Storm pay heavy price for flawed finals system

As he stood with the ball in his hands above the try line celebrating his still incomplete match-winning feat, and seemingly taunting the about-to-be vanquished Storm, for a split second Warrior's five-eighth Michael Witt risked acquiring a nickname that would surely stay with him beyond the grave. The kinder prefix would have been "half …".

Instead, with Cam Smith bearing down, Witt finally planted the ball and put the finishing touches to one of the most memorable, incident-packed and bizarre games of rugby league that the majority of Melbourne did not realise they had the privilege of hosting.

It was a day of mayhem that began even before it began, when a technical malfunction silenced the microphone of Nerida Newell, who was trying valiantly to sing the national anthem, prompting the restless crowd to fill in.

It ended with four departing Melbourne players trudging on to a podium with all the enthusiasm of death-row inmates going to the gallows. There, they were serenaded by the now obligatory Bocelli standard Time To Say Goodbye - which, given the Storm's too-harsh penalty for slipping up against the eighth-placed Warriors is a sudden-death semi in Brisbane, might apply as much to their title defence as their four loyal servants.

When the smoke clears, it should be the iniquity of the outdated finals system that is the major talking point. As much as Melbourne deserve to be punished for their inability to produce their A-game yesterday, an immediate loss of home-ground advantage is too harsh a price to pay for a team that defied a massively disruptive representative program to win the JJ Giltinan Shield.

Far fairer is the revised AFL final-eight system under which the Storm would have played the fourth-placed Sydney Roosters - ie. the winner gets the week off, the loser at least preserves home-ground advantage in the second week. Just common sense, really.

But, yesterday, jam-packed Olympic Park was not much of a place for common sense. Even the full-throated, passionate and knowledgeable crowd of 15,193 defied the supposedly common-sense belief "up north" that Melbourne has no league culture.

In fact, with the anthem singer out of action and the Storm unable to convert their early dominance into a match-winning lead, the crowd was the only thing on song. Of the Melbourne superstars unable to make an impact on the scoreboard, Billy Slater's day summed things up best: he had a try disallowed, copped some friendly fire after butting heads with Israel Folau and generally did a lot of things that didn't amount to much.

What couldn't be faulted was the Storm defence. The Kiwi national anthem - belted out impressively through a fully functioning microphone - is God Defend New Zealand. As the Warriors attacked time and time again in the latter stages, they must have thought He was defending the Melbourne try line.

When Manu Vatuvei was somehow held up over the line with still 14 minutes left, already it seemed the Storm defences could not be breached. Instead, minutes later, Greg Inglis nudged the ball over the cross-bar to give Melbourne a one-point lead.

If the Storm beating the eighth team with a late field goal was a like Tiger Woods holing a long putt for a double bogey to win a major, it seemed it would be victory nonetheless. Right until the last two minutes and that last piece of priceless Witt - something that was not appreciated by the Melbourne crowd that booed the Warrior's showmanship impressively.

Again, you could not say there was no league passion in Melbourne. It is just that there will be no more rugby league here for the rest of the season.

Instead, the Storm walk into an ambush - the emotion-charged cauldron of Suncorp Stadium where the crowd will be eager to see Wayne Bennett's tenure prolonged at least a week. Whatever happens, cue Bocelli. Either Bennett or the Storm will say a very sad goodbye.

- © Fairfax NZ News