Storm roll into Grand Final

Published: 7:36PM Sunday September 23, 2007 Source: AAP

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Minor premiers Melbourne will meet Manly in the NRL grand final after the Storm put away a gallant Parramatta 26-10 at Telstra Dome on Sunday.
  
The 16-point margin was hardly indicative of what was a closely fought contest, the Storm prevailing to earn a return trip to the decider and a chance to avenge last year's grand final loss to Brisbane.
  
The game looked headed for a thrilling finish when the Eels tied it up at 10-10 midway through the second half, but the Storm were just too composed with two late tries sealing the result.
  
It was all the Eels early with Melbourne looking like they had been struck by stagefright in front of a 33,427-strong crowd, the largest to attend a Storm match in the Victorian capital.
  
Parramatta were rewarded for their dominance when a brilliant two-man cut-out ball from Tim Smith found an unmarked Eric Grothe for a 4-0 lead, Krisnan Inu's sideline conversion swinging across the face of the posts.
  
Perhaps feeling the effects of the week off, Melbourne looked a little out of sync, their kicking game leaving a lot to be desired as the Eels were handed easy turnovers of possession.
  
The Storm finally got some field position on the back of a Parramatta leg-pull penalty and Cameron Smith maintained some pressure by securing a repeat set of six.
  
From there Greg Inglis and Cooper Cronk swapped positions and it sparked a backline raid as winger Steve Turner made good use of limited space to lock it up at 4-4 after 28 minutes.
  
It was just the spark Melbourne needed as another penalty from the restart saw them march downfield, Cronk stepping through weak Brett Finch and Josh Cordoba tackles to score adjacent to the posts.
  
Melbourne went close again when Anthony Quinn was pushed into touch a metre short of the line, Parramatta the happier of the two sides to hear the halftime hooter as they clung to a six-point deficit.
  
Whatever Eels coach Michael Hagan said to his side at the break had the desired effect with Parramatta having the perfect start to the second half, a repeat set leading to a Joel Reddy try to again lock it up.
  
Melbourne edged ahead when Timana Tahu showed a little too much aggression in slamming opposite number Israel Folau's head into the ground, Cameron Smith slotting over the simple shot at goal.
  
Again one pointscoring play led to another as the Storm extended to what proved to be a matchwinning 18-10 lead after 54 minutes, Inglis finding Ryan Hoffman who bumped through a pair of Parramatta defenders to send Matt King on his way.
  
The Eels tried everything to get back into the contest but were denied by the barest of margins, Inu twice going within millimetres of getting his side back into the contest only for the video referee to rule in the home side's favour.
  
Cameron Smith took it out to a 10-point margin when Finch was ruled to have stripped Jeff Lima close to the line before King scored his second of the day in the final seconds to kick off the home side's celebrations.

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