Melbourne Storm have claimed their third successive minor premiership with a runaway 42-4 win over South Sydney in greasy conditions at Olympic Park on Sunday night.
Needing to win by at least 26 points to overhaul Manly after the Sea Eagles had extended their points differential to +290 with a 34-18 win over Penrith, the Storm led 20-4 at the break and went on with the job to finish on +302 and snatch the JJ Giltinan Shield.
The result also means that next weekend the reigning premiers will host the Warriors at Olympic Park, the Sea Eagles will take on the Dragons at Brookvale Oval, the Sharks will play the Raiders at Toyota Stadium and the Roosters will battle the Broncos at the SFS.
Full-back Billy Slater had an eventful game, laying two huge try-saving tackles, spending 10 minutes in the bin, running for 207m and grabbing two superb tries, while Israel Folau and Jeff Lima also had strong games, Lima both in attack and defence.
There was a potential injury concern for the winners though with lock Dallas Johnson leaving the field in the final minutes with a knee injury after it buckled awkwardly under the leg of Luke Stuart.
Foundation player Matt Geyer made a dream start to his final regular-season game at Olympic Park with a try in the fourth minute when Greg Inglis' one-handed basketball pass put him into a gap for 6-0.
The game looked to be turned on its head five minutes later when Slater undid his great work in laying a try-saving tackle by being sin-binned by Steve Lyons for a professional foul but the hosts increased their lead to 10-0 through Anthony Quinn while Slater was off.
An absolute rout looked on the cards when Cam Smith scored a soft try out of dummy half, only to miss the conversion again, only for some brilliance with grubbers from Chris Sandow and Luke Capewell setting up Nathan Merritt to score a dazzling try.
Issac Luke missed a relatively easy conversion but the Rabbitohs kept up the pressure and looked certain to score until Slater somehow brought down Luke Stuart with a try beckoning and then John Sutton's kick early in the set was cleaned up.
That failure to score stung even further in the shadows of the break when the Storm capitalised on a penalty with Cooper Cronk's short ball sending Ryan Hoffman over and Smith converting for 20-4.
The opening dozen minutes after the resumption saw Melbourne dominate but Souths had its chances too, before Slater ignited his side with his two tries inside a few minutes as the visitors continued to chance their arms with chip kicks.
One from Chris Sandow was picked off by Slater who then raced 98m to score under the posts, and it became 32-4 soon after when an Israel Folau break finished with Slater picking up the loose ball and scooting 10m to score again.
The final minutes featured a couple more tries for the Storm as they made certain of top spot, Brett Anderson getting the first when he juggled a Cronk kick before Jeremy Smith slammed the ball down next to the posts, with Geyer converting.
Melbourne Storm 42
Tries: Slater 2, Geyer, Quinn, C Smith, Hoffman, Anderson, J Smith
Conversions: C Smith 4, Geyer
South Sydney Rabbitohs 4
Try: Merritt
Sportal's NRL Player of the Year:
3 - Billy Slater (Storm)
2 - Jeff Lima (Storm)
1 - Israel Folau (Storm)