NRL Indigenous Round this week, a celebration of culture.
Last year I had a look at the previous Melbourne Storm jersey designs here:
2024
Designed by Letitia Smith this year’s Indigenous Round jersey is titled Kerrbooonool meaning connection:
The ‘Connection’ jersey includes the hand and footprint of all five of Melbourne Storm’s Indigenous players, Smith, Ammaron (AJ) Gudgeon, Stanley Huen, Matthew Hill and Gabriel Satrick, with each player's markings embedded within the jersey.
Each handprint is signed by the respective player, symbolising and respecting tradition while also showing the significance of belonging and unity and highlights their tribal clans and connection to country.
The Yarra River features prominently in the design, with a gathering circle located in the middle of the jersey symbolising the players, staff and stakeholders that come to meet at their collective home, AAMI Park.
As well as this week against Manly, the design will be worn against the Raiders in round 17. Melbourne won both matches in the 2023 design, extending their winning record to 12 wins from 13 matches while wearing Indigenous designed jerseys.
The jersey is currently available from the Storm shop or at Footy Plus More.
The Manly–Melbourne rivalry
Forged in the 2007 and 2008 Grand Finals, and festered at multiple matches at #FortressShithole and The Graveyard, the rivalry between Manly and Melbourne still endures. It’s the basis of two Wikipedia articles and numerous attempts to bring forth another Battle of Brookvale headline.1
Every Storm fan has memories of matches played between these two sides, and if you’ve been unfortunate enough to go to #FortressShithole for one of these matches, you know the level of vitriol and hatred spewed forth from the locals.
In rugby league utopia, Manly would have been forced to move out of their slum-like, asbestos-riddled ground decades ago. Instead The Bad Place maintains their archaic notions of tribalism and 1980s nostalgia in keeping the suburban dung heaps that other professional sporting organisations would have abandoned long ago.
When looking around the interwebs recently, this quote made me laugh:
Brookvale Oval is an accomplished stadium that offers a good range of facilities and amenities for spectators to enjoy.
Yeah. Nah.
In any event, Melbourne’s almost annual trip to Manly is worth watching, although I don’t recommend finding yourself re-watching the 2008 NRL Grand Final for no good reason,2 especially the second half.3
A follow up
With impeccable timing after getting my ranty pants on last week, the Storm’s annual membership survey is currently open. There’s some interesting questions being asked, with chances to add comments as you go through the survey.
Stat attack
Melbourne have played three previous matches on 24 May — the first a 14–all draw with the Illawarra Steelers at Olympic Park in 1998, followed by wins at Parramatta (12–10 in 2003) and against Souths at Gosford (15–10 in 2008).
The Storm have played 22 matches (21 against Manly, 1 against the Northern Eagles) at Brookvale Oval, winning just 10 times. Melbourne did win five straight matches between 2016 and 2020, but have lost their last two visits.
Exactly 40 points is the most either team have scored in matches between these sides, with Melbourne hitting the mark five times.
13 players have played for both Manly and Melbourne, with Cooper Johns the last addition to that list.
Tui Kamikamica will make his 100th appearance for Melbourne. The Big Fijian has scored ten tries for the club since making his NRL debut against Penrith in 2017.
Team line-up
Sualauvi Fa’alogo
Will Warbrick
Reimis Smith
Nick Meaney
Xavier Coates
Tyran Wishart
Jahrome Hughes
Tui Kamikamica (100th match)
Harry Grant ©
Christian Welch
Shawn Blore
Eliesa Katoa
Josh King
Trent Loiero
Grant Anderson
Nelson Asofa-Solomona
Alec MacDonald
Bronson Garlick
Jack Howarth
Joe Chan
Dean Ieremia
Tristan Powell
Referee: Ashley Klein (Bunker: Grant Atkins)
Preview
Manly Warringah Sea Eagles vs Melbourne Storm
— 4 Pines Park, 8:00pm Friday 24 May 2024
Big news on Tuesday:
It was amusing seeing Rome in his budgies in the AAMI Park tunnel via Paps’ Instagram stories before the team list announcement. Hopefully he does train well this week and actually takes the field on Friday night.
As for the rest of the Melbourne squad it’s almost steady as she goes, even with Cameron Munster being out for anything up to three months. I’m somewhat surprised that surgery has been avoided again — hopefully this doesn’t turn into a Slater-like situation where Munster misses extended periods trying to keep out of the operating room.
Jumping into the forward pack, Tui Kamikamica is back in the eight jersey for his 100th NRL match, the big Fijian becoming the 43rd player to reach that milestone for the club. It’s been an interesting journey for Tui since coming to Australia in 2015 and joining the Storm via the Sunshine Coast Falcons in 2016. His return has seen something of a shuffle to Melbourne’s forward rotation. Kamikamika, Christian Welch and Josh King have all been named to start, with Trent Loiero on the bench. It’s an interesting wrinkle to the rotation. It means Kamikamica and Welch exit before half time for NAS and MacDonald, with King subbed after half time. If there’s any HIA it gives flexibility to deploy Loeiro or MacDonald early and leave them on for an extended stint. As always though, it wouldn’t surprise me if there’s another shuffle in the works before the final team is announced. The Grant Anderson Experience is on the bench this week too, lurking, watching, waiting to be unleashed.4
Editor’s note: If Jahrome Hughes doesn’t play and instead Grant Anderson is named to play in the halves beside Tyran Wishart instead of Nick Meaney5 there will be harsh words.
For Manly, Jason Saab is back on the wing, which makes the Manly back five better even in the ongoing absence of Tom Trbojevic. Luke Brooks and Daly Cherry-Evans have been combining well this season, which could be dangerous for Melbourne, with Cherry-Evans often pulling out his best efforts against the Storm. Manly are still missing their first choice hooker Lachlan Croker, so Karl Lawton will keep deputising there. The former inmate of Rikers Island suffered an injury at Magic Round, so that’s nice. Spotting Aaron Woods on the reserves bench is curious for the former Dally M Prop of the Year — wasn’t he heavily featured in the lead up to the Las Vegas Folly?
Under 2020 Brisbane Broncos wooden spoon winning coach Anthony Seibold, Manly are currently middle of the pack, having lost their last three matches. Those losses coming after a stretch that saw the Sea Eagles beat the Panthers at #FortressShithole and draw against the Wahs across the ditch. So which Manly side will Melbourne face? The mediocre one that lost to Parramatta in round 3, or the one that beat Parramatta in round 8?
The middle forwards did a good job on the Eels middles last week, but it was the edges where Melbourne dominated. If Melbourne are to score enough points (Manly are averaging just a tick under 25 points per game), then discipline in tackles is a must to avoid any unnecessary input from #Kleined. Craig Bellamy had some pointed comments about Melbourne’s kicking game against the Eels, so with another week behind him, I expect Tyran Wishart will be looking to up his game with the boot. Hopefully those without kicking licences weren’t listening to the coach though and think that the message applied to them.
While it would be amazing to put a score up against Manly, I suspect this one will be close and decided in the last quarter of the 80 minutes. Going into the club’s second bye of the season, it would be a good two competition points to bank no matter the margin, especially when there’s a battle between the teams either side of Melbourne on the ladder happening on Saturday night.
What else is going on?
The Storm Jersey Flegg Cup squad cross the ditch for a match against the Warriors (Sunday 1:30pm AEST) before the Wahs NRL match against the Red Fish. A win against the 12th placed Warriors could see Melbourne jump into the top eight.
The fourth placed North Sydney Bears also face off against the Warriors in the NSW Cup, but at North Sydney Oval (Sunday 1pm). After four straight wins earlier in the season, the Bears have gone D-L-W in recent weeks.
In Queensland, the Tigers have a bye this weekend, while the Falcons face off against the Tweed variety of Seagulls (Saturday 6pm). After losing to the Wynnum Manly variety last week, the Sunshine Coast need to bounce back to keep touch with the top four in the Queensland Cup.
After knocking off the Vixens last weekend, the Lightning have a Super Netball derby to look forward to against the Firebirds at home (Saturday 5pm).
A final note, Melbourne confirmed that they will be entering a team in the NSWRL Lisa Fialo Cup (Under 17s) from next season. This is a crucial first step in establishing the pathways towards a future Storm NRLW team.
It still amuses me that the cover of Big League that week had the two players who would be sent off for fighting.
I’m not doing a recall of that game any time soon, despite randomly watching it recently. If you want to watch an old Melbourne versus Manly game, here’s one I do recommend which was one of the best nights at AAMI Park, made even better by the absolute blow-up by Phillip Ronald Gould at the video referee awarding the second try of the night to Billy Slater.
There is a certain morose delectation when remembering that day. The second half of the match might be a tough watch, but Melbourne were reigning premiers and won again the next season, so in the grand scheme of things 40–0 is just a footnote in Melbourne’s history rather than some defining moment. Plus there’s images of Israel Folau in tears after the match when the realisation hits that he has a lifetime of poor choices ahead of him, starting with going to the Broncos. Oh and the after party was a very good time (please bring that back next time we make a Grand Final).
Unless Bellyache forgets he’s sitting there on the bench again… it’s already happened twice.
Or better yet Keagan Russell-Smith. Do I love seeing untested rookies thrown into the deep end? Yes, what of it.