By Jon Healy, ABC
Jahrome Hughes of the Storm celebrates scoring a try with teammates during the NRL Preliminary Final match against the Sydney Roosters. Photo: Photosport
The Melbourne Storm have bounced back from a sin-binning in the opening seconds of their clash with the Sydney Roosters to return to the NRL grand final with a thumping 48-18 win at AAMI Park.
Superstar halfback Jahrome Hughes made one last statement before Dally M Medal night on Wednesday with a hat-trick of tries on Friday night, while Ryan Papenhuyzen and Cameron Munster also nabbed doubles.
The Storm do have some concerns heading into their fifth grand final since 2012, with Hughes hobbling with a neck and back problem, and versatile centre Nick Meaney leaving the game early with an apparent knee complaint.
But perhaps the biggest cloud is hanging over hulking prop Nelson Asofa-Solomona, who was sent for 10 minutes in the bin after a high shot in the opening tackle of the match, which knocked Roosters prop Lindsay Collins out of the game with a concussion.
Asofa-Solomona will anxiously await the match review committee's charges before the second preliminary final between the Penrith Panthers and Cronulla Sharks.
Melbourne has played both Penrith and Cronulla in grand finals in the past decade, beating the Panthers 26-20 in 2020, and losing 14-12 to the Sharks in 2016.
Despite the horror start and conceding a penalty goal and a try in Asofa-Solomona's absence, the Storm never looked back after getting back to 13 men, running in four straight tries.
Hughes and Papenhuyzen toyed with the defensive channel between Angus Crichton and Luke Keary to the tune of three first-half tries, while the other came from a superb heads-up play by Xavier Coates.
The Storm winger made sure to get a toe on his tryline as he caught a Sandon Smith bomb, taking off for the 20m tap. He found Papenhuyzen, who burst through the retreating defence before offloading to rookie Jack Howarth, who skipped out of Dom Young's tackle to score his first finals try.
Leading 22-6 at half-time, the Storm weathered back-to-back tries by the Roosters just after the break as the Tricolours got back within a converted try with just over half an hour remaining.
But Hughes scored his third after a missed knock-on by Alec Macdonald, and Papenhuyzen got his second off some Harry Grant dummy-half brilliance to give the Storm breathing room before Munster got in on the act with two tries in the final 10 minutes to blow the scoreline out.
"Obviously we didn't get off to a great start but we still showed resilience," Melbourne coach Craig Bellamy told ABC Sport.
"Then our lead at half-time, the way they came back I thought they were coming over the top of us and I was just trying to stem the tide.
"To look at the scoreboard in the end after what happened in the game was fairly surprising."
It marked the end of an era for the Roosters, who bid farewell to Jared Waerea-Hargreaves (Super League), Luke Keary (Super League), Joey Manu (rugby union), Joseph-Aukuso Sua'ali'i (rugby union) and Sitili Tupouniua (Canterbury Bulldogs).
- ABC