2008 NRL Grand Final
| 2008 NRL Grand Final | |||||||||||||
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| Date | 5 October 2008 | ||||||||||||
| Stadium | ANZ Stadium | ||||||||||||
| Location | Sydney, NSW, Australia | ||||||||||||
| Clive Churchill Medallist |
Brent Kite 
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| National anthem | Anthony Warlow | ||||||||||||
| Referees | Tony Archer | ||||||||||||
| Attendance | 80388 | ||||||||||||
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The 2008 NRL Grand Final was the conclusive and premiership-deciding game of the 2008 NRL season. It was played between the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles and the Melbourne Storm on Sunday, 5 October at ANZ Stadium in Sydney.
The 2008 Grand Final was the first Grand Final played in daylight since the introduction of the night Grand Final in 2001. The two teams had previously played in the 2007 NRL Grand Final, with Melbourne winning 34-8. Manly reversed this result in 2008, winning 40-0; the largest Grand Final winning margin in the history of the game, and the first Grand Final since 1978 where the losing team did not score a point.
Melbourne and Manly were also the teams which contested the 2007 NRL Grand Final, with Melbourne winning the game 34-8. During the 2008 regular season, the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles and the Melbourne Storm met twice: Round 5 and Round 22. The Round 5 result in Melbourne went the Storm's way with a 26–4 victory. The Round 22 game was a closer contest, with Melbourne winning again, 16–10 at Manly's Brookvale Oval. Manly went into the 2008 grand final not having beaten the Storm since Round 11, 2007.
During the regular season, the Melbourne Storm won 17 of their 24 games, winning their third consecutive minor premiership on points differential from Manly and Cronulla.
In the qualifying final, Melbourne played the New Zealand Warriors. Melbourne lost this game 18-15 after a Warriors try from Michael Witt two minutes from full-time; becoming the first minor premier side since the introduction of the McIntyre finals structure in 1999 to lose to the eighth-placed team.
The loss against New Zealand saw Melbourne matched up against the Brisbane Broncos in the semi-final; the team the Storm lost against in the 2006 grand final. They narrowly won the game 16-14 after scoring a try 45 seconds before full-time, after a Broncos' handling mistake.
Melbourne captain Cameron Smith was controversially suspended for a grapple tackle during the Broncos game; the two-week suspension causing him to miss the rest of the finals season. Despite this suspension, Melbourne defeated the Cronulla Sharks 28-0 in the preliminary final, and entered their third consecutive grand final.
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