Melbourne Storm 26–10 Parramatta Eels — Preliminary Final, 2007 NRL Finals Series
23 Sep 2007 · Telstra Dome, Melbourne, VIC · Attendance: 33,427
Data last verified: 11 August 2026.
Preliminary Final, 2007 NRL finals series: Melbourne Storm 26–10 Parramatta Eels, at Telstra Dome, Melbourne, VIC on 23 Sep 2007.
Sourcing caveat: Rugby League Project's own extraction only surfaced Matt King's 2 tries; the full try list, minutes and kicking tallies were cross-checked against a contemporaneous minute-by-minute blog (4 Weeks in September), which matched RLP's stated goal tallies exactly. Melbourne's 2007 Grand Final berth (and the Grand Final result itself) was later stripped by the NRL for salary-cap breaches; this preliminary final result is recorded as it was played.
Scoring timeline
| 11′ | Parramatta Eels — try, Grothe |
| 28′ | Melbourne Storm — try, Turner |
| 31′ | Melbourne Storm — try, Cronk |
| 43′ | Parramatta Eels — try, Reddy |
| 54′ | Melbourne Storm — try, King |
| 80′ | Melbourne Storm — try, King |
Tries with a sourced minute, in order scored, with the conversion kicked/missed alongside each one where source data lets us match a kicker to that specific try. Tries whose exact minute isn't recorded in available sources appear in the Scorers table below but not here; goal tallies we can't attribute to one specific try are shown as descriptive text in Scorers rather than guessed into this timeline.
Scorers
| Melbourne Storm | Tries: Turner 28'; Cronk 31'; King 54'; King 80' Goals: Smith (3/4 conversions, 2/2 penalty goals) |
| Parramatta Eels | Tries: Grothe 11'; Reddy 43' Goals: Inu (1/2 conversions) |
Team sheets
| Melbourne Storm | Parramatta Eels | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Billy Slater | Fullback | Jarryd Hayne | 1 |
| 2 | Steve Turner | Wing | Krisnan Inu | 2 |
| 3 | Matt King | Centre | Daniel Wagon | 3 |
| 4 | Israel Folau | Centre | Timana Tahu | 4 |
| 5 | Anthony Quinn | Wing | Eric Grothe | 5 |
| 6 | Greg Inglis | Five-Eighth | Brett Finch | 6 |
| 7 | Cooper Cronk | Halfback | Tim Smith | 7 |
| 8 | Ben Cross | Prop | Nathan Cayless (c) | 8 |
| 9 | Cameron Smith (c) | Hooker | Mark Riddell | 9 |
| 10 | Brett White | Prop | Fuifui Moimoi | 10 |
| 11 | Clint Newton | Second Row | Nathan Hindmarsh | 11 |
| 12 | Ryan Hoffman | Second Row | Ian Hindmarsh | 12 |
| 13 | Dallas Johnson | Lock | Chad Robinson | UNCONFIRMED |
| Substitutes | ||||
| 14 | Jeremy Smith | Joel Reddy | 3 | |
| 15 | Matt Geyer | Feleti Mateo | 13 | |
| 16 | Michael Crocker | PJ Marsh | 14 | |
| 17 | Jeff Lima | Josh Cordoba | 15 | |
| Craig Bellamy | Coach | Michael Hagan | ||
Match officials
| Referee | Tony Archer |
Match report
Parramatta struck first through Eric Grothe but Melbourne responded before halftime through Steve Turner and Cooper Cronk to lead at the break. Joel Reddy's try levelled it midway through the second half, but two Cameron Smith penalty goals either side of a Matt King try swung the momentum decisively, and King's second try in the dying seconds sealed a win that sent Melbourne into their second consecutive Grand Final — a result later stripped from the record by the NRL over salary-cap breaches, though the on-field result stands as played.