Storm coach Craig Bellamy has hailed this year's premiership as more satisfying than the club's second title triumph of two years ago.
The two-time Dally M coach of the year says he savoured the 23-16 victory over Parramatta more than the 2007 win over Manly because, unlike that year when the pundits had been on board all-season long, this time there were plenty of critics who gave Melbourne little chance.
But having been unsure how his senior players would respond to last year's 40-0 drubbing from the Sea Eagles, or how the handful of youngsters injected into the side this year would handle the occasion, Bellamy was full of praise afterwards.
"To me it is (sweeter than 2007) yeah," Bellamy said.
"I know we were favourites tonight but with inexperience in our team there was always a chance that some of those guys may have been a little stage-struck or (had) stage fright."
"I saw a little bit of that early in the week with a couple of the younger blokes."
"This side is a wonderful side too but there was a lot of unknowns with some of those players that hadn't played big games before."
"And the other question mark was these guys (the senior players), how hungry were they to get back to the grand final, were they scared of going back and getting hurt again like we did last year?"
"(But) no they wanted to go back there and they came up with the big plays tonight."
Asked whether he believes the club's second premiership in three years, from four grand final appearances, means the term 'greatness' should be associated with the Storm of this era, Bellamy wasn't too concerned.
"I don't care actually," he added.
"I just know … even if we'd have got beaten tonight I couldn't have been more proud of what this club's done the last seven years since I've been here."
"Whether we won tonight or not I couldn't be more proud of them and to make these four grand finals is a huge effort."
"That's for other people (whether we're great) to judge and I don't care, I just know I'm really proud of this group and that will stick with me for a while."
Having praised his senior players like skipper Cam Smith, full-back and Clive Churchill medallist Billy Slater and lock Dallas Johnson earlier in the week for their contributions over four seasons, Bellamy again lauded his veterans.
"I think it's been a tremendous effort this year to do what we've done," Bellamy said.
"It's mainly down to our senior players to do what we've done (and) we've got some young blokes that have jumped on the back of that."
"They've done a great job for us and a couple of older blokes have come from other clubs that really grabbed their chance too."
"I didn't see a grand final appearance let alone a grand final win eight or 10 weeks ago, that was the furthest thing from my mind."
"To win this tonight, as far as the coach goes, this is probably the best feeling I've ever had as a coach."
"It's nice to prove people wrong, when they're saying things that are not so nice about you or not giving you a chance."