Parra can win this. All the predictions of Melbourne’s class overwhelming the baby Eels will count for nought when the smoke from the fireworks clears and the ref looks across to the timekeeper.

Jarryd Hayne: Let him run free.

Grand Finals are the ultimate leveller and are often won by players you’ve never heard of, who get out in the middle and realise decades of training, injury and going home early comes down to this.

Here’s what I reckon the Eels need to do to take the silverware back to Church Street on Sunday night.

KICK AWAY FROM BILLY SLATER. Absolutely crucial. Slater is at his most dangerous taking the ball at full gallop inside his own half. He has the ability to carve up a staggered defensive line chasing a kick but even if you get him his quick play the ball gives his forwards the chance to make easy metres. Daniel Mortimer must find the turf all night, end of story.

INGLIS, INGLIS, INGLIS. This bloke seems to have a roo bar fitted to his torso. His right-hand fend is the best in the game and will embarrass the Eels’ right side if they don’t deal with him early. Ask Manly’s David “Wolfman” Williams, who became GI’s rag doll in State of Origin. Parra’s Joel Reddy is a gun defender, but Inglis will park himself anywhere he senses a weakness, which makes him every Eels player’s problem.

KEEP ERIC GROTHE ON HIS WING. We’ve already established that Joel Reddy’s in more trouble than a one-armed man hanging off the Harbour Bridge with an itchy bum. So the last thing he needs is for Eric Grothe to come rushing off his wing, leaving a yawning gap for Inglis or Dane Nielsen to run or chase a kick to the line. The other problem is the Storm’s Ryan Hoffman, who will run at the Eels’ right edges all night, trying to suck in defenders so he can get a ball to Inglis on his outside. Grothe has to trust Reddy to take his man and be there when the attack comes his way. He’s a generous guy, Eric, always wanting to come in and help, but if he gets it wrong again it could cost the Eels a premiership.

CAMERON SMITH. The last time the Storm visited ANZZZZZ in October they were hammered by 40. It was no coincidence that Smith was serving out a suspension from the bench. It’s easy to lose sight of the slightly beige captain in a team of entertainers, but Smith’s work at dummy half is the cornerstone of their attack. He preys on forwards struggling to get back the 10, either drawing a penalty or creating a gap in the middle for his fast men. Smith and Slater work better together than Parton and Rogers.

LET JARRYD RUN FREE. Jarryd Hayne is the most undisciplined, unstructured superstar we’ve ever seen. But it works. The last thing he needs is to be tied up feeding the ball to the backline or taking on the full-time kicking role. He did this when Mortimer went off injured against the Titans two weeks ago and his lethal running game suffered. Parra can’t look to Hayne to win it for them, but their rookie halves – Mortimer and Jeff Robson – need to keep doing their jobs so Hayne can do his.

THE FUI FACTOR. We’ve heard it all this week. Fui lives on horse meat, teammates say. He hits with more force than a 20kg bag of cement dropped from 22m, the physicists say. What is undeniably true is that Fui Fui Moi Moi has hit career best form with a cracked rib, which he’s carried through Parra’s extraordinary finals run. Fui either gets an offload away or forces three or four opposition forwards to stop him, creating a gap somewhere for his for Hayne or Mortimer to exploit on the next play. So good they named him twice.

HINDY. I’m starting to sound like this bloke’s agent. The Storm’s biggest problem is they don’t have him. Did you seem him against the Dogs? A defensive machine with a blue and gold striped heart. He was on the Footy Show last night and was asked how it felt to be back on the dancefloor after the Eels’ cataclysmic grand final outing eight years ago. “I’m scared. Not scared of Melbourne, scared of losing it,” Hindy said. Honest, intense, skilful and deserves to be on the back of a ute with ripped shirt, sunnies and a VB on Monday morning.

THE NO NAME FACTOR. The Eels’ success has been defined by the freakish form of Hayne, Hindmarsh, Moi Moi, Luke Burt and Feleti Mateo. But the foundation of that success has been built by offcuts, who 10 weeks ago would have struggled to pick up a contract at the Woy Woy Roosters. Players like Todd Lowrie, Jeff Robson, Kevin Kingston, Tim Mannah, Joe Galuvao are proof of Vince Lombardi’s line about confidence being contagious. Desperation sometimes wins over class and the grunt work done by these players will be the difference.

Eels by 8.

Most commented

19 comments

Show oldest | newest first

    • BigFoot says:

      11:48am | 02/10/09

      Your comment: They should just shoot the whole Telegraph League team and let you write five pages a day. Fair dinkum. How is it possible that a past-timer, can write better league columns than those blokes. Love your stuff Luke. Spewing the season’s over.

    • iansand says:

      01:42pm | 02/10/09

      Much as I hope I am wrong, the Storm will flog the Eels.  20+  They have too much GF experience.

    • waldo says:

      02:37pm | 02/10/09

      Parra by 2.

    • Steve Smith says:

      03:14pm | 02/10/09

      The Storm’s GF experience consists of 1 win, 1 loss and 1 flogging. Eels by less than 6-12.. should be a great game!

    • Nathan H says:

      03:23pm | 02/10/09

      Typical sydneysider pap. The Storm got done over deluxe last year and they’re owed a GF. Now, we know the Sydney establishment would rather see league suffer than have a non-NSW team win the GF, but the Storm hatred from the press & officials is ridiculous. My beloved Storm will win because they will not allow themselves to lose. They have far too many noses to rub in the dirt with their wins. This game is going to be all about intensity. If the Storm maintain the hunger for 80 minutes, they will win. Go the mighty Melbourne Storm!

    • Matt says:

      03:51pm | 02/10/09

      For me it’s picking between a rock and a hard place. I want the Eeels to win purely because as a Broncos fan I dislike Hayne LESS than I hate Melbourne…

    • Drew says:

      04:05pm | 02/10/09

      HA! The Storm are 1 from 3!  Can’t wait till it’s 1 from 4.  What a bunch of losers.

    • stephen says:

      08:39pm | 02/10/09

      Parra should get some guts and ask Penrith how to do IT. (Then they’ll win)

    • greg says:

      09:12pm | 02/10/09

      i think parrra matta wanty it more than the storm , that will be the difference,,,,eels by 7

    • Todd Slater says:

      09:40pm | 02/10/09

      The funny thing is, which all commentator’s have failed to mention is that MELBOURNE are the NEW PARRAMATTA. That’s right.
      Melbourne are the first team since those epic Parramatta teams of the early eighties to make four grand finals.
      Talk it up Luke all you want. The fact is that with Cayless a passenger, Moi Moi carrying injuries, the Eels will need a bit of luck, not that they haven’t had their fair share on getting there mind you. The Storm are one of the really great league sides. No mean feat making four grand finals in the current era. It helps that they have one of the most naturally gifted players ever to lace on a boot in Greg Inglis & one of the most dynamic fullbacks the game has seen.
      Purple rain at Homebush this Sunday. Storm by plenty.

    • Davo from St Kilda says:

      11:42pm | 02/10/09

      Go Melbourne! Put NSW in their place. Their cricket team is useless, they have no NBL side, an over rated soccer club (glamour team? Don’t make me laugh), football fans who only ever support the swans when they’re winning, crowd attendance figures smaller then Adelaide’s… There are very few cities worldwide known as true sporting cities, and Sydney aint one of them. Melbourne is.

    • Chris Tigs says:

      08:56am | 03/10/09

      Storm by 20…....last year cam smith misses the final over nothing. This year Hayne is playing after doing something that saw bryce gibbs get 3 games. Parra dont deserve it.

    • Cameron says:

      09:13am | 03/10/09

      Mate a great sports feature, but the Melbourne STORM will absolutely cream the opposition. The Eels will be engulfed, with an NRL STORM of panache, power, pride and professionalism that is a class well above Sydney teams!

    • Kingy says:

      10:19am | 03/10/09

      Luke. Very good tips for Parra. One more tip would be to hammer Brett Finch early otherwise he will be the Karma returning and get some sweet justice. The Storm got thrashed last year with Cam Smith out but I cant see that happening this time. I think the Storm will win as there is too much for Parra to do and watch out for. The Storm have great team cohesion and I think it will flow on to victory.

    • Skippy says:

      11:16am | 03/10/09

      I hope the Eels win, but the team who really turns up and is hungry enough and who does not have to play the ref. as well as the football team, are the winners!!!  So may the best team on the day win and I hope it is Parramatta and they don’t go down nil, at least score some points if you are going to lose!!! then it makes the game more interesting.  GO THE EELS!!!! Win by anything and you do deserve it!!!!!

    • Parra says:

      01:16pm | 03/10/09

      The Storm have discipline, blah blah, stars blah whatever. Discipline doesn’t win you a grand final, stepping up 2 gears and finding that effort you didn’t know you had does. This game won’t be won the way anyone expects, the Eels are unconventional but have a burning desire, if they don’t burn out from all the work they’ve had to do on the lead up then I think the Eels will get it.

    • weather man says:

      03:25pm | 03/10/09

      prediction: Storm sweeps eels away
      the only chance that parra have of winning the game is that the storm dont show up for the game for some reason, and also that the hume highway is closed and the storm would have no supporters at the game that could possibly have a run

    • Artie says:

      06:09am | 05/10/09

      aaah MacHayne…. overrated again… well done storm.

    • football says:

      10:45am | 06/10/09

      truly uninspiring football. I backed neither team but I watched it anyway. It was a total yawn. Where was the entertainment? Totally standard football. The under 20’s was a far better game in comparison.

 

Facebook Recommendations

Read all about it

Punch live

Up to the minute Twitter chatter

Daniel Piotrowski

RT @ToryShepherd: Onya, @KRuddMP“@newscomauHQ: BREAKING: Kevin Rudd has come out in support of same sex marriage: http://t.co/CFaHrxyV5G

Daniel Piotrowski

RT @newscomauHQ: BREAKING: Kevin Rudd has come out in support of same sex marriage: http://t.co/2KEO6yEx5F

Daniel Piotrowski

True Rudd style. Bazillion word folksy statement

Daniel Piotrowski

RT @Rob_Stott: Like a lot of Republicans in the US, it's much easier to support gay marriage when you're no longer in a position to do anyt…

Recent posts

The latest and greatest

The Punch is moving house

The Punch is moving house

Good morning Punchers. After four years of excellent fun and great conversation, this is the final post…

Will Pope Francis have the vision to tackle this?

Will Pope Francis have the vision to tackle this?

I have had some close calls, one that involved what looked to me like an AK47 pointed my way, followed…

Advocating risk management is not “victim blaming”

Advocating risk management is not “victim blaming”

In a world in which there are still people who subscribe to the vile notion that certain victims of sexual…

Nosebleed Section

choice ringside rantings

From: Hasbro, go straight to gaol, do not pass go

Tim says:

They should update other things in the game too. Instead of a get out of jail free card, they should have a Dodgy Lawyer card that not only gets you out of jail straight away but also gives you a fat payout in compensation for daring to arrest you in the first place. Instead of getting a hotel when you… [read more]

From: A guide to summer festivals especially if you wouldn’t go

Kel says:

If you want a festival for older people or for families alike, get amongst the respectable punters at Bluesfest. A truly amazing festival experience to be had of ALL AGES. And all the young "festivalgoers" usually write themselves off on the first night, only to never hear from them again the rest of… [read more]

Gentle jabs to the ribs

Superman needs saving

Superman needs saving

Can somebody please save Superman? He seems to be going through a bit of a crisis. Eighteen months ago,… Read more

28 comments

Newsletter

Read all about it

Sign up to the free News.com.au newsletter