Bad blood between Cronulla and Melbourne spills over in grand final rematch
There is never any love lost between the two teams who contest a grand final and it didn't take long for Melbourne and Cronulla to remind us all of that yesterday.
In a dour contest played out in driving rain at AAMI Park, tensions bubbled over in the 16th minute when Sharks five-eighth James Maloney caught Storm fullback Billy Slater with a high shot.
Towering Melbourne backrower Nelson Asofa-Solomona reefed Maloney up off the ground before his teammate Dale Finucane raced in to push the Sharks No.6 in the face.
"What a shot by Maloney, it was high, and the crowd erupt," roared Channel Nine commentator Mathew Thompson.
"From where we are it looked a shot around the chest but they're at it now."
Both teams flooded in with Sharks prop Andrew Fifita quick to defend Maloney before the referee finally restored order and awarded a penalty to the Storm.
Storm hooker Cameron Smith slotted the penalty to give the home team an early 2-0 lead in the grand final rematch.
"It's like I said, when you play against each other in a grand final, you become rivals forever," Channel Nine commentator Phil Gould said.
"That's good stuff.
"There's no doubt it does bounce off the ball when he does collect him high. He (Maloney) has got a tendency to get up high.
"This is good, I like this."
The Sharks would end up levelling the scores at 2-all after Maloney landed a penalty goal in the 55th minute to set up a thrilling finish.
Maloney broke the deadlock with a field goal before Cronulla replacement hooker James Segeyaro put a kick in from dummy-half that Slater spilled in-goal while trying to clean it up.
Segeyaro quickly got a touch in before Slater to just claim the try and Maloney kicked the conversion and a penalty goal soon after to make it 11-2 and ensure it was the Sharks'
