Isaah Yeo has declared Penrith’s four-peat will never be repeated again after they sealed their status as rugby league’s greatest team in almost 60 years with a 14-6 triumph over Melbourne.
In a drama-filled grand final that included a biting allegation and bunker controversy, Penrith pulled away late in front of a crowd of 80,156 people at Accor Stadium on Sunday night.
The win makes them only the third team in history to claim four straight premierships, and the first since the great St George side won 11 in a row from 1956 to 1966.
It came as the result threatened to be overshadowed by claims Melbourne star Cameron Munster had bitten Paul Alamoti’s arm late in the second half.
Munster denied the claim, but was put on report by referee Ashley Klein, who said he could not be certain what had happened.
Melbourne were also denied a crucial try by the bunker at 10-6 down in the 50th minute, when centre Jack Howarth crashed over.
Initial replays appeared to show he grounded the ball, but the NRL provided evidence to media afterwards that he was held up by Dylan Edwards and Izack Tago.
Still, the story from the night was Penrith’s fourth straight title.
Nathan Cleary was superb again despite appearing to struggle with his shoulder injury late on, while Brian To’o was powerful in yardage before suffering a knee injury.
Jarome Luai also had a fitting final ride in the Penrith No.6 jersey, playing a hand in the lead up to two tries in his last game before departing for Wests Tigers.
Melbourne desperately missed the suspended Nelson Asofa-Solomona in the middle, while their all-star spine lacked chances with Penrith’s territorial dominance.
But the real hero for Penrith was Clive Churchill Medalist Liam Martin.
After Howarth’s denied try, the 10-6 scoreline remained for another 10 minutes until Martin gave Penrith a crucial eight-point advantage.
Chasing through on a Cleary bomb, he leapt to challenge Xavier Coates for the ball, claimed possession, then gave the ball off for Moses Leota to put Alamoti over.
The Panthers then repelled five straight sets from the Storm on their own line, in what proved to be decisive plays on their way to another grand final win.
“I’ll be surprised (if it’s done again),” Yeo said.
“With the way the salary cap is, it’s just such a special group.
“We might not be the prettiest team when we played throughout the season, but I feel like our game holds up so well at the back end.
“We just back our defence so much. We had a real belief in our defence, and we’ve shown it over the past five years.”
Penrith players sported all four premiership rings after the game, after triumphs over South Sydney, Parramatta and Brisbane since 2021.
“I’m just looking at some of the boys with four rings on their hands like how did this happen,” coach Ivan Cleary said.
“It just sort of feels like it validates everything that we’ve done and we’ve tried to become tonight. I couldn’t be more proud.”
Luai was also crucial in the win.
After Melbourne scored first through Harry Grant out of dummy-half in the 23rd minute, it was virtually all Penrith from that point.
The Panthers hit back almost immediately through a superb play on their left edge, when Alamoti passed the ball back for Luai to send Sunia Turuva over.
And with Penrith behind 6-4 just before the break, Luai stood up again to be involved in the game’s most crucial play.
With a surging To’o run putting Penrith on the attack, Luai changed the point of attack on the last tackle when he flung the ball right to Cleary.
Nathan Cleary then hit Martin with a short ball, allowing the edge forward to hit a hole and give the Panthers their 10-6 advantage at the break.
Penrith avenged their 2020 grand-final defeat to Melbourne to become the first fully professional men’s team to win four straight titles in any Australian code this century.
“They were too good for us,” Melbourne coach Craig Bellamy said.
“”They know what they’re good at and they just stick to it. They are relentless at sticking at what they planned to do.
“We went off the beaten track tonight and paid the price for it.”
“To do what they’ve done … I don’t know whether we’re going to see that too often in our game.”
