Minor Premiers Melbourne Storm have produced a dominant performance to down Penrith Panthers 38-16 in the Jersey Flegg Cup Grand Final at CommBank Stadium today to become the first team in history to win the competition from outside NSW.

With plenty of fans cheering the Storm on, they showed why they had been the best team all season after fighting back from an early 10-6 deficit. They found their feet in the second half to run away with the win and cap an extraordinary 2025 campaign.

“It’s unreal, I can’t believe it, I seriously can’t believe it,” Storm captain and Jersey Flegg Cup Player of the Year Preston Conn said.

“If you said at the start of the year during pre-season that we could win the comp I would have laughed and said, ‘We couldn’t do it.’

“We just found something this year and we’re just so tight down there.

“You know Melbourne, they’re a pinnacle club and to be now building up the pathways, I couldn’t be any more thankful, they’ve done an amazing job for us.”

Storm fullback Hugo Peel got the Storm on their way with a try underneath the posts. Hooker Gabriel Satrick made a quick dart before feeding the ball to winger Siulagi Tuimalatu-Brown who in turn picked up Peel to give him a clear run to the try line. Eli Morris converted from in front of the posts to give the Storm an early 6-0 lead.

The Panthers hit back with a desperate effort to get the ball out to winger Jirah Liddiard. A penalty in favour of the Panthers, followed by a set restart, set up an opportunity for them to answer back. Passing up and down the line before turning the ball back towards the right wing saw Liddiard dive over the line in the corner. He converted his own try to level the scores at 6-6.

Penrith then hit the lead a short time later after Liddiard crossed for his second try of the Grand Final. Penrith’s right-hand side had looked dangerous in attack and on the final play they shifted the ball quickly out to the wing where Liddiard found the try-line for a second time in three minutes. Liddiard missed the conversion but the Panthers had a 10-6 lead.

“We talked about connection all year, that was our go-to, it wasn’t any of the footy stuff, it was how close we are and what we’re meant to do for each other,” Conn said.

“I think that’s what got us through those dark times throughout the game and got us back into it so it’s unreal.”

After defending their own line, the Storm found their way back in the lead after Penrith fullback Jaxen Edgar fumbled a bomb paving the way for Storm centre Mitchell Jennings to swoop on the loose ball and retake the lead 12-10. They were never headed again after that.

The Storm extended their lead to 14-10 through a penalty goal and then gained some breathing space just before half-time after replacement Cooper Clarke charged through the front door of the Panthers defensive line to barge his way over the line. Morris converted to take a 20-10 lead into the break.

The Storm picked up where they left off when play resumed after being the first team to score points in the second half. A huge line-break from utility Jai Bowden, followed by a quick play-the-ball and a dummy from halfback Dylan Brettle scattered the Panthers’ defensive line with Peel taking advantage to grab his second try for the day. Converting right in front of the posts, Morris extended the lead to 26-10.

The Panthers were unable to capitalise on a handling error from Peel and Brettle turned defence into attack when he intercepted a pass and sprinted to the try-line. Another conversion from right in front for Morris saw the Storm move another step closer to holding up the Jersey Flegg Cup for the first time after moving to a 32-10 lead.

Both teams were reduced to 12 players after a scuffle in the middle of the field saw Storm replacement Jai Bowden and Panthers replacement Bayden Moran sin-binned. Penrith were first to take advantage after hooker Jensen Tuaoi ran a powerful line through the Storm defence to get over the try-line. Liddiard added the extras to reduce the deficit to 32-16 with 10 minutes remaining.

Any hopes of a comeback were dashed when a kick to the corner on the last tackle saw Storm centre Liam Williams score a try to seal the win 38-16 and spark celebrations amongst the players on the field.