page_title: Manly–Melbourne NRL rivalry
section_title: 2006–2009
hierarchical_section_title: Manly–Melbourne NRL rivalry / History / 2006–2009
caption_attribution_description: English: pic of melbourne storm warming up
context_page_description: The Manly–Melbourne NRL rivalry is between two National Rugby League clubs, the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles and the Melbourne Storm, who are engaged in a modern-day rivalry. They have met 30 times since 1998, with Melbourne leading the head-to-head 16–13; there has also been a drawn match between the two sides. Additionally, they have finished three regular seasons as the top two placed sides on the premiership ladder, although in the cases of 2007 and 2008, the Storm had those minor premierships stripped from them due to the discovery of salary cap breaches in April 2010.
context_section_description: Throughout 2007, Melbourne and Manly were in a two-way tussle for top spot on the ladder for much of the season. They met only once during the regular season, in Round 11, with Manly winning a close and physical match 13–12; the match also featured two serious injuries, whereby Billy Slater copped an accidental knee from team-mate Sam Tagataese and George Rose suffered a horrific leg injury.
  The two teams would later feature in the 2007 NRL Grand Final, in the first of two consecutive Grand Finals played between the two clubs. The Storm defeated the Sea Eagles 34–8 to win their second premiership, in a match which was notable for Storm enforcer Michael Crocker taking out Sea Eagles fullback Brett Stewart early in the second half with a hard, but legal tackle; however, on 22 April 2010, Melbourne would be stripped of this premiership due to the discovery of salary cap breaches throughout the courses of the 2006–10 seasons.
  There were three meetings between the two clubs in 2008. Melbourne won both of their regular season meetings, including in the Grand Final replay in Round 5, and also at Brookvale Oval later in the season, though it would be the Sea Eagles who would win the match that mattered the most, the 2008 NRL Grand Final; in a rematch of the previous year's premiership decider, the Sea Eagles would record a crushing 40–0 victory to win their seventh premiership title and in the process denying the Storm back-to-back premierships. Two of Manly's standout performers on the day were Winger Michael Robertson who equaled the Grand Final record by scoring 3 tries, and Clive Churchill Medal winner, Prop-forward Brent Kite. This loss was the 3rd worst defeat in the Storms short history, and it was the first time since 1978 in which the losing team did not score a point (coincidentally, Manly also won the 1978 GF replay defeating Cronulla Sutherland 16-0 after the original GF had been drawn 11-all). Manly's 40-0 win over the Storm also broke the record winning margin for a Grand Final, beating the 38-0 win by Eastern Suburbs over St George in 1975.
  The rivalry remained strong after 2008, despite there being no subsequent Grand Final meetings between the two clubs. The two teams traded victories at each other's home grounds in 2009, with the Storm winning at Brookvale Oval in Round 8 and the Sea Eagles winning in Melbourne for the first time in Round 24, before the Storm thrashed the Sea Eagles 40–12 in the qualifying final at Etihad Stadium en route to winning another premiership which would also be stripped from them due to salary cap breaches.
caption: The Storm warming up before a match against the Sea Eagles in 2008
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