ANZ Stadium, Sunday 30th October.
Minor Premiers Canterbury will be looking to secure their first premiership since 2004. The Storm – officially – are looking for their second title since joining the competition in 1998 having been stripped of their 2007 and 2009 titles. Both sides have followed a similar path in reaching the Grand Final. They were both very good in the first week of the finals, earning the second week off and then both sides dominated their respective opponents last week to earn the shot at the 2012 title. In last week’s match, the Storm were gifted earlier opportunities by Manly who chose the most inappropriate time to submit one of their worst, if not the worse, performance of the year. The Storm took full advantage and raced to a 12-nil lead inside of twenty minutes. Melbourne were never going to relinquish that lead and in the second half, exposed the right-hand side of Manly’s defence where centre Steve Matai was carrying a noticeable injury, to run out victors 40-12. Canterbury didn’t need anytime to warm into their Qualifying final against Souths after the week off with the Bulldogs scoring inside the first five minutes before two late first half tries had them leading 16-8 at the break. An injury to Souths halfback Adam Reynolds did Souths no favours and they struggled to compete thereafter with the Dogs scoring a further two tries in the first half of the second period to seal the win. There were a lot of similarities in each team’s respective performance last week. The ability to start quick, to capitalise on errors, to defend consecutive sets of six and they both demonstrated what well drilled outfits they are. What will separate these two sides in Sunday night’s Grand Final (and let’s hope it’s not yet another poor referring decision) is hard to tell, as reflected in the betting market’s fluctuations and current price.
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Initially, it was Canterbury who held a slight margin of favouritism but with Melbourne lining up for their fifth Grand Final appearance in seven year, punters were keen to take the $2.00 about them early and, with proven big players – and more importantly big game winners – such as Cooper Cronk (think this year’s State of Origin), Billy Slater and Cameron Smith, it did represent good value. The Dogs are not to be denied however. When their finals experience was questioned in the first week of the finals, they met the challenge disposing of Manly 16-10. They continue to met every mark set before them, have only lost one of their past sixteen matches and have been the most consistent side all year. We’ve seen a couple of blowouts in recent Grand Finals but these two sides mirror each other in so many departments that it feels almost inevitable that the 2012 Grand Final goes to wire.
MELBOURNE 1- 6 @ $5.50
