The biggest test of leadership in Harry Grant’s fledgling captaincy career is yet to come, as he looks to move on from the disappointment of this year’s grand final loss to the Panthers.
After congratulating the Panthers on their win on stage in the official presentation, the Melbourne skipper swore to see his team back in the decider next year, something he remained quietly confident about when he’d more time to reflect in the sheds.
“I think it's a great learning experience, but there's a lot of time between now and then,” Grant told NRL.com.
“It's probably a more a moment to reflect on the year and understand what we did, right, what we can fix up; but, you look at other teams in the past, Parramatta and the Broncos, it doesn't just happen, getting back to this game.
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“You have got to go and make it happen, you have got to work hard in the pre-season, you have got to be consistent through the season.
“We understand that, we know that as a team, as a club.
“You have to look at Penrith as well, you have to got to give them a lot of respect, they've had a number of players leave over the last couple of years too and they just keep turning up and keep putting themselves in this position.
“You have got to give them so much respect and credit and it's about us doing that for next season.
Harry Grant Try
“I think that's the really exciting thing for myself personally (to lead the side next year), it’s something that we can really look into or tap into is that our group’s together.
“And we're adding to our squad next season, we're adding obviously Stefano [Utoikamanu], but we're adding experience.
“We've all tasted this, we've been here; I guess that's the positive to look at, but like I said before, that doesn't just happen.
“You have got to earn it, you have got to make it happen through the preseason and the season next year.”
Although the Storm had beaten the Panthers twice this season, they were not able to deliver when it counted, with coach Craig Bellamy, Grant and other players acknowledging Penrith’s experience in grand finals.
Cameron Munster is one who has had his “fair share” of wins and losses in finals and thought this game would be the making of many of the younger members of the squad who were playing in their first finals series.
“We've got a great squad, but we have got to go again,” Munster said.
“We're not going to be given it, you have got to earn it again. This year, we deserved to be in the grand final but we needed to earn it tonight and we just didn't earn it.
“So, we have got to go back to pre-season and work on some things.
“Some of those boys were their first grand final and they'll be better for the run, but it does hurt at the moment.
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“It's a very sore taste in the mouth, but that's footy unfortunately.
“They have been very fortunate Penrith to win four in a row; but the saying goes, you got to lose one to win one, you know.
“I've been in my fair share of losing them and my fair share of winning them.
“We lost tonight but, we'll be back with the squad we have got, we got Stefano next year, got Big Nelson [Asofa-Solomona] back.
“Really excited for next year, but I'm going to enjoy the moments with some of the squad, the boys we've got here; some of them are leaving after this year.
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“We're not going to be able to obviously be the same group again, so we going to enjoy the next couple of weeks and hopefully go from there.”
One of those younger players who has developed rapidly this past season was Trent Loiero, who had a breakout season, reaching 75 games and selection the Queensland extended squad for Origin this year.
Loiero vowed to make sure he used the hurt of his first grand final experience to be better next year and said there was no better leader than Grant to lead them into the future.
“Nothing can really prepare you for what we're feeling now, but I feel like we had a really good week, really good prep and it's been a good year,” Loiero said.
“But I thought they were just probably better and stuck at their game tonight and it's a bit of a tough one to swallow.
“I think they say you got to lose one and win one and we'll feel this loss and I think it's going to drive us to be more hungry next year.
“They have played in five grand finals straight and it was the first grand final for a lot of us, so I guess that experience probably showed today.
“I think what Harry has done for our group this year's been second to none, how he connects the boys and the leadership he's shown.
“That was there (since the beginning), it's been there since he's been here at the Storm.
“I come as a young fella, but just to see the growth; he's growing in that role and he's going to be a captain of this club for a long time.”
