Melbourne Storm beat Sydney Roosters to reach NRL grand final as Nelson Asofa-Solomona faces ban

Melbourne have surged into the NRL grand final with a 48-18 win over the Sydney Roosters, but they face a nervous wait on Nelson Asofa-Solomona’s availability after a high tackle.

In a dominant preliminary-final performance, Ryan Papenhuyzen and Jahrome Hughes blew the Roosters off AAMI Park on Friday night to book the Storm’s first appearance in a decider since 2020.

After they led 22-6 at the break, minor premiers Melbourne were forced to withstand a brief Roosters comeback early in the second half before winning well.

Hughes scored a hat-trick of tries and Papenhuyzen a double as the Storm ended the NRL careers of departing Roosters favourites Jared Waerea-Hargreaves and Luke Keary.

But it wasn’t all smooth sailing for the Storm, who will face the winner of Saturday night’s preliminary final between Penrith and Cronulla.

Giant prop Asofa-Solomona found himself in immediate hot water when he knocked Lindsay Collins out with a high shot when making the first tackle of the match. He was sin-binned and placed on report.

Collins went off for an HIA and did not return to the field.

Anything more than a grade-one charge would leave Asofa-Solomoa facing at least a three-match ban, and needing a win at the judiciary to play in the decider.

Melbourne utility Tyran Wishart was also placed on report in the second half for a crusher tackle, while Nick Meaney was benched early with a minor knee complaint.

If the Storm are anywhere near full strength, they appear hard to beat.

They won the middle against the Roosters, were fast in their ruck speed and found a great roll on in attack.

Papenhuyzen was superb in what was easily his best game in a number of injury-plagued seasons.

After the Roosters scored first through Daniel Tupou, he helped Melbourne draw level when he got between Keary and Angus Crichton to score.

The fullback had his hands all over the Storm’s next try when he got outside of the defence and turned a ball back inside for Meaney, before Hughes loomed up in support to score.

Another first-half try came when Papenhuyzen beat the Roosters defence for speed off a 20-metre tap, and put centre Jack Howarth over at the other end of the field.

And when Hughes took defender Angus Crichton over the line to score just before halftime, it was 22-6 at the break.

The Roosters briefly got the game back to 24-18 early in the second half, and missed a chance to go level when Joey Manu spilled a ball short of the line.

But again it was Hughes and Papenhuyzen who took the game away.

Any hope of a Roosters comeback was snuffed when a Hughes bomb was allowed to bounce, and the halfback stepped his way over on the next play.

Storm forward Alec MacDonald appeared to knock the ball on into an offside teammate after the kick.

But there was no doubt about Melbourne’s next, when skipper Harry Grant got out of dummy-half and turned a ball back inside for Papenhuyzen to score.

The result closes the door on one of the Roosters’ great chapters, with Waerea-Hargreaves to exit the club for Hull KR as the Tri-colours’ most-capped player.

Keary is also bound for England, while Joey Manu and Joseph Aukuso-Suaalii will leave for rugby union but could one day return.

Key moment

Nelson Asofa-Solomona ironed out Lindsay Collins off the opening kick-off return. While the Storm big man was sent to the sin-bin and put on report, Collins was ruled out of the match through concussion leaving a massive hole in the Roosters’ forwards stocks.

Stat

A sell-out crowd of 29,213 was the second-highest ever for an NRL game at AAMI Park, while coach Craig Bellamy booked his 10th grand final in 22 seasons in charge.

What’s next?

The Storm are into the grand final - their first since 2020 when they beat Penrith - and they await the winner of the Penrith-Cronulla preliminary final on Saturday night.