Arabic version: بانثرز يقصي ستورم من سباق نهائيات دوري الرغبي الوطني

According to ABC News, the Penrith Panthers defeated the Melbourne Storm 22-14 at AAMI Park, ending Melbourne’s faint mathematical chance of reaching the NRL finals.

Penrith raced to a 22-0 lead through a first-half hat-trick from Brian To’o and a try to Liam Henry. The Panthers did not score again after the half-hour mark, but their early advantage proved enough.

The match featured four sin-bins. Penrith back rower Liam Martin was sent off temporarily for a professional foul before half-time, while Lindsay Smith was binned just after the break for repeated ruck infringements. Jack Cogger later joined them after a high hit on Tyran Wishart. Storm back rower Oryn Keeley was also sin-binned in the first half.

Melbourne scored through Wishart, Jack Howarth and Siulagi Tuimalatu-Brown as it tried to recover. However, wayward kicking from Nick Meaney and attacking errors prevented the Storm from closing the gap.

The result means Melbourne will miss the finals for the first time since 2010, when the club played for no points because of salary cap infringements. Before that, the Storm had not missed the finals since 2002, before Craig Bellamy became coach. Penrith returned to the top of the ladder, for the time being, after two losses.