The Storm star kicked a late penalty goal to seal the result and became the first player to register 2500 first grade points.

But as fans argued over the controversial final moments, a piece of comedic gold was lost in the game.

In the first half with the scores tied at 6-6, Melbourne received a penalty near their try line after an escort from a Dragons player blocked Suliasi Vunivalu.

Channel 9 commentator Paul ‘Fatty’ Vautin seized the opportunity with both hands as he stitched up fellow commentator Andrew ‘Joey’ Johns and left the entire box in stitches.

“Joey explain to us what an escort is,” Vautin said.

After several seconds of laughter from all in the booth, Johns finally managed to muster up a response.

“A technical problem here with my microphone, something’s wrong with my microphone,” he said as the laughs continued in the background.

Vautin was in the mood all night as he also delivered a savage blow to former Melbourne Storm star Billy Slater and his taste in music.

“Joey you’re coming back in the car with myself, JT (Johnathan Thurston) and Billy. On the way down, Billy produced two hours of country and western music off his phone,” he said.

“Mate, we had Hank someone, Charlie someone, Wilbur someone. It was death by a thousand cuts. It was torture.”

After the game the trio of Vautin, Thurston and Johns turned their attention onto host James Bracey and stitched him up over images of him from years ago.

Andrew Johns: What about how fat your head is

Paul Vautin: What happened to you, did you swallow a sheep?

James Bracey: I got very comfortable with my beautiful missus

Vautin: You’ve lost 40 kilos. You looked like you were eating for Australia.

COWBOYS RELEASE INJURED STAR

North Queensland have released PNG winger Nene Macdonald by “mutual agreement”.

The Cowboys said in a brief statement on Friday it was decided Macdonald needed time away from the game.

Macdonald, 25, departs the NRL club just months into his three-year deal following an incident on Magnetic Island in June.

A crash involving a hire car allegedly being driven by an injured Macdonald is being investigated by Queensland police.

Police said the car, which was hired in Macdonald’s name, veered off a road and hit a rock face in the early hours of June 20.

Macdonald left St George Illawarra to begin a three-year deal with the Cowboys in 2019 but only played a handful of games due to injury.

He hasn’t played since suffering a broken ankle in their clash against Melbourne in April.

“The release is by mutual agreement, with the club, Nene and his management deciding Nene needs some time away from the game,” a Cowboys statement said.

“The club will provide Nene with ongoing support and wishes him well in his future endeavours.”

— AAP