Melbourne Storm 14–12 Canberra Raiders — Preliminary Final, 2016 NRL Finals Series
24 Sep 2016 · AAMI Park, Melbourne, VIC · Attendance: 28,161
Data last verified: 11 August 2026.
Preliminary Final, 2016 NRL finals series: Melbourne Storm 14–12 Canberra Raiders, at AAMI Park, Melbourne, VIC on 24 Sep 2016.
Sourcing caveat: Exact kick-off minute markers for Cronk's try and for Smith's two penalty goals could not be pinned down with certainty. No official player-of-the-match award was found for this fixture. Melbourne's 4th interchange spot (#17) could not be confirmed — Rugby League Project's own team-list page for this match shows that slot blank; a pre-match preview named Ben Hampton in an extended squad, but a separate source explicitly states Hampton was ruled out and replaced by Christian Welch (who is already correctly recorded at #16), so the identity of any 4th bench player used remains unresolved rather than assumed.
Scoring timeline
| 23′ | Canberra Raiders — try, Rapana |
| 58′ | Canberra Raiders — Jack Wighton — professional foul on Marika Koroibete, ~58' |
| 77′ | Canberra Raiders — try, Whitehead |
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: Cronk; Blair Goals: Smith (1/2 conversions); Smith — 2 penalty goals |
| Canberra Raiders | Tries: Rapana 23'; Whitehead 77' Goals: Sezer (2/2 conversions) Sin bin: Jack Wighton — professional foul on Marika Koroibete, ~58' |
Team sheets
| Melbourne Storm | Canberra Raiders | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cameron Munster | Fullback | Jack Wighton | 1 |
| 2 | Suliasi Vunivalu | Wing | Edrick Lee | 2 |
| 3 | Will Chambers | Centre | Jarrod Croker (c) | 3 |
| 4 | Cheyse Blair | Centre | Joey Leilua | 4 |
| 5 | Marika Koroibete | Wing | Jordan Rapana | 5 |
| 6 | Blake Green | Five-Eighth | Blake Austin | 6 |
| 7 | Cooper Cronk | Halfback | Aidan Sezer | 7 |
| 8 | Jesse Bromwich | Prop | Junior Paulo | 8 |
| 9 | Cameron Smith (c) | Hooker | Josh Hodgson | 9 |
| 10 | Jordan McLean | Prop | Shannon Boyd | 10 |
| 11 | Kevin Proctor | Second-Row | Josh Papalii | 11 |
| 12 | Tohu Harris | Second-Row | Elliott Whitehead | 12 |
| 13 | Dale Finucane | Lock | Iosia Soliola | 13 |
| Substitutes | ||||
| 14 | Kenny Bromwich | Kurt Baptiste | 14 | |
| 15 | Tim Glasby | Luke Bateman | 15 | |
| 16 | Christian Welch | Paul Vaughan | 16 | |
| UNCONFIRMED | UNCONFIRMED | Joseph Tapine | 17 | |
| Craig Bellamy | Coach | Ricky Stuart | ||
Match officials
| Referee | Matt Cecchin |
Match report
Melbourne Storm defeated Canberra Raiders 14-12 in the second Preliminary Final of the 2016 NRL Finals series, played 24 September 2016 at AAMI Park before 28,161 fans — the Storm's largest home crowd of the year. The match doubled as Cooper Cronk's 300th NRL career game, and his try helped set up an early Storm lead that Cameron Smith extended with a conversion and two penalty goals. Canberra, appearing in their first preliminary final since 1997, fought back through Jordan Rapana, who set a new personal-best for tries in a season. A pivotal moment came when Raiders fullback Jack Wighton was sin-binned for a professional foul on Marika Koroibete; Melbourne capitalised almost immediately through Cheyse Blair to push the margin out. Canberra, hampered by injuries to Jarrod Croker and Joseph Leilua, staged a grandstand finish when Elliot Whitehead — playing out of position on the wing — scored in the final minutes to close within two points, but the Raiders ran out of time. The narrow win sent Melbourne through to the 2016 NRL Grand Final against the Cronulla Sharks.