For the second year in a row, the Penrith Panthers will take part in the NRL grand final after defeating the Melbourne Storm 10-6 on Saturday afternoon.
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The second preliminary final of the weekend shaped up to be the match of the season and it did not disappoint.
Penrith opened the scoring early in the match as Nathan Cleary kicked early from dummy-half to find an unmarked Stephen Crichton who comfortably placed the ball down as the former added the extras.
It was 6-0 as half-time came with the game in the balance until Brian To'o crossed early in the second half in the corner to put Penrith in front by 10 points.
However, the Storm hit back through Ryan Papenhuyzen who scored before converting his own try to make the score 10-6.
Penrith's defence hung on through the last 20 minutes constantly forcing errors to seal the win at setting up another match against South Sydney next weekend.
Following the match, Penrith co-captain and Dubbo junior Isaah Yeo told the media making the grand final again was always the goal for this season.
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"Obviously very excited," he said.
"It's what we have worked for the whole season.
"To put yourself in the position to be in another one, it's something I'm very proud of.
"We understand there is one more to go and that's been our goal.
"I think there is only a few teams realistically who could've made the grand final and we were one of those.
"We've put ourselves in a good spot."
Penrith's defence over the last two weeks especially has been out of this world and it showed again on Saturday.
"We won it probably off our defence again like last week," Yeo said.
"We forced them into some errors they probably haven't made all year.
"In attack, we wanted to move them around and for the most part I thought we did that."
Penrith will now face South Sydney in the grand final in what will be a rematch from their qualifying final just three weeks ago after the Bunnies defeated Manly 36-16 on Friday night.
The grand final will kick off at 7:30pm on Sunday.
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