NRL grand final LIVE: All the latest updates and scores as Penrith take on Melbourne at Accor Stadium

Quincy Dodd starts the movement and backs up on the inside there to cross in the centre of the field on the back of a nice pass. Tayla Preston nails the conversion and the spice is back in this contest.

Cronulla’s skipper crosses on the end of some slick ball movement, with a cutout pass from pivot Georgia Hannaway making that set play work.

A very vocal Penitani is into her teammates in the huddle as Tayla Pretson’s conversion richochets in off the crossbar.

The Roosters make good metres with their first set of the second stanza, then the Sharks put next to no pressure on their kicker on the last tackle.

That’s exactly the sort of basic play their coach would have been drilling them about during the break. You don’t need great tactics or athleticism to put a team on the rack that way, you just need desperation.

The current biggest winning margin in an NRLW grand final came in the Broncos’ 30-6 victory over the Dragons in 2019.

At the rate they’re going, the Roosters are very capable of doubling that mark.

That was way, way too easy. Kelleher to Aiken to Sergis, who makes a clean break before dummying to an inside runner to give herself a clear run to the black dot.

Ruan Sims was concerned about the Chooks finding a lot of space in the ruck and she was right – the Sharks defence was in all sorts then, just really disappointing play.

Kelleher makes no mistake with this conversion.

First it was a crusher tackle on fullback Samantha Bremner, then a stupid penalty for interfering in the play the ball, great field position for Easts – and Brydie Parker gets a double with another simple, unmarked run to the corner.

Five-eighth Jocelyn Kelleher isn’t getting many easy conversion attempts and this one sails wide.

More worrying signs for Cronulla as Fressard finds room on the flank and scoots over the halfway to give them an attacking kick at the end of the set – and Cronulla spill the bomb.

From there it’s just a matter of shifting it quickly to the right so winger Brydie Parker can cross near the touchline, pretty much unmarked, thanks to another sweet ball from Aiken.

No luck with the conversion, though.

Cronulla will be filthy on themselves over that one. Great hands from skiper Isabelle Kelly to bat that out to her winger under intense pressure, but the defence just didn’t mark up.

Tough conversion attempt isn’t successful.

This hasn’t been the cleanest game of footy in terms of handling and that bobbled kick gives the Roosters another set on the Cronulla line.

The Dally M Medal winner powered through the Sharks there after a sustained period of pressure on the goal line. Johnathan Thurston hails halfback Tarryn Aiken’s vision there but Kernick still had a lot of work to do as she smashed her way through two defenders. Conversion successful…

Georgia Ravics made a clean break down the win there and only a brave effort from Roosters fullback Samantha Bremner kept her out there.

Strong first set from the Roosters to kick off the NRLW grand final, making it over the halfway with good, strong running – nothing fancy there.

The Sharks finished the year fourth and held minor premiers Brisbane scoreless to get into the grandy, but they’re paying almost $4 while the Roosters are just $1.25.

That doesn’t bother women’s footy great Ruan Sims, who is tipping Cronulla to get up against their far more fancied opponents.

Cronulla premiership-winning great Paul Gallen has aired a rumour that Melbourne hooker and skipper Harry Grant is hiding an injury that could be very damaging to the Storm’s chances.

The two sides are quite evenly matched across the park but one place where the Storm do appear to have a clear edge is at No.9, where Grant is a notch above Penrith’s Mitch Kenny.

‘My question there is the rumour about Harry Grant’s calf … it’s not great,’ Gallen told Channel Nine.

‘Now, is he going to be able to run all day like he’s playing? We all know at this time of year, everyone’s struggling with something, but how bad his calf is, it remains to be seen.’

Grant – pictured below with the injury strapped during a training run yesterday – picked up the calf complaint in the preliminary final win over the Roosters.

Here’s the Devils star scoring the second of his two meat pies.

State championship games used to be joked about by some footy fans who thought they were a contest to see which grand final winner partied slightly less than the other.

There’s no way either Norths or Newtown took to the field for this one with anything less than 100% commitment, judging by the standard of play.

Poor goalkicking was about the only problem with what the teams turned out today. If the Jets hadn’t missed three conversions, we get a completely different result.

It’s been nine years since a team of banana benders won the State title and that’s a thoroughly deserved win to Norths.

Great standard of footy throughout this clash, with two of the best try-saving tackles you’ll see from the Jets – but it just wasn’t enough as they ran out of petrol in the dying stages and made a crucial error right near the death.

Great line from Keeley there. ‘He just tears them apart,’ is the call from Phil Gould. The second-rower took that with heavy traffic looming in front of him but he was running a great angle to cut back inside off a nice ball from pivot Jack Wright.

Lipp has a little work to do on the conversion but he pushes it wide to the right.

The Jets have a little under four minutes to hit back.

Their long-serving president Barry Vining threw footy into mourning when he passed away due to a ‘heart attack from joy’ when the Bluebags won the NSW Cup last Sunday.

They’re on the cusp of making him proud once again – but they’re far from sure things with just a two-point buffer against potent opposition.

Niwhai Puru held Jacob Gagan up there with an incredible display of strength, determination and technique – and just when it looked like the Devils centre was going to twist out of it and plant the Steeden, Jets hooker Jayden Berrell comes in over the top and stops that, too. That’s his second outstanding try-saver of the match.

The Jets just had a few sets close to the Devils’ line, one coming courtesy of an obstruction call Phil Gould deemed ‘harsh’, but they force an error by knocking the ball loose as Newtown once again put pressure on them close to their in-goal.

Great work there, but on a hot day like today, doing that much tackling can take its toll. There’s about 10 minutes left…

Thought Keeley bombed that for a second – he had two blokes calling for it about five out from the line as he got stuck in heavy traffic, but the second rower beat three tackles to escape from the cover defence and put it down right under the black dot.

Lipp lands the simplest of conversions.

Worrying signs for the Queenslanders there. Winger Blake Paskins rushed in to shut down that shift to the left of their defence and didn’t get there in time, leaving Sam Stonestreet with an easy stroll to score.

Niwhai Puru misses another difficult conversion attempt from the sideline.

Battle for field position going on to start the second half. Pretty evenly balanced first 40 makes it very hard to predict the outcome here.

This just in from Nine’s coverage: How much food and drink the crowd at Accor is expected to get through today…

Oryn Keeley, take a bow. The second-rower was falling in a strong tackle when he was able to angle his body around and get the ball to Jordan Lipp just before he crashed to the ground.

Period of sustained pressure from the Devils there, starting with a forward pass from Jets hooker Jayden Berrell.

Lipp misses a very makeable conversion and that’s halftime.

Here we see Harry Grant (second from right) and Jahrome Hughes (right) with Shawn Blore (second from left) and Grant Anderson (left) going for a stroll at Olympic Park, looking like they don’t have a care in the world as they rock tees with ‘Yobbos’ written on the front.

Puru threw a lovely cut-out ball to make the space for winger Stonestreet, who had an untroubled run to the in-goal.

A very well-worked set play there that worked just like it was designed to.

Tough sideline conversion for Puru and he sends it wide across the face of goal.

Devils fullback Jordan Lipp burned away from three would-be tacklers there and looked to be off down the touchline before Jets hooker Jayden Berrell wrapped him up and took him into touch.

If he hadn’t done that, Lipp looked home and hosed with his pace. Outstanding stuff from the Newtown rake.

Braden Hamlin-Uele throws an immense flick pass for half Niwhai Puru to go over on the end of a crisp move from a scrum.

Hamlin-Uele was crashing to the ground there after losing his legs in a tackle when he got that one away. Bloke has a lot of NRL experience and it showed there.

Puru misses what should have been an easy conversion, however.

Bluebags fullback Liam Ison crashes over but is ruled held up by the ref – and the video check backs that up. Outstanding defence from the Queenslanders there and that was so, so close.

Newtown knocked on from that kickoff, tried the short dropout, and it failed. They come under intense pressure but Braden Hamlin-Uele does a great job of fielding the ball in his in-goal to get them out of trouble.

Sam Stonestreet breaks the line about 20m out from his in-goal, gives it to Liam Ison, who storms down the right wing and gives it to Chris Vea-ila before Stonestreet backs up and plants it over the stripe.

That was a stunning effort that covered 80m with an insane blend of speed and skill. Not a big crowd in at the moment but they would’ve been on their feet for that one.

They’re definitely on top so far, with 15 minutes gone. A nice little grubber from pivot Jack Wright put the Jets under all sorts of pressure, but they deal with it and work their way upfield.

The Jets then make a break down the Devils’ right wing and Simbiken pulls off a last-ditch tackle to keep them out.

Now there’s a captain’s challenge; the Jets are saying their man didn’t knock it on, but it’s unsuccessful.

Footy fan and Souths tragic Anthony Albanese reckons it’s Panthers by four in the decider. He’s also tipping Nathan Cleary to take the Clive Churchill Medal, and Penrith winger Brian To’o to score the first try.

Fullback Jordan Lipp cut through Newtown’s line with ease there and gave the ball – but his teammate couldn’t handle the slightly wayward pass with an open tryline beckoning.

Jeremiah Simbiken smashed his way through the defense from a scrum after the Devils were denied a try just moments earlier when the video ref ruled they’d been held up.

No Queensland side has won the state championship since 2015 – and if the Devils keep this up, that will change this afternoon.

Jets legend Barry Vining, the longtime club president who played a huge role in keeping the club alive, died while watching the Jets win the NSW Cup grand final.

A minute’s silence has just been observed for the footy great, whose family said he died of a ‘heart attack of joy’ moments after Newtown’s triumph.

The Newtown Jets are taking on Brisbane’s Norths Devils for the State Championship, with kickoff set for 1.20pm.

Newtown – billed as the oldest rugby league club in Australia – are appearing courtesy of their NSW Cup grand final win over North Sydney.

The Devils made it in by winning the Q Cup decider over the Redcliffe Dolphins.

While there are live sites for fans in Penrith, that’s not the case in Melbourne.

The ABC contacted the team, Federation Square – often the site of jam-packed live sites for events like the soccer World Cup – the Storm’s home ground, AAMI Park, and Melbourne City Council, and discovered fans who can’t make the trip to see the game in person have been left in the lurch.

Penrith’s Scott Sorensen (pictured) has been passed fit to play in the decider in what amounts to great news for the side.

The versatile forward had been sidelined for the last month with a hamstring injury but is now right to take to the field.

“He’ll be playing. It’s awesome. Sorro’s been a big part of our team the last three years,” Cleary said on Saturday.

“He’s a real soldier in our team.

“Everyone was pretty bummed when he got injured a few weeks ago (against Parramatta) and it looked like that was the end for him this year.”

While Cleary wouldn’t confirm which star will make way for Sorensen, it’s likely to be Matt Eisenhuth. He hasn’t featured in any of the Panthers’ grand final wins despite joining the club from Wests in 2021, the year they beat Souths to start their incredible run.

Penrith faced the same problem when they chose to stay in a hotel just metres from Accor Stadium in 2021. Some of their stars told team staff and as a result, they stayed in Parramatta to avoid a repeat – but the Storm might not have been aware of what they were going to encounter on Saturday night.

OK, advertising guru John Singleton won’t be on struggle street if Melbourne get the chocolates tonight – but even he is nervous about how much he’s punted on the outcome.

Channel Nine’s coverage of the decider kicked off today with league legend Brad Fittler revealing he has found the missing ball Johnathan Thurston (pictured below) used to kick the winning field goal in the 2015 decider.

The Steeden disappeared soon after JT slotted it through the post to give fans one of the most dramatic finishes to a grand final ever.

‘There was a bloke from the NRL, Nathan McGuirk, who thought, “You know what, I’d better find that ball because that’s going to be important in the future”,’ Fittler said.

‘So he went over behind the goalpost and the stage was still there from the entertainment that year.

‘He went ferretting underneath it and there’s the ball just sitting there.’

Here’s a handy guide so you can time your bathroom breaks/barbecuing duties/bottle shop runs and make sure you don’t miss one of the day’s big events…

• 1pm: Gates open to the public at Accor Stadium.
• 1:20pm: The NRL State Championship Grand Final begins: Newtown Jets vs Norths Devils.
• 3:55pm: The NRLW Telstra Women’s Premiership Grand Final: Sydney Roosters vs Cronulla Sharks.
• 6:30pm: The pre-game entertainment show, headlined by international star The Kid LAROI.
• 7:30pm: The main event commences: Melbourne Storm vs Penrith Panthers

• 9:30pm: Post-match celebrations, including trophy presentations and individual awards.

Thanks for joining us for Daily Mail Australia’s coverage of the 2024 NRL grand final as Penrith try to become the first team since the legendary St George side of the ’50s and ’60s to win four premierships in a row.

With two high-quality curtain-raisers and top-notch pre-game entertainment, it promises to be a massive day of footy highlighted by the two best teams in the world facing off in a clash that’s so close on paper, even

the bookies are having difficulty predicting a winner.