Penrith still favoured for NRL Premiership despite Storm victory

The Penrith Panthers remain favourites to win the NRL Premiership in 2024, despite the Melbourne Storm putting on an impressive performance in the second qualifying final against the Cronulla Sharks on Saturday afternoon at AAMI Park.

Melbourne thrashed the Sharks 37-10, consigning Cronulla to their seventh straight finals loss.

Harry Grant and Will Warbrick starred for the minor premiers, running in five tries between them as the Storm scored four unanswered second-half tries to book their spot in the preliminary finals in two weeks’ time.

However, rugby league betting sites still hold the Panthers at $2.30 to win the grand final, marginally ahead of the Storm’s odds of $2.40.

These odds come off the back of an equally dominant win by Penrith on Friday night, where they ran in 24 points in the first half to blow away the third-placed Sydney Roosters.

Storm credit half-time calm for big win

After 40 minutes on Saturday afternoon, it did not look as though the Melbourne Storm would end up 27-point winners.

The scoreboard read 14-10, despite large chunks of possession and domination for the Storm.

After the match, coach Craig Bellamy confessed that he had to restrain himself from giving his side an earful at half-time.

“I wasn’t quite sure how they’d be feeling,” he said.

“I know how I was feeling, but as I came down in the lift, I sort of made sure I changed my manner, I suppose.

“We were on top for a long stage of it, but that was a little bit deflating that try just before half-time.

“I found myself a little bit deflated, but I realised I had to perk myself up a bit for half-time and the players didn’t seem too concerned about it.”

Storm captain Grant attributed his team’s strong second-half performance to the way that Bellamy handled the half-time chat.

“I’ve got to give a lot of credit to Craig the way he handled half-time,” he said.

“I think he was very calm, very experienced campaigner.

“He was very calm in that moment and that really rubbed off on the group.

“The playing group have been pretty good all year at just getting on with things, not letting things sort of worry us or faze us too much.

“That was sort of the case there.

“We knew that the work we’d done in the first half was going to reward us at some point.”

Both the Storm and the Panthers will have the week off now, while the remaining four teams in the NRL finals contest the semi-finals next week.

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