49 missed tackles1 won’t win many games of rugby league.2
As Bellyache said in the post match
[it was] A lack of effort, we were really poor. It’s what we pride ourselves on down here, but at the start of the game they were a lot more enthusiastic than us … we were a mile off.
Effort and attitude. Such a difference from round one.
Melbourne – 12 (Asofa-Solomona 52’, Hughes 57’ tries; Meaney 2/2 goals)
Canterbury – 26 (Preston 8’, Kiraz 27’, 44’, Addo-Carr 33’, Averillo 49’ tries; Burton 3/5 goals)
Ah the visit of Canterbury to Melbourne, that’s not going to be a fun time is it? Especially with the hyped Bulldogs coming off a pretty inept loss to Manly.
Oh no.
Hate being prophetic, but I did write this in the preview:
I’m smelling an ambush from the Belmore boys.
and so it proved.
It felt like Melbourne were on the back foot all night with Matt Burton’s kicking game3 proving difficult to deal with for Melbourne’s makeshift back three.
But from the moment Melbourne failed to regain possession from a short Bulldogs goal line drop out in the eighth minute, the Bulldogs were able to easily get over the advantage line to end up scoring on Melbourne’s left edge (Loiero, Wishart, Tonumaipea and Anderson) through Jacob Preston.
The missed tackles through the middle spoke of the alarming lack of effort, and when they did make tackles there seemed plenty of post contact metres and bountiful offload opportunities.4
Young Tonumaipea.
The last tackle run to turn the ball over, the sin bin, the missed tackles, the poor defensive reads. It was definitely a rocks night for the Victorian, but he is still the best option in that position until Olam is back. It doesn’t help matters that the winger on his side doesn’t have any confidence in first grade. On further review, maybe he’s just not a left centre.5
Canterbury scored twice while Tonumaipea was in the bin to take a 16–0 lead and really it was already game over, even if the video referee rightfully denied the Bulldogs another try just on half time.
The Bulldogs first try after half time (the second for Kiraz) was a great example of decision making from dummy half (Mahoney) and terrible defensive reads and effort from Melbourne. To then concede again soon after in the same channel in a similar fashion was just terrible. At 26–0 Canterbury really clocked off in allowing Melbourne to finally score twice in the next ten minutes to bring the margin back to 26–12.
I’ll give Harry Grant a fair chunk of credit for responding to the 26–0 score and lifting his efforts with the ball, but without Munster, Melbourne’s usual attacking prowess looked spluttering to put it kindly. I think Tyran Wishart is a useful utility player, but he’s not a five-eighth in the way Melbourne’s style has been built for over 20 years. There were opportunities for Melbourne to exploit Canterbury’s right edge defence (Flanagan, Averillo and Kiraz), but there was just too much for Jahrome Hughes to do.
The final quarter of the game saw no further points scored as Canterbury’s defence stiffened back up after the second Melbourne try.6 Grant and Hughes tried hard to find line breaks where there were none, while Wishart kept running the ball forward without any real intensity. It all felt rather scrappy to be honest, with Katoa dropping a bomb that had Warbrick’s name on it Melbourne’s last real chance to get back into the match.7
The only doings in the last ten minutes was Kikau getting an early shower for his kick on Warbrick,8 Canterbury deserving a delay of game penalty for a terrible captain’s challenge, and Mahoney taking a dive9 to deny Katoa a fair try. C’est la vie.
Finally, this stat from League Unlimited is a good one; pity the likelihood of a 2012 repeat is extremely questionable.
Was it worth it?
No. ‘nuff said? But at least we scored.
It does feel like more of these kind of losses are in the immediate future for Melbourne, and that’s going to be okay, but that kind of effort at home just doesn’t cut it.
Injuries are an excuse for sure, I just wonder at what point does it become a little self-defeating and the “next man up” mantra ends up being meaningless drivel.
Interesting that veteran reporter Roy Ward game Melbourne the “young side” narrative. It doesn’t really pan out in the averages with the Storm older and only slightly less experienced than Canterbury were.
3/10
It’s fashion darling
Wearing the 1998 jersey design in the first home game – to bring back an old favourite of mine #StopTheMadness. I would suggest it was just a cynical merchandising opportunity, but Castore can’t even supply stock for sale in time. I would have saved the heritage jerseys for later in the season to tie into whichever week the MOB10 gets together, but the marketing department does need to justify their existence.
The design itself was okay. Not as good as the Nike original (nothing ever really will be), or even the 2008 Reebok replica worn during the NRL’s centenary heritage round.
I put together these collages on Friday night showing the different versions of this design. Having now seen the 2023 version in action, I can see that they got the colours wrong (the wrong shade of purple, coupled with using yellow instead of gold) and the collar is very deficient. Using the current logo iteration is also a fail. The numbers were slightly too small, but at least they tried to get it close to the originals.
Grade: C-
Storm Machine Player of the Year
When I wrote last week that I would be awarding ten votes for each game in any combination I wanted, I failed to mention that there is no minimum to how many points a match might be worth.
Was really pleased with Katoa’s second half work on the right edge. He was able to locate a fertile seem that lead to a number of line breaks. Meanwhile, Christian Welch deserves credit for his 62 minutes, 154 run metres and 33 tackles. I noticed his increased responsibility as captain behind the line in the huddles after the Bulldogs had scored – there was some harsh words spoken in there and as a leader he didn’t shirk it.
Round 2 points:
2 – Eliesa Katoa
2 – Christian Welch
1 – Jahrome Hughes
Leaderboard
3 – Nick Meaney, Harry Grant, Christian Welch
2 – Eliesa Katoa, Cameron Munster
1 – Jahrome Hughes, Josh King
Next up
Gold Coast Titans – Cbus Super Stadium, Saturday 15 March, 3:00pm
Again missing a bunch of first grade players and added to that list is Nelson Asofa-Solomona with a knee injury, the Titans Duds might even start favourite at home despite being done over by the Dragons.
It seems likely none of those on the injury report are returning next week. Sua Fa’alogo apparently had a good game for Sunshine Coast scoring a double, but it’s still hard to get a read on Jack Howarth and what the plan is for him.
As for the players who were supposed to play for the Tigers in Queensland Cup, it was just a bit moist before it was abandoned.
The 2pm AEST start might wake Melbourne up, but at this point who knows – full preview later in the week.
According to the NRL.com stats.
Melbourne missed 34 in the 2018 NRLGF, and 41 in 2022’s elimination final lost against Canberra – another nadir of missed tackles. 31 missed tackles in the first half alone is a big oof.
Even his spiral kick offs are a thing of beauty. One fielded in front of me was almost impossible to catch.
Surprisingly the stats say the Bulldogs only had 14 offloads to Melbourne’s 16, although it was 9-1 in Canterbury’s favour at half time.
This will require further thought. Update: having seen what YT posted today on his Insta stories, he’s definitely not a left centre.
I did enjoy that entire set with two Katoa line breaks and some good work from Garlick in there too.
It was probably Katoa’s only blot on his game
Send off warranted, but the ref shirked it using the sin bin.
High marks awarded from guest Italian judge Fabio Grosso.
Melbourne Old Boys, the past player’s group.