Footy season is really over now, the AFL grand final last weekend and the National Rugby League (NRL) one today.  The Melbourne Storm beat the Parramatta Eels by 23 to 16.  As a game it was nowhere near as good a contest as last Saturday’s game between Geelong and St Kilda.  The Storm established dominance over the Eels quite early, and except for about 15 minutes late in the game where Parramatta came back from 22-6 down to get to 22-16, kept that up till the end.

Congratulations to the Storm – it was their fourth grand final in a row, and their second win.  They really have been the premier team of the last few years.  Not unlike the glory days of the late 80’s and early 90’s when the mighty Canberra Raiders were on top of the competition winning 3 premierships in 6 years.  (wishes fervently that the Green Machine will get back to that status some time soon … they haven’t even looked like premiership material since about 2003.)

Given the core group of Storm’s best players are only in their early to mid 20’s, plus the fact that they also won the under-20’s championship today, you’d be brave to bet against them having more success over the next few years. (At least there is some hope for the Raiders, having won the under-20’s last year – the young players coming through to the NRL level should pay dividends in the near future.)