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Storm, Sharks one win from NRL Grand Final

North Queensland Cowboys and Canberra Raiders must come through elimination matches in order to stay in contention for the NRL title.

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Melbourne Storm and Cronulla Sharks moved into the NRL preliminary finals on Saturday, leaving North Queensland Cowboys and Canberra Raiders to face sudden-death showdowns next weekend.

The Storm gained revenge for last season's elimination at the hands of the Cowboys - tries from Suliasi Vunivalu and Jesse Bromwich, together with three penalty goals from Cameron Smith, enough to earn a 16-10 victory over the reigning champions.

Antonio Winterstein and Kyle Feldt went over for North Queensland, but Paul Green's men were never ahead in a tense contest and could have few complaints with the result.

Vunivalu's solo score provided the highlight at AAMI Park, the winger picking up a loose ball before surging through a gap inside his own half and out-pacing Johnathan Thurston to touch down.

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The Cowboys will now host Brisbane Broncos in a rematch of last year's title decider, while Melbourne can enjoy a week off ahead of a home preliminary final.

Canberra had won 10 matches in succession to end the regular season, but went down 16-14 to the Sharks courtesy of a late James Maloney penalty, after Elliott Whitehead had needlessly caught Ben Barba with a swinging arm.

Two tries in quick succession from England hooker Josh Hodgson, who was later forced off with a potentially serious ankle injury, and Jordan Rapana put Canberra 12-0 up inside the opening quarter.

However, Matt Prior responded for Cronulla before the interval and the scores were level when Maloney followed up his conversion of a Valentine Holmes try - set up by Luke Lewis' perfectly weighted grubber kick - with a 66th-minute penalty.

Whitehead's illegal hit on Barba then gave Maloney the chance to win the match for a Sharks side missing influential skipper Paul Gallen (back) and the playmaker made no mistake.

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The Raiders must now get past the winner of Sunday's match between Penrith Panthers and Canterbury Bulldogs.

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