).
(Photo by Brendon Thorne/Getty Images)
The Queensland star is renowned as a big-game player and they don’t come much more important than a preliminary final against the premiers but he failed to fire, which became an all too frequent proposition in 2023.
After the Storm were flogged 26-0 by the Broncos at the start of the finals series, Munster said he couldn’t remember the last time he’d played too bad games in a row, partly as a way to motivate himself for their sudden-death stoush with the Roosters.
He improved big time as the Storm snuck past the Roosters, conjuring up the kick for the match-winning try, but his hot-and-cold run continued with a tepid display when it mattered most against Penrith.
Munster is no longer in the conversation for the best player in the NRL. The superstars perform at a high level all the time.
If he needs to see a living, breathing example of that then all he needed to do was glance across at his Kangaroos halves partner from last year’s World Cup success.
Cleary orchestrated Penrith’s dominance with his kicking, passing and organising but was not afraid to roll his sleeves up to do the hard yards.
He won his team a penalty by running out of dummy-half at an offside defender, defused a Storm break by rushing back to reel in an intercept (from Munster’s clutches) and had a hand in all three first-half tries as Penrith established an 18-4 buffer.
And when Liam Martin brushed off a feeble Munster tackle in the 54th minute, Cleary sprinted up in support to seal a 20-point advantage and effectively end the contest a long way from full-time.
Dylan Edwards touched down soon after before Cleary, now bandaged after a head clash with Josh King, created the play for Brian To’o to notch his hat-trick and complete a clinical 38-4 thumping.
The Panthers, now into their fourth straight Grand Final and one more win away from a rare premiership three-peat, have reached a stage where opposition coaches have given up trying to bring them down with tactics and bring out the old-fashioned roughhousing.
Melbourne man mountain Nelson Asofa-Solomona was charged with the assignment of unsettling the Panthers early by any means possible and he was lucky to avoid the sin bin for his 17th-minute cheap shot on Cleary.
Big NAS was sat down by Craig Bellamy straight afterwards but referee Adam Gee should have done so first.
While Immortal halfback Andrew Johns described it as stupid on Nine commentary, Gee explained to the Storm forward that the only reason he was not being binned was because it was just a push.
But it was still, late and forceful with the potential to injure a playmaker when he was least expecting it as well as happening a few minutes after Gee had threatened the captains that he would start using the sin bin if the niggling incidents continued.
Gee then claimed it was a “line in the sand” moment when repeating his warning to the skippers after a minor melee followed the NAS hit.
Defenders will now think they have sin bin immunity if they send a playmaker sprawling as long as they only push them down rather than attempt a tackle.
In reality there was little the Storm could do, legally or otherwise, to prevent the Panthers’ potency.
Even though they botched a couple of try-scoring chances, there was a sense of inevitability about the result from the mid-point of the first half when To’o touched down for his second try to open up a 12-4 lead.
“You cannot rest physically or mentally,” Johns added in commentary as he watched on in awe about Penrith’s precision.
For the Broncos or Warriors to have any chance next Sunday, they will probably need to play the perfect game.
And even that may not be enough.