Storm win a thriller at Olympic Park

Melbourne Storm has survived a golden point extra time lottery to defeat a committed Penrith Panthers outfit, eventually accounting for the visitors 17-16 at Olympic Park.

The win is the Storm’s ninth in a row at Olympic Park and the result continues Penrith’s poor form against the better teams in the competition, having not tasted victory against any side in the top eight this year.

Storm coach Craig Bellamy will no doubt be conducting some goal kicking drills during the week as his chargers needed six attempts before finally sealing the game.

The first half was anything but convincing for the home side, and after a sluggish start by Melbourne, the Panthers opened the scoring through Nick Youngquest in the fourth minute.

Another try to Rhys Wesser in the 23rd minute gave the visitors plenty of confidence, however a 90-metre try to Matt Geyer after intercepting a Preston Campbell pass, and another try to Jake Webster, saw the Storm go into the half-time break with a two-point lead.

After 23 minutes of end-to-end rugby league in the second-half, a controversial refereeing decision allowed the Panthers to take the lead.

Referee Shane Hayne allowed play to continue when it seemed a tackle had been completed, with Michael Gordon the beneficiary crossing in the corner.

“It looked like he was on the ground and it looked like someone had a hold of his ankle so maybe they should have had a look at it,” said Storm coach Craig Bellamy.

However, another piece of individual magic from Greg Inglis, fending off would-be defenders before spinning away to cross the try-line, allowed the Storm to level the scores.

After several field goal attempts in the dying minutes from both sides, the game went into extra time.

The Storm dominated extra time and should have wrapped it up on several occasions, before Cooper Cronk scored the winning point with less than a minute to go.

Although pleased with the win, Bellamy knows his team weren’t at their peak.

“I don’t think we played that well, I thought we were quite sluggish at the start,” said Bellamy.

“Penrith played pretty good. They played a basic game and they kept a hold of the footy.

“We had a couple of chances to put the game away but we need to be a little smarter with our options.

“At the end of the day I was really happy with the way they hung in. We didn’t play our best, but Penrith didn’t let us play our best either.”