Melbourne Storm skipper Harry Grant believed he should have been awarded his disallowed try after replays showed the slightest loose carry from the Maroons star.
Grant chased his own kick into the in-goal late in the first half, and appeared to ground the ball, which would have put them right back into the fight after being down 22-0 early.
But the slightest error when collecting the Steeden, bumping the ball into Brian To'o, which was picked up after replays were slowed down, left the Storm a four-try score away from catching up to the Panthers.
The Panthers were too classy in a 22-14 defeat, putting the Storm to the sword and officially ending their 2026 campaign.
The Storm failed to capitalise on multiple opportunities during the match, which included three Penrith players sent to the sin bin.
Although Grant was left confused by the 'no try' ruling against him, suggesting the product risks dilution if they slow every contact down to within a millisecond to micro-analyse the loose carries.
“I thought it was a try,” Grant said in the post-match press conference.
“That's the decision that they've made. I sort of had no question about it. If you play it in real motion, you go through every kick contest, and when there's two people competing for a ball, you'd probably find something every time.
“I don't know, I think they want an exciting game style, they want exciting tries, and we want tries off kicks, well you're going to have something like that every time if you look hard enough.”
The Storm had plenty to get up for in this clash. Not only were they fighting to keep their season alive, but was sending off forward Tui Kamikamica, who retired this week after suffering a stroke earlier in the year.
“He's been great for us. He's obviously a wonderful player but even more than that, he's a great clubman and just a great person,” Craig Bellamy said.
“What he's done for our club in the time he's been here, that would be very, very hard to repeat.
“Everyone loves him. That's not just me; it's everyone in the club. They all love him because he's such a genuine guy and a real decent guy.
“And then the other thing is, every time he laced his boots on and went out and played, he'd give it his all. He's been one of the best clubmen that I've ever seen, coaching and playing.
“I couldn't give him a bigger rap than that. I'm honoured to have been his coach.”
Despite the ruling against Grant, Bellamy conceded they were their own worst enemy and shouldn't have allowed Penrith to jump out to such a strong lead, with history suggesting teams have a slim chance of chasing the points down.
“If you get 22 points behind Penrith and what they've done over the past four or five years, they know how to win games,” Bellamy said.
“We were probably never really going to be coming back.
“I just thought our guys really put the effort in the second half that we needed in the first half or the first 20 minutes, and we just didn't get it.”
The Storm will finish their 2026 season with matches against the Broncos, then the Sharks, while the Panthers are in the fight for the minor premiership, with remaining games against the Bulldogs and Tigers.
