S26E04 Preview – Forget it... it's Tigertown

Hey all you cool cats and kittens.

Mar 22, 2023

When the Wests Tigers come to town one of two things usually happen – Melbourne win fairly well, or the Tigers strangle Storm into their long-standing brand of dire mediocrity.

So when you’re feeling down about your mediocre football team, just find an old game to cheer you up.

S04E18 – Melbourne Storm vs Wests Tigers

Celebrating NRL game 1001 Melbourne welcomed Wests Tigers to the then Colonial Stadium under the roof on a Thursday night. Melbourne were playing in the unusual (for that time) 8pm Thursday night slot as the AFL had fixtured games at the venue on Friday, Saturday and Sunday that weekend.2

An enormous Melbourne Storm banner celebrating game 100

Missing an injured Marcus Bai, Melbourne entered the match in eighth position on the ladder having found some form after the departure of Chris Anderson earlier in the season.

Fifita Moala would open the scoring very early on with a long-range try after a Tigers dropped ball.3 From the very next set, Melbourne burst a massive hole in the middle for Richard Swain to score a try in his 100th Storm game.

Matt Geyer would then score a quick double, scoring a try for the sixth game in a row. His second a 100 metre kick return as Melbourne raced the clock to lead 24–0 after 28 minutes.

That would be the end of the scoring for the first half though, although the Tigers came close through Trent Runciman, but he would drop the ball over the line just before the interval.

Melbourne’s forwards were dominant after the break – Rodney Howe would trundle over for a try,4 before Henry Perenara bamboozled the defence down the right channel taking the score to 34–0, as Matt Orford missed his only conversion attempt of the night.

The try of the night came next as Melbourne played a bit of soccer from another Tigers dropped ball, with Aaron Moule and Orford putting their boots to the ball to score a try in a sequence that started with four kicks from inside their own 30m line. Moule would pick up the ball inside just before the try line to make it 40–0.5

Next set, some razzle dazzle down the left wing from Geyer, Brad Watts and Tasesa Lavea put Orford over the line and the Tigers defence had been ripped to shreds. Melbourne then busted open in the middle with Ben Roarty finishing off a kick chase that caught Joel Caine6 out (with the help of a horrible bounce) to bring up the half century.7

Another Roarty line break saw Geyer run away for his hat trick try as it was all too easy for Melbourne. The crowd8 was at fever pitch when in the final minute Moule picked up another dropped ball to run 75 metres to score in the corner.

The 64–0 final score set a new record for the club’s greatest winning margin and marked the first time Melbourne had held a team to nil.9

Melbourne – 64 (Geyer 11’, 26’, 74’, Moule 62’, 80’, Moala 2’, Swain 4’, Howe 51’, Perenara 58’, Orford 66’, Roarty 68’ tries; Orford 10/11 goals)

Wests Tigers – 0

Stat pack

Melbourne have previously played twice on 24 March averaging 30 points in wins against Canberra in 2007, and Newcastle in 2014.
Tim Sheens coached teams have won seven from 21 games played against Melbourne, his teams winning just two of nine clashes in Victoria.
Wests Tigers haven’t visited Melbourne since 2019, with the match up only occurring once each season since the Tigers did the double over Melbourne early in 2018 in a pair of low-scoring games.
On a three match losing streak at AAMI Park, Melbourne have never lost four straight games in Victoria.
Craig Bellamy has a 11–7 winning record coaching against Tim Sheens, including two City-Country Origin matches.
Wests Tigers are currently on an eight match losing streak, having last won against the Brisbane Broncos in July 2022.

Team line-up

Nick Meaney
Will Warbick
Remis Smith
Justin Olam
Xavier Coates
Cameron Munster
~~Jahrome Hughes~~
Tui Kamikamica
Harry Grant
Trent Loiero
Elisa Katoa
Josh King
Tyran Wishart
Alec MacDonald
Tariq Sims
Bronson Garlick
Tom Eisenhuth
Grant Anderson
~~Aaron Pene~~
~~Sualauvi Fa’alongo~~
Jonah Pezet

Preview

As soon as I saw Paul Simpkins10 was on the NRL Judiciary panel, this was always going to be the result:

Jahrome Hughes UNSUCCESSFUL in seeking a downgrade for tackle on Titans playmaker Tanah Boyd - he will miss two matches. The Storm play Wests Tigers on Friday night, followed by South Sydney.

So that’s great.

Hang on… is that Cameron Munster’s music‽ Munster has been named, but I doubt we’ll know whether he will actually play this week until the final team is announced an hour before the game. If Hughes had got off, I suspect he wouldn’t have been considered, but now?

As for the game, the 15 minutes Melbourne looked good against Gold Coast is something to build on. Sure the ten minutes of madness either side of half time immediately followed that, but there were some signs nonetheless.

I was happy to see Tariq Sims in action last week, although it’s still a little odd actually cheering for a Sims.11 The current forward pack rotation does feel like it’s missing a certain je ne sais quoi, so Sims coming off the bench might just be the right ingredient.

Surely Melbourne’s attitude and effort won’t be missing again this week after having the Bellyache blowtorch on them for the last fortnight. With a tough run of games coming up, this does turn into one of those early season “must win” games if the team has any real aspirations of doing anything in the finals.

With Wests Tigers coming off one less day’s rest after also playing in the heat last weekend, hopefully Melbourne will remember to show up on time for the 6pm Friday night game. 2022 Storm loan player David Nofoaluma has been dropped by geriatric coach Tim Sheens – can only guess Nofa forgot to get the coach a bikkie with his afternoon tea.