The
Melbourne Storm qualified for their sixth grand final in ten years after appearing in the 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2012 deciders, although their only recognised premiership was in 2012 after their 2007 and 2009 titles were withheld due to systemic
salary cap breaches. Only coach
Craig Bellamy and halfback
Cooper Cronk have been involved on each occasion. The
Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks had never won a grand final in the club's preceding 50 seasons, with their last grand final appearance in a unified competition being in
1978 when they lost to the
Manly Warringah Sea Eagles through a grand final replay. Cronulla-Sutherland had also appeared in the
1997 Super League grand final, losing to the
Brisbane Broncos. The last time Melbourne and Cronulla had faced each other in a finals series was in
2008 when Melbourne denied Cronulla with a decisive 28–0 win to claim a spot against the
Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles in the
grand final.
2016 season Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks The Sharks were coached by
Shane Flanagan for the 5th season and captained by
Paul Gallen. Heading into the season, expectations were high for Cronulla after their 2015 campaign and recruitment over the previous two seasons, which included
Michael Ennis,
James Maloney and
Ben Barba, while bringing up
Valentine Holmes from NSW Cup, all of whom were widely praised as the season progressed. Cronulla-Sutherland set the record for the longest winning streak in the club's history during the 2016 season, winning 15 games in a row from round 4 to round 20, whilst also breaking their previous best winning streak of 11 in a row. Despite a slow start, losing two of their first three games of the season, which included losing to defending premiers the
North Queensland Cowboys in round 1; a 14-6 win against the Storm at
Shark Park in round 4, has been considered as the turning point of their season as it marked the start of their record-breaking winning streak. Cronulla emerged as one of four teams, along with the Storm, Cowboys and Broncos, with the most game wins when the season took a week off, after winning six games in a row. By round 11, Cronulla were at the top of the table based on points differential, which was the first time for the club since round 2 in
2000. After the tie against the Titans, the momentum for the Sharks began to slow down, losing four of their last five games in the regular season. Cronulla had used the least amount of players out of all NRL teams during the 2016 season, with only 24 players taking to the field throughout the season, despite fielding one of the oldest teams with many veteran players, with the lack of injuries attributing to their powerful form throughout the season. As the Storms injury toll began to grow, as
Curtis Scott broke his leg during Round 2.
Young Tonumaipea injuring his knee and
Will Chambers breaking his foot, and sidelined for three months while in recovery, the Storm had used 11 different players in their back five positions in the first seven rounds, however they remained as one of the top four teams throughout their run of injuries. In a twist to their season, round 7 saw the debut of future
Fijian rugby union representative
Suliasi Vunivalu, bought in to replace the injured Tonumaipea, with Vunivalu later solidifying his place in the permanent team line-up and became the seasons top try scorer. From Vunivalu's debut game, until round 14, the Storm went on a seven-game winning streak. Injuries would strike again when Munster injured his ankle in their round 15 and missed the next three rounds, with the Storm winning two of the three games until his return.
Regular season match-ups Melbourne and
Cronulla met twice during the
regular NRL season; in round 4 and round 26. In round 4, the Cronulla side defeating Melbourne 14–6 to hand the Storm their first loss of the season; despite Sharks winger Holmes dropping the ball three times near the try line. Round 26 was the last round of the regular season before the finals and the game between the two teams would determine who would finish 1st on the
NRL ladder and claim the minor premiership, and took a completely different direction in comparison to their first meeting. Due to the Canberra's victory in Round 26, this meant Cronulla was seeded third heading into the finals series.
Finals series In their qualifying finals, Cronulla defeated the
Canberra Raiders 16–14 at a capacity
GIO Stadium in
Canberra. During the game, coach Flanagan made the decision to pull Chad Townsend off during the second-half after a poor performance, which raised a lot of doubts in the Sharks form leading into the Preliminary Final. In the preliminary finals, Cronulla defeated the Cowboys 32–20 at
Allianz Stadium in
Sydney to qualify for their first Grand Final since
1997 Super League, their first in a unified competition since
1978. == Teams ==