NRL Grand Final Roosters beat Storm, Cordner joins elite company

ROOSTERS co-captain Boyd Cordner became just the second man ever to skipper a Blues Origin series win and a premiership win in the same season.

The Roosters 21-6 victory over the Storm saw Cordner join Steve Mortimer as the only two Blues captains to achieve the double.

David Middleton confirmed that Mortimer was the only previous captain to achieve the feat with the Blues and the Bulldogs way back in 1985.

HIGHS
Keary wins Churchill Medal
Cooper Cronk said it best: ‘the game was set up for (Luke) Keary to have the game of his life and he delivered’.

Keary finished with over 450 kick metres, an offload, a linebreak assist, a try assist and the match sealing field goal.

Keary received a perfect 10 in the player ratings, which summed up his five star performance to lead the Roosters to the title.

Cronk’s heroics with busted shoulder
The build-up to the grand final was dominated by Cooper Cronk’s shoulder injury and the fact that he played with a broken scapula was nothing short of amazing.

Cronk may not have had the most brilliant performance, but he provided the perfect decoy to allow Luke Keary to work his magic and lead the side to victory.

Cronk’s toughness to take the field will go down in rugby league folklore and as Trent Robinson said post match, ‘Cronk has achieved legend status’.

Ferguson plays with broken leg
While Cooper Cronk’s heroics dominated the grand final it was revealed that the Roosters had a second contender for toughest on ground.

Blake Ferguson broke his fibula 10 minutes into the second half and somehow managed to battle on and finish the game.

The Dally M winger of the year has been one of the Roosters most consistent performers in 2018 and his grand final heroics provided a fitting exclamation point to his brilliant season.

The Foxx’s scintillating solo effort
The Storm may not have had much to cheer about, but winger Josh Addo-Carr provided a rare highlight with an 88 metre intercept try.

Keary, who threw the intercept, joked that he was even setting up tries for the opposition post match, but Addo-Carr still had plenty of work to do.

The try against the run of play gave the Storm a glimmer of hope and there are few better sights in rugby league than ‘The Foxx’ in full flight.

LOWS
Slater booed in farewell game
The retiring Storm champion didn’t get the fairytale finish to his illustrious career and to add to his disappointment he was booed mercilessly by the fans at ANZ Stadium.

Cameron Smith said post match that Slater deserved more respect given his contribution to the game over so many years and it is hard to argue with him.

Slater will go down as one of the greatest players to play rugby league and unfortunately the fans didn’t do his contribution justice in his final game.

Smith and Cronk feud
They may have denied a falling out, but it doesn’t take a genius to work out that Cooper Cronk and Cameron Smith just don’t get on like they used to.

Smith hit Cronk with a late tackle in the first half and the Roosters’ halfback grabbed the Storm skipper by the throat.

The pair refused to acknowledge each other in the aftermath of the match and the pair won’t be sending each other Christmas cards any time soon.

BIG BLOWS
Munster’s brain snap head kick
Cameron Munster came into the game with a real shot at the Clive Churchill Medal, but he had a horror night at the office.

Not only did Munster bomb a near certain try, but he became the only man in history to ever be sin-binned twice in an NRL grand final.

Munster will be sweating on a judiciary decision on his stray kick that collected a Roosters player’s head and led to his second 10 minute spell.

Chambers blows up at Mitchell
Will Chambers nearly incited an all-in brawl when he threw the ball in Latrell Mitchell’s face.

The Roosters’ centre had taken Chambers into touch and he retaliated by throwing the ball back before both teams converged on the two players.

No one was ever going to throw a punch and be sent off in a grand final, but it was a poor moment from both players, who should have shown more respect for each other on the game’s grandest stage.