Melbourne halfback Cooper Cronk denies the Storm have had a soft run to their fourth NRL grand final, claiming their lopsided scorelines are not a true reflection of their finals battles.
The Storm demolished Brisbane 40-10 in their preliminary final on Saturday, adding to their 40-12 flogging of reigning premiers Manly in the qualifying final two weeks ago.
The two massive wins come off the back of an easy run to the finals when they beat the Warriors 30-0 and wooden spooners Sydney Roosters 38-4 in the second-last round of the regular season.
While the Storm have chalked up 148-26 points in their last four games, grand final opponents Parramatta have fought tooth and nail for every win to reach their decider by taking down the NRL's top three (St George Illawarra, Bulldogs and Gold Coast) on their way to the decider.
"It's been a bit of a different way to previous years," Cronk said of their run home.
"We had some tough games last year and a bit of mixture a couple years before that. I don't think it matters what the scoreline is, at the end of the day in finals football you need to go out and execute the plans you train all week for.
"If that means it's a close game or a game that gets out of hand it doesn't matter.
"You go ask some of the front rowers and a couple of forwards about the defence and some of the contact going on out there in middle third of field last night and even the week before, it's a physical game."
Cronk added he was amazed at the athletic ability of Storm stars Greg Inglis and Billy Slater who scored five of their seven tries against the Broncos.
"My job is quite easy. I just give them a bit of room and let them do the rest," said Cronk.
"Blokes like that you just give them the ball.
"They get a lot of raps for scoring tries and stuff like that but it's the stuff they do off the ball that they don't get a lot of raps for.
"They take defenders away and run decoys for other players which obviously helps the team."
- AAP
NRL: No easy run, says Cronk
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