Sea Eagles 10 Storm 16

CITIUS, Altius, Fortius. This was an Olympic-sized battle but lacking the Olympic-sized ideal. Forget the taking part, this was about the winning.

Make no mistake, this was a ripper. Grand without the final. Manly threw everything at their nemesis, and yet Melbourne withstood it.

Both sides showed exactly why they can win the title this year.

Problem is for Manly, they showed more of why they can't at the same time. They punished the Storm in the first half and still trailed by four points at the break, dominated the second, but could not land the decisive blow.

On home soil, it was a game they could/should have won. If it was a boxing bout, they would have won on points. But points are harder to come by in this game.

The final flourish, in which Manly battered the Melbourne defence without reward, showed that. The most ominous part of Melbourne's performance was what they did not do - they have much improvement. "I wasn't overly impressed with the way we played," Melbourne coach Craig Bellamy said, admitting he was a "little bit out of control" in the closing stages.

"But it just goes to show that this side's a pretty gutsy side. This side seems to be able to do what they have to do to win a game," he said.

There were some wonderful passages of play; Greg Inglis's palming of Steve Menzies and later Josh Perry, Billy Slater's strength and nerve to dangle the ball over the line with 99 per cent of his body ingoal, the same player's freakish ability to set up the Storm's first two tries.

And, by the way, who needs Sonny Bill Williams when we've got David Williams, more hair than lair but who brought the Sea Eagles back into the contest in the second half and who was lifted by Melbourne winger Anthony Quinn in one of the game's many controversial moments.

It was physical. Early on, it was as though the Sea Eagles just wanted to hand Melbourne the ball so they could smack them, like Bobby Boucher in The Waterboy. Hands were made for fighting and shoving, not tucking the ball under the upper arm and taking a settler.

After five minutes, Manly had taken part in two scuffles - but had failed to complete a set. By the time they started holding the ball, Slater had already sent a luscious pass to veteran centre Matt Geyer, who started things off for the Storm.

Brett Stewart was denied controversially not long after, after he shrugged Quinn aside just as Slater was realising his leap was as badly mistimed as a tailender's straight drive. But the decision had a silver lining. The Brookvale crowd erupted. There haven't been such hails of protest in these parts since the last panel van from the western suburbs tried to park at one of the northern beaches. Halfback Matt Orford was protesting elsewhere, repeatedly approaching referee Tony Archer about Melbourne's tactics on the ground, continuing his complaints afterwards.

"There was a few tackles there which I thought he could have blown his whistle, but he didn't," Orford said. "It was just the run of the game, how it went. I said to him [Archer], 'there's going to be some things done in the ruck, and if our players react to it, don't blow a penalty - go up and have a look and see what's going on'."

Benchmarks for the premiership as well as on the ground?

"Yeah," Orford shrugged.

Funnily enough, through the first half, the Sea Eagles seemed to be winning the battle. At times, they made the well-oiled Melbourne machine look like that panel van spluttering its way over the Spit Bridge, spitting oil and smoke to mark the occasion.

But Melbourne held. Manly might be the contenders this year, but Melbourne showed why they are the champs. With two minutes left in the half, and Bellamy already rehearsing how to get 78 swear words into a two-minute spray, Cronk chipped, Slater scooped up magically and sent Israel Folau over.

Bellamy pocketed the draft and his counterpart was left to calculate how the Sea Eagles could have exerted so much pressure for so little reward. He needn't have looked far for the solution; the other dressing room.

MELBOURNE 16 (C Cronk, I Folau, M Geyer tries; C Smith 2 goals) bt MANLY 10 (G Hall, D Williams tries; S Matai goal) at Brookvale Oval. Referee: T Archer. Crowd: 18,442.