Triumphant Manly skipper Matt Orford says his omission from the Kangaroos World Cup squad has failed to dampen his spirits following his side's record victory in Sunday's NRL decider.
Orford proved he can handle the big occasion with a superb display against the Storm, but it was not enough to earn a spot in the national squad with Johnathan Thurston and Scott Prince the preferred No.7's.
"Obviously you always want to make an Australian team but it's not to be and it's just great to see that we got six guys included in that team, they thoroughly deserved it," Orford told Sportal.
"I've got a premiership ring and I'm a very content man at the moment."
"It's all out of my control mate, I played the best footy that I could and at the end of the day I'm in a bad position there where there's so many quality half-backs."
"That's football mate, I guess you can never give up hope but hey I'm in a great team and I'm just going to enjoy the week."
Orford and his men received a hero's welcome at Brookvale Oval on Wednesday as several thousand of the Manly faithful turned out to pay tribute to the premiers.
"It definitely sinks in now what we've actually done and something we've achieved as a group," he said.
"We had a bit of luck along the way but this was our year … we made a commitment very early that 2008 was going to be our year and nothing was going to stop us."
Star fullback Brett Stewart said the magnitude of Sunday's record 40-0 win was only just starting to hit home 72 hours after the event.
"It hadn't really sunk in and then this morning we went down (through Manly) on the double-decker bus and we had a fair reception there but this is even greater here (at Brookvale Oval)," Stewart said.
While his captain missed out on World Cup selection, Stewart was named alongside his brother Glenn in the Kangaroos 24-man squad named on Tuesday.
"It's unbelievable, that was beyond our wildest dreams playing for Australia together but I'm sure that'll soak in over the next couple of day as well," he said.