Storm 42 Rabbitohs 4

THE Melbourne Storm again proved that when given a task, it almost certainly meets the challenge. And so it was last night, when needing 26 points or more to secure their third successive minor premiership, the Storm blew away South Sydney by 42-4 scoreline at Olympic Park.

The Storm went into last night's game with a clear plan of what was needed to secure its third minor premiership in a row. A victory over the Rabbitohs would secure a top-two placing and relegate Cronulla to third, while a winning margin of at least 26 points to leap-frog Manly to the top of the premiership table. It was two tries by Billy Slater in five minutes midway through the second half that set up the minor premiership for the Storm. Melbourne took a 20-4 lead to half-time needed to add another 10 points to the margin by the final siren.

It was then that Slater, who was sinbinned for 10 minutes early in the first half for a professional foul, made his impact with his first try - a length of the field effort after he snapped up a chip kick from Rabbitohs halfback Chris Sandow and sprinted away to score. The second gave the Storm the points they needed to surpass Manly at the top of the ladder and was set up by Israel Folau who made a bust down the right flank after palming off Fetuli Talanoa. The big Storm centre's pass infield went behind Cooper Cronk who missed with an attempted backheel which allowed Slater to pick up the loose ball and run the remaining 15 metres to score.

Cameron Smith made the conversion to take the score to 32-4 and extend the buffer to 28 points. The Storm made sure that it would be crowned minor premiers when Brett Anderson, who replaced the injured Steve Turner on the right wing, scored a juggling try five minutes before full-time.

The Storm will now play the Warriors on Sunday afternoon at Olympic Park while Manly will take on St George Illawarra on Saturday night at Brookvale and the third placed Sharks will be against Canberra also on Saturday night at Toyota Park.

However, it was not all good news for the Storm when lock Dallas Johnson appeared to injure his knee when he was tackled with just three minutes remaining. Johnson, who could also come under scrutiny by the match review committee for a lifting tackle, was able to hobble off the field.

Last night's game was billed as the final home and away game for five Storm players, particularly that of Matt Geyer, the club's last remaining foundation player who will retire at the end of the season.

Geyer, often described as the heart and soul of the club, lead the team onto the field with his three children and it was a promising start for the Storm in their task and a fairytale one for Geyer. The veteran back score after just five minutes when he took a beautiful offload from Greg Inglis, who popped a basketball pass over the top of the defence, and then stepped past Sandow to score.

Smith made the conversion to give the Storm an early 6-0 lead and a real sniff at building the score they needed to secure the minor premiership. However, the Rabbitohs showed they were not going to give up the result when they made a bust minutes later that spanned the length of the field and resulted in Slater being sinbinned for 10 minutes for a professional foul in holding down Jamie Simpson just metres from the try line.

The Storm's 12 men withstood the subsequent Rabbitohs attack with some strong defence forcing an error. The Storm then rebounded down the field after a controversial decision by referee Steve Lyons, who ruled that Sandow had played at a Cooper Cronk kick before it went into touch. It had appeared however that the South Sydney halfback had not made a play for the ball and had little chance to avoid it before it thumped into his torso.

However, Lyons's decision gave the scrum feed to the Storm and the defending premiers scored again within minutes through some strong work by left winger Anthony Quinn.

MELBOURNE 42 (B Slater 2 B Anderson M Geyer R Hoffman A Quinn C Smith J Smith tries C Smith 4 M Geyer goals) bt SOUTH SYDNEY 4 (N Merritt try) at Olympic Park. Referee: S Lyons. Crowd: 13,875.