Melbourne overcame the Warriors for a hard-fought win after falling behind early, to retain the Michael Moore Trophy, in a quality game of rugby league.
Melbourne – 30 (Meaney 47’, 56’, Olam 14’, Munster 34’, H Grant 75’ tries; Meaney 5/5 goals)
New Zealand – 22 (Watene-Zelezniak 10’, 44’, Ford 4’, Fonua-Blake 20’ tries; Johnson 3/4 goals)
Good crowd, great game – some enjoyable highlights.1
With a couple of changes to the team named a week before the game, Melbourne opted to start Tariq Sims for the first time this season, with Aaron Pene also playing his first match for the season from the bench.2
The Warriors would get off to a bright and confident start, trading a couple of sets before Melbourne made an error trying to diffuse a high kick. The quizzical look on Cameron Munster's face when trying to process why a penalty went against him belied what was actually going on inside his head as the cogs started to turn in his brain.3
The penalty and beneficial field position set up the Warriors with the first attacking chance of the match and the opening try was a thing of beauty from the visitors. A well-worked move that found the spot player (a retreating Jahrome Hughes) on Melbourne’s right edge. The Warriors just had too many numbers for Reimis Smith to cover, with Jackson Ford scoring despite late attention from Nick Meaney.
Melbourne should have had a chance to level almost immediately, with a Munster high kick finding Will Warbrick who tried to offload to Reimis Smith. Warbrick might have been able to crash over himself had he brought it down cleanly, but the offload to Smith went to ground for a knock on. Warbrick has been improving week on week as his game evolves, and his combination with Smith has been building solidly. The decision that will come when Ryan Papenhuyzen eventually returns to full back will be interesting to see given how Meaney, Warbrick and (forgotten man) George Jennings all play well on the right edge.
From that missed opportunity the Warriors hit their stride, denying Melbourne the ball (7/8 completed sets and 76% possession) as Shaun Johnson seemingly had the ball on a string. It lead to a fairly soft try being scored on the Melbourne left edge, with the Warriors finding the line on a similar play to that which Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad had tried a few plays earlier. It was a clinical finish from the watchmaker Dallin Watene-Zelezniak, exposing a pretty poor defensive read from Xavier Coates.
At 12–0 up, the Warriors were rolling easily over the Melbourne defensive line, but on just their third set in possession, Munster turned the tide with an exceptional 40–20 kick to put Melbourne on the attack. Justin Olam would score the Storm’s opening try on just the second tackle of the set, with Trent Loiero’s very nice final offload to Olam opening up the path to the line, especially with DWZ going on one of his semi-regular adventures in defence.
From there though, Melbourne gave up what might be one of the softest tries conceded at AAMI Park. Both Christian Welch and Tariq Sims will be disappointed and embarrased with their efforts in feebly grabbing at Addin Fonua-Blake. Indeed both players were immediately hooked4 and at 18-6 down, Nelson Asofa-Solomona was injected into the action to try and curb the Warriors forwards.
Nelson's impact was immediate with his offloads finally giving Melbourne a little bit of a roll on in the centre of the park. Melbourne's first penalty of the night also helping to arrest a significant possession differential.5 It started a little bit of a trend as the Warriors discipline waned as the half progressed, but Melbourne's attack still looked a little clunky with Harry Grant appearing hesitant at dummy half. Grant though was able to lift Melbourne's intensity, despite a couple of dodgy last tackle kick options.
With a little bit more possession, Melbourne was able to mount a little bit of pressure on the Warriors line, with Jahrome Hughes able to force a line drop-out with a nice high kick out to Warbrick's wing. The penalty that resulted from Johnson's poorly taken drop-out giving Melbourne prime field position, with Grant making the right choice from a NAS fast play-the-ball in giving the ball to Munster to do his thing close to the line. His try was the 50th of his NRL career and Melbourne were well and truly back in the game just five minutes from half time.
From the restart Melbourne clicked into gear immediately, with NAS, Meaney, Grant and Hughes breaking open the Warriors in the middle of the field,6 with the movement only halted when Dylan Brown decided to head slam Eliesa Katoa. Brown was sent to the sin bin by referee Grant Atkins with 1:55 left in the half, and Katoa would fail his HIA, so the decision seemed appropriate, especially as the head slam tackle is rarely seen these days because of how dangerous it is.7
Melbourne would fail to capitalise on the extra player before half time, and surprisingly that trend continued after the resumption. The Warriors were grinding out a few sets, with sustained pressure turning into an errant pass from Meaney to Smith. The Warriors would spread the ball right in excellent attacking position, and somehow Nicoll-Klokstad found extra numbers for DWZ to score out wide.8
At 22–12 it appeared that Melbourne would have zero scoring chances with the extra player, but with 20 seconds left before Brown would return, a wonderful pass from Meaney found Coates out wide, with the winger able to grubber back inside for Meaney to score.
With only four points between the teams, Melbourne looked to be the team with more potential to win the game, despite being behind on the scoreboard. NAS was making damaging runs in the middle, and Melbourne's defence was looking much better as they were able to apply greater pressure to Johnson.
The second giggle of the game came when Melbourne was finally able to win a captain’s challenge, with Welch taking a risk to overturn the decision of a high tackle. It was clear live that he missed and thankfully the replays agreed.
With Melbourne finding space in the middle, the Warriors scramble defence was being stretched, especially when Nicoll-Klokstad was forced off for a HIA.9 Melbourne didn't really recognise the absence of the fullback until Hughes put up a high kick that Meaney was able to pounce on the loose ball to score. The Bunker determined that Smith hadn't touched the ball in the contest, which might have been inconclusive at best, as this angle shows:
Editor’s note: Oh hai me #TheBaiStand
With Melbourne now up 24–22 with 22 minutes to go, the game entered a sustained period of the grind with both teams trading sets, probing for an error. Melbourne looked to have cracked first when NAS went down with a leg injury, but the big man was able to get up and get back into the line. He was momentarily the Warriors spot player too, which is a bold move at the best of times, but spotting a fired up (albeit slightly hobbled) NAS is not good for one's anatomy or sanity.
With the Warriors down two players already, they would next lose Jazz Tevaga and then Curtis Sironen, to have no one left on the bench.10 Melbourne's cover defence was smothering the Warriors and it felt that Melbourne would be the next to score.
Eventually the try came through a signature bustling run from Grant, who beat three defenders to score next to the posts. DWZ tried everything to stop Grant, but the hooker was always going to get the ball down, taking the score to 30–22 for Melbourne's 14th straight win against the Warriors.
Was it worth it?
The club and AAMI Park does put on a good show with the ANZAC Day observance ceremony, and with an almost full crowd in the stadium, the atmosphere was certainly up there with some of the best nights at Olympic Park. The warm autumn weather during the day certainly helped, both in keeping the conditions dry and fast for the players, but it wasn’t oppressive or tropical enough to cause fatigue.
With the Warriors in good form, the match itself did live up to the billing with the first half especially electric. The second half when both teams were playing mistake-free rugby league was more for the purists, but watching two teams just probing and looking to force an error was still fantastic rugby league.
9/10
Storm Machine Player of the Year
Nick Meaney was the obvious choice for the Spirit of the ANZAC Medal, but it was the injection of the returning Nelson Asofa-Solomona that provided the spark for the Melbourne comeback and second half acceleration. Five offloads, 79 post contact metres, and 21 tackles was excellent numbers in just 58 minutes of work after starting on the bench. NAS was dangerous with the ball and hard-hitting in defence, and the news of his new contract after the game was certainly the cherry on top of a good night for the big Kiwi.
With one point each – in only just for their continued excellence and the little things that they just keep doing week-in, and week-out; Cameron Munster and Harry Grant were excellent yet again. Munster’s first half try got Melbourne back in the game, while Grant’s feint and strength to score the final try to ice the game was a thing of beauty.
With strong performances from players in a variety of roles on the night, I’m also awarding points to Justin Olam and Trent Loiero, with Olam’s game especially good after his mixed night against Manly.
Honourable mention to Aaron Pene in his first game of the season. He didn’t quite have the same impact as the missing Alec MacDonald, but he played the bench forward role well.
Round 8 points:
3 – Nick Meaney
3 – Nelson Asofa-Solomona
1 – Harry Grant
1 – Cameron Munster
1 – Justin Olam
1 – Trent Loiero
Leaderboard
13 – Harry Grant
12 – Cameron Munster
9 – Nick Meaney
5 – Christian Welch
4 – Josh King, Trent Loiero
3 – Nelson Asofa-Solomona
2 – Xavier Coates, Eliesa Katoa, Alec MacDonald Jonah Pezet, Will Warbrick
1 – Jahrome Hughes, Reimis Smith, Justin Olam
Next up
South Sydney Rabbitohs – Suncorp Stadium, Saturday 6 May, 7:45pm
A bye week? Bronco Nagurski didn't get any bye weeks and now he's dead.
Will have some bonus content during bye week, with a magical preview coming up next week.
Although with Ginnane and Ennis on commentary, your mileage may vary.
So ending a quirky bit of trivia – this would be Pene’s 11th NRL appearance for Melbourne, but his first playing for the Storm in Melbourne. His first game in Melbourne came for the Warriors in this fixture last year.
The first of a few giggles on watching the replay of this one.
Yeah okay, it was probably time for their first rotation, but I like to think they were hooked nonetheless.
Warriors having 70% of the ball was very much a different vibe than previous ANZAC Day matches.
Feel sorry for Tohu Harris who was left behind in this set, hobbling off with a reoccurrence of his knee injury.
Despite what Warriors fans might say. The match review offering Brown a 2-3 match suspension, although the Warriors are fighting the charge.
Conceding a shorty should result in extra laps at training.
From which he wouldn’t return.
Given CNK and Sironen were HIAs, I’m surprised they weren’t able to active their reserve player Viliami Vailea. Seemed an odd one, and something that could be easily fixed in the rules (e.g. a second HIA in the final 15 minutes automatically activates the 18th man).