Forever is over. Dust off the trophy cabinet. Turn off the porch lights. Finally, Cronulla have done it.
After 49 years of misery, misfortune and missed opportunities, the Sharks have managed what no team to wear the sky blue before them had done.
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Cronulla Sharks break drought
Cronulla's long wait for a premiership has ended after 49 years with a 14-12 win over the Melbourne Storm.
They've ended rugby league's longest drought, taking the premiership trophy to unchartered waters after a 14-12 victory against the Melbourne Storm at ANZ Stadium on Sunday night.
This was for the true believers. It was for Gal. For the retiring Michael Ennis. It was for the 18,081 days they've been waiting.
This was for Nathan Blacklock and Anthony Mundine's somersaults in the 1999 preliminary final at the very same ground.
It was for the Steve Renouf hat-trick that denied them in Super League in 1997. It was for '73 and '78. This was for Steve Rogers. For Jack Gibson. For Jon Mannah.
It's for Andrew Ettingshausen, David Peachey, Tommy Bishop and Gavin Miller. This was for half a century of playing second fiddle. This was for the bubbler. For Northies.
It's for Harold Holt. It's for every porch light in the Sutherland Shire flickering bright through the night.
![Bulldozer: Andrew Fifita played a key role in the victory.](/web/20161005092012im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/r/t/d/m/x/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.grtcb2.png/1475432611912.jpg)
Skipper Paul Gallen had been waiting 16 years just for a chance to walk out on grand final day, but the man with the biggest impact on the decider had called Cronulla home less than any other Sharks players.
James Maloney – arguably the best buy in the club's half-century history – made it two wins from three grand final appearances with as many clubs, continuing his golden season to lead Cronulla to victory.
![Flyer: Ricky Leutele of the Sharks puts a fend on Cameron Smith.](/web/20161005092012im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/r/t/d/m/w/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.grtcb2.png/1475431161294.jpg)
Cronulla dominated from start to finish.
However the resilience of Craig Bellamy's Storm, combined with Cronulla's inability to land the killer blow, saw the Sharks surrender the lead only for Andrew Fifita to send most of the 83,625 fans into raptures with a barnstorming try late in the match.
The Sharks had plenty of hurdles to jump, overcoming a horror injury toll that saw Matt Prior and Jayson Bukuya undergo concussion tests, Sosaia Feki's night ending with a leg injury just after half-time and Jack Bird virtually playing the whole game with one arm after friendly fire from his skipper.
It was a victory set up after a relentless opening half of football, doing to Melbourne what they did to North Queensland just nine days earlier when they strangled the reigning premiers to oblivion.
Melbourne – the kings of grind – weren't given a chance to wrestle the ascendancy off Cronulla, whose up-tempo football troubled the 2012 champions.
Cameron Smith and Cooper Cronk were largely unsighted. Taken out of the contest by a Cronulla team fuelled by emotion and a desire to create history.
The unheralded Prior, a premiership winner with the Dragons, took it to the best prop in the game in Jesse Bromwich.
Together with Fifita, the Cronulla big men combined to steamroll the Storm on a famous night for the boys in the black, white and blue.
On a historic night, it was only fitting the Sharks nabbed the first try with somewhat of a blast from the past, with Gallen and Ben Barba perfectly executing a scrum play to give their side an 8-0 lead after 22 minutes.
Cronulla had all the ball in the opening 40 minutes and should have at least crossed twice such was their dominance, however the Melbourne defence withstood the onslaught to head into the break trailing by just eight points.
That dominance continued in the second half, but against the run of play the Storm struck back to stun the Sharks when Bromwich spun his way to the line to reduce the deficit to two with 29 minutes remaining.
The Storm somehow took the lead soon after through Will Chambers, leaving Cronulla 15 minutes to come back from a 12-8 deficit.
But then, after being in the headlines for all the wrong reasons for the past month, Fifita created history when he crashed his way over from close range to claim victory for his side.
It wasn't without an almighty fright, with Melbourne almost going 100 metres in the final set to snatch victory, only for Cronulla to hold strong and sing Up, Up Cronulla for the first time as premiership winners.
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