2008 NRL Grand Final – Storm vs. Sea Eagles

It sucked, we got thrashed, the end. Okay okay… I’ll go into a bit more detail. Plane arrived in Syndey with no hassles and I met up with Hui at the airport. Rohan had driven up from Sydney and parked in a long term car park that was a couple of km’s away so we caught a cab to pick him up and then go to the hotel, which was pretty close to the airport itself. Once we were checked in we pretty dumped our bags in the room and headed to the train station to go to the game.

We got there without any hassles and had a bite to eat before heading into the ground. Rohan was excited because his team (the Canberra Raiders) were playing in the Toyota Cup Grand Final, which was being played before the main game. We got there in time to catch much of the second half. The game ended in a draw and it went to extra time and Rohan was on the edge of his seat. After an eternity of overtime the Raiders scored a try to break the deadlock and win the game.

The pre-match entertainment was pretty uneventful and the game finally got underway after a long day of anticipation. I wasn’t all that confident going into the game and even early in the game I knew it just wasn’t going to be the Storm’s day. When the Storm went into the halftime break 8-0 I was glad that Manly had missed both their shots at goal and we were still in the game, but I knew things would have to change drastically for the Storm to turn things around. The kicking game without Cameron Smith was a real weakness, we really let ourselves down with some of the finishes of sets of six.

The second half of the game is pretty much a blur, think I just totally tuned out after Manly scored the first try. Once the game was gone the Storm just seem to lose all hope and collapse, which was disappointing, but it doesn’t really matter if you lose by 2 pts or 40, you still lose a Grand Final. In some ways its better to lose in that manner than to lose in a really tight contest where your emotions get toyed with. Congratulations to Manly, they were the better side and the Storm just weren’t in form at the right time of year while Manly peaked when it mattered.

The disappointment of the game was washed away quickly as we got out of Homebush and headed into the city for dinner. Hui took us to a Chinese restaurant in Chinatown. The service was pretty bad, but it gave us more time to reminisce about our Vegas trip earlier this year and plan our next potential adventure to Macau. Recently retired Melbourne Lord Mayor John So was sitting at the table behind us and as we walked out he commiserated with me on the Storm’s loss.

I didn’t get much sleep as Rohan and I stayed up watching poker training videos, talking about strategy and concepts and just life in general. I got up early and caught my flight back to Melbourne. On the way home from the airport my car started making some strange noises, so I might have a problem there.

To make a dismal weekend worse when I got home the hotel I stayed at last night called. It turns out I’d stayed at the wrong place! I booked through Wotif and printed out my paperwork thinking I was staying at one hotel, turns out I had it completely wrong. The funny thing is the hotel checked me in no problems at all. The funny side ends there though because now the hotel I stayed out has charged me and I can’t get a refund for the other one it seems. It is a public holiday in Sydney today so everyone who I need to complain to isn’t available so I really can’t get anything sorted.