Melbourne Storm Miss NRL Finals After Defeat to Penrith Panthers

With Melbourne not playing finals and spending the last two weeks of the season on the road, Melbourne utility Tyran Wishart has played his final game at AAMI Park.

He's heading to the Perth Bears next season and says the emotions are swirling tonight.

"There's a few going on to be honest. Still just disappointed we didn't get that win. We fought hard that second half, that's a pro, but that first half was horrible and it's hard to win footy games when you give a team a headstart like that.

"It would've been good to finish on a better note, which is disappointing but can't change it now.

"This club's amazing. Yhey've done so much for me and definitely holds a special place in my heart."

The Penrith Panthers hold on to beat the Melbourne Storm 22-14 and end their faint mathematical hopes of making the NRL finals.

That means 2026 will mark the first time since 2010, when they were playing for no points due to salary cap infringements, that the Storm miss the playoffs.

It was a strange night for both sides with the weather and FOUR sin-bins, but pretty reflective of their seasons as a whole to be honest.

The Storm looked utterly out of sorts in attack as they have all year and the Panthers looked like their dominant selves for patches but couldn't keep it up the way they used to.

The Storm look scatter-brained out on the right, Harry Grant handling three times as they throw the ball every which way.

But they end up tackled on the 10m line near the right wing, which gives them the space to spin it all the way left. The Panthers number up, but Jack Howarth, not renowned for his hot-stepping, puts a move on Izack Tago and bumps off Dylan Edwards to crash over.

That's an embarrassing moment for Tago and keeps the Melburnians in the game.