A bit of a disappointing game, or should I say a bobbins effort by Melbourne not turning up to the final. I can’t say I’m bothered as I don’t like Bellamy and his ethos - over the years we’ve seen purposely slow rucks slowing the game down making the game less good to watch, third man in at the joints, chicken wings, swearing at the officials...

Fair play to Sydney they completely outplayed them. Cronk played with a broken scapula, fair s to him! Their defence was stifling. Their attack was clinical in the first half.

Great result, enjoyed the game - nothing better than seeing the grubs Slater & Smith having their arris handed to them. Slater shouldn't have even been playing, but ultimately he was pretty anonymous.

Sydney didn't give Souths an inch in the semi and did it again to Storm today. Tremendous defence - as they say, that's what wins games.

Whoever plays them in the WCC needs to be at their very best or they could easily be nilled.

Almost perfect first half from the Roosters and played a containing game in the second - the league's best defensive team was never going to give up an 18 points lead. disappointed in Munster a kick to the head however its done should be a send off, only one sending off in the nrl this season, you have to practically assault someone to be sent off in that league.

I thought the ref made the right call at the end. A sin bin was as good as a send off at that point, the disciplinary can make their call as to what further punishment he gets. Speaking of sin bins I can’t beleive Slater didn’t get one after shouting directly to the refs face ‘use your effing brain’.

As for the game itself a dominant display by the roosters with 12 & 1/2 players on the pitch.

the refs seemed to adopt a policy of letting the players have their say, as if they accepted it was a big game and emotions and passion were running high. have to say i thought the refereeing was superb in this game - amongst the best i have seen

the game was also the perfect illustration of how a dominant pack can give your halves (or half in the roosters case) vital time to control the game. for the storm they were beaten in the forwards and munster barely had a chance, croft was anonymous.

finally kudos to victor radley, he's going to be a future mainstay of the aussie team for many years to come

Quote: the artist "the refs seemed to adopt a policy of letting the players have their say, as if they accepted it was a big game and emotions and passion were running high. have to say i thought the refereeing was superb in this game - amongst the best i have seen the game was also the perfect illustration of how a dominant pack can give your halves (or half in the roosters case) vital time to control the game. for the storm they were beaten in the forwards and munster barely had a chance, croft was anonymous. finally kudos to victor radley, he's going to be a future mainstay of the aussie team for many years to come'" England! https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport ... bd4ed8e67f

Quote: the artist "the refs seemed to adopt a policy of letting the players have their say, as if they accepted it was a big game and emotions and passion were running high. have to say i thought the refereeing was superb in this game - amongst the best i have seen the game was also the perfect illustration of how a dominant pack can give your halves (or half in the roosters case) vital time to control the game. for the storm they were beaten in the forwards and munster barely had a chance, croft was anonymous. finally kudos to victor radley, he's going to be a future mainstay of the aussie team for many years to come'" England! https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport ... bd4ed8e67f

Roosters defence was outstanding. Glad to see Storm lose.

Exciting spectacle, and a clinical display by the Roosters, but not a great game to watch, since it was so one-sided; and as others have said, I have a special dislike for some of the grubby tactics of Slater and Smith, so it was nice to see them comprehensively outplayed.

They know how to put on a show don't they?

I can’t read it either, I did find this though

Radley was born in Sydney, New South Wales and raised in Bronte. He is of English descent through his father Nigel. He played junior rugby union for the Clovelly Eagles and junior rugby league for the Clovelly Crocodiles, before being signed by the Sydney Roosters.

Brilliant performance from the 12 man Sydney Roosters, against a star studded Melbourne Storm.

When in the past has a team gone into a Grand Final knowing that one of their players is physically crippled?

Didn't Paul Wood play a Grand Final with a ruptured testicle for Wire?

Yes, the 2012 Grand Final, although the injury occurred during the second half of the match.

That second half performance by Paul Wood would be comparable to Cooper Cronk's performance the previous week against South Sydney, when he was injured for the second half of the game.

I would suspect that there is no equivalent to Cooper Cronk going into and playing an entire game, in particular a Grand Final, knowingly crippled.

It worked didn't it? He was well protected throughout the game and marshalled his side brilliantly. Of course if it happened over here everyone would be crying about it and player welfare...blah,blah,blah. Ask Cooper if it was worth it! It was a gamble and paid off in spades.