Nathan Cleary's telling reaction that shows truth about Melbourne no-try in NRL grand final

Anyone still convinced that Melbourne were wrongly denied a try in the NRL grand final need only look at Nathan Cleary's reaction to see the truth of what really happened. Due to Cleary's proximity to the tackle and the fact he was on the ground right where the ball was, the Panthers halfback had the best view of anyone to be able to judge whether Howarth grounded the ball or not.

And tellingly, Cleary went straight to teammate Dylan Edwards to congratulate him for stopping Howarth from scoring. Players will often celebrate a try or tackle to try and influence the referee's on-field call, but this didn't appear to be that.

Cleary was 100 per cent certain that Howarth hadn't scored and immediately went to Edwards to celebrate the tackle. But because of an optical illusion that has sent social media into a frenzy, Edwards has been robbed of the plaudits he should have received for the try-saving tackle.

If the narrative hadn't been flipped to the Storm being robbed (which has since been emphatically disproven), Edwards' tackle would have been one of the biggest moments of the decider. But because one camera angle seems to make Howarth's elbow look like the point of the ball, Edwards' heroics have been completely overlooked.

Melbourne Storm bosses concede it wasn't a try

The NRL immediately came out and provided new camera angles that proved the ball never made it to the ground, and the Storm's CEO and chairman both acknowledged it wasn't a try straight after the game. The NRL's head of football Graham Annesley said on Sunday night: "When I saw it live I was saying what everyone else was saying, I thought I saw the ball on the ground.

"It's only when we go back and look at it clearly that you can see the different colour between the arm and the ball. The ball is sitting on top of the arm, which then gets lifted up. [The Bunker officials) are looking at this over and over again before they announce their decision, while we (viewers) generally have one replay. We don't have time to clinically examine it like this but the bottom line is that the decision was correct."

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NRL should provide TV broadcasters with more camera angles

If nothing else, the situation has exposed the glaringly obvious need for the NRL to provide broadcasters with the same camera angles that the Bunker officials look at. The Bunker reportedly has access to up to 20 different angles, but the TV broadcasters only get a select few.

If TV viewers initially saw the same angle that Grant Atkins used to disallow the try, there would have been far less controversy. But we're now in a situation where Atkins has unfairly been painted as a villain.

Another telling detail is the Storm's General Manager of Football Frank Ponissi conceded they didn't play well enough to win the game regardless. “At the end of the day, it wasn’t the reason we lost, even if we scored a try, it would’ve been a big moment but we didn’t," he said on SEN radio. “We still had opportunities after that try, whether it was a try or not, to get in front and we didn’t. That’s how you have to look at it."