All week Cooper Cronk was the darling but former Melbourne Storm teammate James Maloney proved the anti-hero at AAMI Park on Sunday.
As heavy rain and constant errors killed most attacks, the Cronulla Sharks five-eighth pulled a surprise early drop goal 10 minutes from time to give the premiers their first win at AAMI Park in seven attempts.
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Cronulla win grand final rematch
The Sharks have edged past the Storm in a low scoring affair in wet Melbourne conditions.
A late James Segeyaro try and another Maloney penalty goal made the final score 11-2 to the Sharks, who beat the Storm in last year's grand final.
Cronk announced he would leave Melbourne at the end of the season to start a new life in Sydney.
With the eyes of the NRL on this game, Cronk looked set to be the hero but Maloney read the play as well as his former teammate, taking his chance on a drop goal after the two sides were locked on 2-2.
While handling conditions were abysmal, the Storm's repeated ball drops have been a constant problem this campaign and after five straight wins they were finally punished, with 16 errors while the Sharks had 12.
The Storm's erroneous ways continued in the first half and this time they were aided by constant rain, coughing up nine errors in the opening 40 minutes.
But the Sharks could do little better with their own handling, making six errors and crucially conceding a penalty for a high tackle from Maloney on Billy Slater 10 metres from the Sharks' try line on 18 minutes.
This let Cameron Smith take the penalty kick and give his side a 2-0 lead, which they would hold until the break.
The Sharks could and should have been up by at least one try but a knock on stopped Jayden Brailey scoring under the posts and later in the half the Sharks had numbers out wide only for Jack Bird to throw a marginally forward pass to Gerard Beale, who scored but saw his try disallowed for the pass.
Paul Gallen and Wade Graham stirred the pot with Storm centre Will Chambers just before half-time after he objected to their tackle on him, while Maloney and Cronk also looked to be trading barbs as the sides went into the change rooms.
The Storm put major pressure on the Sharks to open the second half but couldn't produce any points despite repeat possessions inside the visitors' 20-metre line.
Valentine Holmes dropped a high ball 25 metres from goal, then the Storm forced the Sharks back over their defensive try line but the closest they came was Suliasi Vunivalu dropping a difficult high kick from Cronk inside the in-goal.
A clean catch would have resulted in a try and that miss allowed the Sharks to exit their own half and soon after Andrew Fifita would draw a holding penalty on Smith and Dale Finucane in front of goal, which allowed Maloney to take the penalty kick and tie scores 2-2 on 56 minutes.
Just after the hour the Storm forced a repeat set inside the Sharks' half but again suffered the fumbles as Ryley Jacks lost the ball.
The Sharks could feel hard done by on 67 minutes when Chambers looked to have collided with Graham off the ball while the visitors were attacking the try line, but after a video review Chambers was cleared of any foul play.
Graham would almost break open the game soon after with two pirouettes that beat out his tacklers, but he was pulled up short of the line.
With 10 minutes to play Maloney wriggled free of the Storm's line and made a drop goal from 20 metres out to make it 3-2 to the Sharks.
Slater mishandled a grubber kick in-goal with seven minutes to play and Segeyaro was first to touch the ball, giving his side the only try of the match and the win.
Jacks looked to have made a line break with four minutes to play but he was chased down, and soon after Felise Kaufusi lost the ball – ending the Storm's chances.
Maloney capped off the win with his second penalty goal in the final minute.
The Storm visit Manly Sea Eagles next Saturday while the Sharks visit Penrith Panthers next Sunday.
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