Melbourne Storm 24–10 St George Illawarra — Preliminary Final, 2006 NRL Finals Series
23 Sep 2006 · Telstra Stadium, Sydney Olympic Park, NSW · Attendance: 40,901
Data last verified: 11 August 2026.
Preliminary Final, 2006 NRL finals series: Melbourne Storm 24–10 St George Illawarra, at Telstra Stadium, Sydney Olympic Park, NSW on 23 Sep 2006.
Sourcing caveat: Rugby League Project's own scoresheet extraction initially missed Matt Geyer's 1/1 conversion, undercounting Melbourne's total by 2 points; corrected via a second pass of the same source. Halftime score was not found in any source consulted.
Scorers
| Melbourne Storm | Tries: Inglis; Kaufusi; King; Turner Goals: Smith (3/3 conversions); Geyer (1/1 conversion) |
| St George Illawarra | Tries: Cooper; Morris Goals: Gorrell (1/1 conversion) |
Team sheets
| Melbourne Storm | St George Illawarra | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Billy Slater | Fullback | Clint Greenshields | 1 |
| 2 | Matt Geyer | Wing | Wes Naiqama | 2 |
| 3 | Matt King | Centre | Mark Gasnier | 3 |
| 4 | Greg Inglis | Centre | Matt Cooper | 4 |
| 5 | Steve Turner | Wing | Brett Morris | 5 |
| 6 | Scott Hill | Five-Eighth | Trent Barrett (c) | 6 |
| 7 | Cooper Cronk | Halfback | Ben Hornby | 7 |
| 8 | Antonio Kaufusi | Prop | Luke Bailey | 8 |
| 9 | Cameron Smith | Hooker | Aaron Gorrell | 9 |
| 10 | Brett White | Prop | Jason Ryles | 10 |
| 11 | David Kidwell (c) | Second Row | Matt Bickerstaff | 11 |
| 12 | Ryan Hoffman | Second Row | Ashton Sims | 12 |
| 13 | Dallas Johnson | Lock | Shaun Timmins | 13 |
| Substitutes | ||||
| 15 | Michael Crocker | Danny Wicks | 14 | |
| 16 | Ben Cross | Justin Poore | 15 | |
| 17 | Nathan Friend | Ben Creagh | 16 | |
| 20 | Adam Blair | Mathew Head | 17 | |
| Craig Bellamy | Coach | Nathan Brown | ||
Match officials
| Referee | Steve Clark |
Match report
Minor premiers Melbourne, rested and full-strength after their Week 1 bye into this final, proved too strong for a Dragons side playing their third final in as many weeks. Greg Inglis, Antonio Kaufusi, Matt King and Steve Turner all scored tries for the Storm, with the goal-kicking shared between Cameron Smith and Matt Geyer. St George Illawarra fought back through Matt Cooper and Brett Morris but could not close the gap, sending Melbourne through to their first Grand Final since 1999, to face Brisbane.