Storm GM Ponissi adamant Howarth no try didn’t cost Storm in Grand Final

The Melbourne Storm have finished runner’s up in the 2024 NRL Premiership, going down to the Penrith Panthers 14-6 in a game marred by controversy.

With the Panthers holding a slim four-point lead, Melbourne centre Jack Howarth barged over the line and had seemingly levelled the game before referee Ashley Klein ruled a no-try.

After a lengthy review from the bunker, the call remained and proceeded to divide the millions of viewers.

Although many high-quality angles of the play have surfaced, it is still unclear whether Howarth grounded the ball or not.

Reflecting on the monumental call, Melbourne Storm General Manager of Football Frank Ponissi was reluctant to put any blame on the referees for not awarding the try, thus putting his side right back in the game.

“I asked the player Jack Howarth, he said he got the ball over the line,” Ponissi said on SEN Afternoons.

“It was a big moment in the game at 10-6 down, we could’ve gone to 10-all then potentially 12-10 up, it could’ve been a key part of the game.

“At the end of the day, it wasn’t the reason we lost, even if we scored a try, it would’ve been a big moment but we didn’t.

“We still had opportunities after that try, whether it was a try or not, to get in front and we didn’t.

“That’s how you have to look at it."

Ponissi continued his summation by revealing that his team wouldn’t be escalating the issue any further, stating the Storm’s intention to figure out what went wrong throughout the entirety of the performance.

“We heard that after the game they showed journalists a high-quality resolution film that showed that the ball was under the arm rather than on the ground,” Ponissi added.

“We’re not going to waste our for a simple reason, I think we’re going to work on what Craig said to the players yesterday, ‘We want to look at exactly why we lost the game, why we didn’t play at our best’.

“We want to learn from it, we’ve got our team backing up next year, it’s very rare for us to go into a season with basically the exact same side.

“We’ve got a great opportunity next year, so we’ve got to spend most of our time in the preseason why it just didn’t happen yesterday and working on those areas rather than looking back and (asking) why it wasn’t a try.”