{"id":444164,"date":"2025-03-19T19:24:25","date_gmt":"2025-03-19T20:24:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=444164"},"modified":"2025-03-20T00:13:45","modified_gmt":"2025-03-20T00:13:45","slug":"storm-burning-for-revenge-in-epic-grand-final-rematch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=444164","title":{"rendered":"Storm 'burning' for revenge in epic grand final rematch"},"content":{"rendered":"

League great Brad Fittler<\/a> believes the Storm<\/a> will be "burning" to avoid repeating the narrative of last year's grand final as they prepare to meet their old foes at home.<\/p>\n

Melbourne came out on top against the Panthers<\/a> in the 2020 grand final but were unable to repeat that effort in 2024, falling short 14-6 on the big day.<\/p>\n

The victory marked the fourth consecutive premiership won and fifth straight grand final appearance by Ivan Cleary's men, and left a sombre feeling in the Storm's locker room.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Phil Gould 'shook hands' with Origin bolter before deal fell apart\ufeff<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Khawaja's stoush with Queensland cricket revealed<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\ufeffREAD MORE:<\/strong> McGuire reveals rival's $2.5m war chest in hunt for teen star<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

"\ufeffThere's not much I'm gonna say that is going to make this feel any better," coach Craig Bellamy told his team in the sheds after the defeat in October.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

"Without getting too technical or tactical, they stuck with what they are good at and they won't be budged. Sometimes we tried to do a couple of things that we are probably not so good at.<\/p>\n

"Let's just celebrate that we won one trophy, the minor premiership … but that is the big one tonight.<\/p>\n

Watch the 2025 NRL premiership live and free on Nine and<\/strong><\/em> 9Now<\/strong><\/em><\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

"We let an opportunity slip but I need to learn from it, you need to learn from it, we need to learn from it.<\/p>\n

"It's hard to get to a grand final but as we found out tonight it's harder to win one."<\/p>\n

The speech by the master coach was one that felt familiar to Fittler, who had experienced both a grand final victory and defeat during his 15-year career.<\/p>\n

\"Luke<\/p>\n

Fittler won his first premiership with Melbourne's foes the Panthers in 1991 before returning to lift the trophy once again in 2002 with the Sydney Roosters.<\/p>\n

But his success did not dismiss the pain that came with back-to-back premiership defeats in 2003 and 2004.<\/p>\n

\ufeff"I won two and lost four," he said on Wide World of Sports' Freddy and the Eighth.<\/em><\/p>\n

"\ufeffTo talk like (Bellamy) did straight after is hard. You're just empty, totally empty.<\/p>\n

"For hours you are just empty … it drives you."<\/p>\n

With a feeling of sadness pushed to the back of their minds, the Storm powered to a 56-18 victory over the Eels to kick off their 2025 season in style.<\/p>\n

\"NRL<\/p>\n

The victory was a warning to all their rivals in the competition as they continued Bellamy's 22-year streak of opening round wins.<\/p>\n

After having a bye in round two, Melbourne could also see the return of star prop Nelson Asofa-Solomona<\/a>\ufeff this week who was named in the reserves.<\/p>\n

The towering Kiwi enforcer was absent from the grand final due to suspension and ironically almost missed selection for the rematch battle after being placed on report for a hip drop in the Queensland Cup<\/a>. \ufeff<\/p>\n

"\ufeffI think the circumstances with their front-rower not being there, deep down that would've been burning them," Fittler said of Asofa-Solomona's absence.<\/p>\n

"It was quite ironic that he nearly got suspended from a Queensland Cup game that he wouldn't of been able to play in this game. I think [his absence] hurt them.<\/p>\n

"They took that loss personal. I saw Nick Meaney, who is usually quiet, made a comment saying that this game is very personal because of what happened last year.<\/p>\n

"(They are) still burning."\ufeff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

League great Brad Fittler believes the Storm will be "burning" to avoid repeating the narrative of last year's grand final as they prepare to meet […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":444166,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444164"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=444164"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444164\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":444170,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444164\/revisions\/444170"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/444166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=444164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=444164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=444164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}