In a week where debate raged as to who in fact owned the most talked about shoulder in rugby league, fans were entitled to think neither Cronk or Billy Slater had any right to be out there. 

It certainly seemed the case when Cronk ran out with his left arm dangling by his side, with skipper Boyd Cordner revealing in the aftermath that the 34-year-old had actually carried a broken scapula into the game.

And yet, like Pep, Cronk slipped and ducked every punch thrown at him, not that the Storm threw a lot. He was forced to make just two tackles in the first 40 minutes as he moved to the left and the right and then back again. To put it in perspective, Slater was forced to make more tackles at fullback.

He had zero runs for zero metres with two kicks and still, somehow, remained the most influential man on the park steering the ship one-handed. With all eyes scanning his every move, his teammates ran amok, running in three first half tries to effectively put the match to bed at halftime. 

Clive Churchill Medalist Luke Keary relished the chance to take control on the biggest stage and – having not produced as thorough a legal case at the judiciary as Slater ahead of the prelim final – Latrell Mitchell returned from suspension and continued a now constant habit of making Will Chambers his bunny.

Chambers was not alone among his teammates in having a rough night, with Melbourne producing as un-Storm like a performance as one could possibly imagine in the opening 40 minutes.

Josh Addo-Carr gave them the faintest of sniffs with his intercept try with 18 minutes to play but they never really looked in it from the get-go, leaving the Roosters to claim a 21-6 win dripping with irony.

With three prelim final defeats in four seasons, the Roosters were a team, and Trent Robinson was a coach, that just couldn't get over the finish line. That's why they moved heaven and earth to prise Cronk away from Melbourne.

He was the man who was finally supposed to get them over that elusive finish line. He got them there but, in the end, it was his teammates who ultimately carried him across it.