Storm win grand final over Bulldogs
IT WASN'T retribution for titles taken away from them but Melbourne's 'big three' finally have an NRL premiership to keep after a 14-4 win over Canterbury that helped ease some of the pain of grand finals past.
Cameron Smith, Cooper Cronk and Billy Slater - the most dominant triumvirate the game may have ever seen - can again be called premiership winners, the 2007 and '09 titles that were stripped from them not so much long forgotten as consigned to history.
Led by Cronk's Clive Churchill medal-winning performance, the trio were sensational before 82,976 predominantly Bulldogs fans at ANZ Stadium on Sunday night as they denied Des Hasler the opportunity to become the first man to coach different sides to back-to-back titles.
But for Smith, this was not a win to make up for the past, it was reward for their ability to move on.
"We've been asked this question for three years - is it about making up for what happened?" Smith said.
Read more at Sydney Morning Herald
