The night before the NRL grand final, tempting yet forbidden thoughts began tapping on the door to the disciplined, tidy brain of Storm coach Craig Bellamy.

Those thoughts had their origin in a city 700 kilometres away, where rugby league is but a minor faith in a state governed by a dominant religion. Following the Storm is like being a tryhard Baptist living in the Vatican City.

"It started to cross my mind we could win the premiership because of what Geelong had done in the AFL," Bellamy said. "Our paths to the grand final were pretty similar. I don't know how hard Geelong trained in the week leading up to their grand final, but our tough game against Parramatta made me hold back. We trained for only 55 minutes on Friday and 45 on Saturday, whereas I'd usually make them do twice that."

Geelong, also minor premiers, survived a tense, taut battle with Collingwood after a two-week break which followed an easy win over the Kangaroos. The Storm's meeting with Parramatta came after a romp against Brisbane, with the same fortnight in between.

Bellamy also saw parallels with the AFL and Manly, his NRL grand final opponents, but kept his suspicions locked away.

"I also began to think Manly weren't as tough defensively in the last month as they had been earlier in the season," he said. "I've got great respect for them but … it could be injuries … they just didn't seem to be as tough in the tackling department. I didn't tell the boys."

Like Manly, the beaten AFL grand finalists, Port Adelaide, had easy lead-up matches before being humiliated by more than 100 points - a record in an AFL decider - and consistent with the Storm's 34-8 victory, the biggest margin in the NRL big one since 1998.

The Storm and Geelong also had one-point losses through the season to the teams they eventually vanquished.

None of Manly's top players had good games. Hooker Michael Monaghan, Manly's most creative force, made a record number of tackles in the first half, prompting the suspicion he had been singled out as a target for ball runners. "It was part of the plan," Bellamy admitted. "After all, he was concussed the previous week."

Melbourne fullback Billy Slater also posted some impressive first-half numbers via his running game. Told the stats, Slater said: "That must be why I was so rooted at half-time."

Storm five-eighth Greg Inglis also exploded onto a stage he will make his own over coming years, winning the Clive Churchill Medal for best on ground.

Sitting up the front of the team bus, microphone in hand, Inglis refused to be addressed by any name other than Clive.

He shared the mic with captain Cameron Smith, who apologised for his dismal goalkicking. "But look at the wind, boys," Smith said, pleading for sympathy, as wicked eddies outside Telstra Stadium whipped beer cans and paper wrappers against the walls of buildings.

Smith, a throwback player, lamented the shortage of beer in the dressing room. "There's so many empty cans, you'd think it was the '80s," he said, disregarding the fact he was only seven when the decade ended.

But he is also aware of the current fad of youth to decorate their bodies.

"We've got to think about a premiership tattoo but we'll put that decision on hold," he told the team as they travelled to their hotel.

Bellamy said the old-fashioned runaround move which produced the second try was resurrected last week in a ploy to exploit the defensive weaknesses on Manly's left-hand side of half Matt Orford and centre Steve Matai.

Smith looped around, isolating Orford, while Slater, running a wide decoy path, dragged Matai out, creating a path in between the two Manly defenders for Inglis to slice through.

While the game plan was technically elegant, old-fashioned enmity fuelled the 2007 premiers.

"'Bellyache' [Bellamy] mentioned the Silvertails more than once this week," one trainer said. "We've only bought [Michael] Crocker to Melbourne but they bought a few, including two [Steve Bell and Orford] from us."

Orford, the Manly captain, was impressively gracious in his podium speech, lauding the Storm for their superiority the past two seasons.

But his departure still irks, with one player declaring: "That will teach him to leave a great team and a good city."

Rugby league may be searching for an identity in Melbourne, but the Storm players are content with their underdogs status in the southern capital.

"Up the Fibros," a jubilant Slater said more than once.