Game 671 – S26E12 Review
Dolphins 16–24 Melbourne Storm
Melbourne defeating a new team coached by Wayne Bennett. Stop me if you’ve heard that before.
Dolphins – 16 (Isaako 12’, 65’, Nikorima 73’ tries; Isaako 2/3 goals)
Melbourne – 24 (Warbrick 6’, Munster 16’, Katoa 31’, Smith 35’ tries; Meaney 4/4 goals)
Saturday night of Indigenous Round at Suncorp Stadium, with the turf in terrible shape. The highlights of the first half are good, the second half… meh.1
Felise Kaufusi on tilt
When former Storm players take on Melbourne, it seems to go one of two ways. The former player aims up and plays well, or they have a quiet one and are a bit anonymous. There’s usually no ill will between the players and the fans. Felise Kaufusi wanted to try somthing new. From the kick off (apparently preceded by a Wayne Bennett rev up to the entire Dolphins squad), Kaufusi was on tilt. He wore the vacant expression of a man purely out to cause havoc. His first involvement was a fair shot on Eliesa Katoa, his second was a premeditated late and high shot on Storm captain Christian Welch. That Kaufusi was sent to the sin bin was obvious. That he has subsequently been given a mid-season holiday was obvious. It was just dumb footy and cost his team dearly. Kaufusi had been sent to the sin bin just once in his 173 appearances for Melbourne, he’s now been sent twice in seven appearances for the Fish.
Melbourne almost took immediate advantage of the extra number, with Justin Olam just stopped in the corner with Jamayne Isaako and Brenko Lee finding a way in defence.2 Melbourne should have scored again a few minutes later with Xavier Coates latching onto a Cameron Munster kick, but the young winger had the ball stolen from him by Isaako. This is a concern for Coates whose hands need some kind of strengthening as soon as possible. Far too often he’s not grabbing the ball cleanly after getting his hands to it.3
Warbrick opens the scoring
That it took Melbourne three opportunities to crack the Dolphins line against 12 men wasn’t a big concern, but it was nice to finally string together some fluid passing movement to score. Will Warbrick was the beneficiary of some slick passes and it was nice to see Christian Welch and Jahrome Hughes involved in passing the ball to the right edge for Nick Meaney to send Warbick over the line. It was probably the best Melbourne’s attack had looked heading right all season.
Melbourne would have one more chance while Kaufusi was in the naughty corner, but Tesi Niu was able to grab a bouncing Hughes kick and earn a penalty to diffuse the pressure from Melbourne. Indeed a string of possession for the Dolphins would come over the next few minutes, with the Fish gaining a penalty, set restart and force a line drop out to kill the rest of the time Kaufusi was off the field.
Dolphins hit back
From a dubiously awarded scrum, the Fish were able to put on a well worked scrum play that resulted in a try to Isaako. Melbourne failed to number up on the left defensive edge, leaving Coates to defend against Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow and Isaako. The Hammer found Isaako to score a perfectly executed move, with Olam falling for the dummy run of Lee.
Knife goes in, guts come out
From there though at 6–4 up, it felt like one of those games against a Wayne Bennett coached team where Melbourne were able to control the game by going into the grind against an opponent that couldn’t match that intensity. Melbourne would be the next to score when Hughes caught Hammer stuck in a tackle and kicked on tackle three for Munster to score in the left channel. Hughes was playing with a confidence that had been missing so far this season.
Melbourne were able to roll forward and apply pressure in defence, and when Bennett subbed off both Jesse and Kenny Bromwich, the Dolphins looked a little lost, especially with Kaufusi still on tilt and not making an impact. One thing that did catch my eye in the first half was the very muted game from Harry Grant. His final attacking numbers were well down on his usual output, but his choice in passing was leading to good outcomes. One to watch in future matches as his game evolves.
The Fish would almost be the next to score despite Melbourne’s control of the game, after the home team suddenly decided to muscle up in defence. A foolish NAS flick pass was recovered by the Dolphins, and with a couple of set restarts should have scored, but let Melbourne off when Euan Aitken dropped the ball with the line wide open.4
Taking advantage, Melbourne would be the next team to score with Katoa making up for his dropped try against the Warriors, getting the ball down off the back of another well worked right edge move. This time it was Josh King and Hughes passing the ball for Katoa to pour through a hole for his first Storm try.
Melbourne were able to punch another hole in the Dolphins left edge defence, with Hughes and Katoa offloading for Reimis Smith to score Melbourne’s fourth try for the half. With 56% of possession and a 24–4 lead, Melbourne don’t often lose from there and went to the sheds almost certain of leaving with the two competition points.
Milford makes a difference
The second half felt even more like one of those Melbourne versus Wayne Bennett games. It never felt like the Dolphins were going to get close to Melbourne, but the injection of Anthony Milford for the home team did increase their attacking ability. Melbourne would have to scramble in defence against Milford, with Herman Ese’ese coming close to scoring off the back of a poor Jeremy Marshall-King pass. A better pass would have seen the Dolphins back in the game with just under 30 minutes to go.
Injuries to NAS (who left, but later returned), Katoa (who had to leave the field for the first time in 2023) and Munster (who didn’t leave the field) didn’t help Melbourne, who were looking solid, but weren’t offering much in the second half. Their best chance of the half was spoiled by a Coates knock on just as it looked like Trent Loiero would score from a perfect Munster kick.
From there the Dolphins had their chances, but they too would either lose possession, or give away silly penalties, with both Bromwich brothers guilty of giving away dumb penalties. Eventually they would get enough possession and field position to score, with Isaako beating three defenders to score his second try with just under 15 minutes left in the game.
Playing with 16 players
For the second time this season, Melbourne picked 16 players and Grant Anderson to sit on the bench for 80 minutes. I’m really not sure what the move is here with Anderson in the squad. He’s a replacement level outside back and his presence on the bench is not helping the forward rotation, which contributed to Melbourne looking gassed as the half went on. Surely picking Jordan Grant, Tepai Moeroa or even Tariq Sims is a better use of resources.
That Melbourne looked tired was exposed when Kodi Nikorima scored with six minutes to go, beating out Bronson Garlick and Nick Meaney. With the scores at 24–16, Melbourne just needed to hold out the Dolphins for a few more sets, and were fortunate that Marshall-King wasn’t able to hold onto the ball after making a half-break from a scrum win inside the Dolphins half. That it was the clearly hobbled NAS that was the spot player was again further reason why the interchange bench was under utilised by Melbourne.
11th straight win for Bellamy against Bennett
Bellyache was pleased with the first half:
We were really happy with the way we played in the first half. I think we set a really good platform. We struggled a little bit in the second half, but we hung in there on a few occasions, but we just lost our way for whatever reason.
It was also cool to see Reimis Smith at the post game presser for Indigenous Round:
It was a bit different (playing against former teammates). It was good, I found it pretty fun to play against the guys I know. There was a bit of chit-chat and back and forth and stuff like that.
Was it worth it?
Getting into Suncorp Stadium early, I saw Redcliffe (not The) Dolphins thrash the hapless Mackay Cutters in the Queensland Cup. The moment of that game came when Valynce Te Whare chased down Joshua Smith.5
That was followed by this hate crime when the Fish rendered the Storm branding in red.
For a large crowd,6 it felt oddly muted inside Suncorp Stadium. It’s almost like the Fish fans are yet to develop their own rugby league cadence. Even with the red merchandise everywhere, it does feel like a fresh crowd that aren’t quite fanatic rugby league people just yet. It will be interesting to see what their actual fan base is when the hard times inevitably come.
As for the game, the first half felt like Melbourne had found their groove and were playing with confidence. The second half was always going to be a bit of a grind, with the game almost sown up in the first half. That Melbourne didn’t score was a concern, but the way they were gassed is an excuse for that.
It’s always nice to leave Queensland with a win, especially heading into the disjointed part of the season.
6/10
Storm Machine Player of the Year
The Dally M points went to Katoa, Hughes and Meaney, and it’s hard to go past those three as Melbourne’s better players. The starting front rowers also deserve a point for their work in setting the platform and playing big minutes. It’s annoying that Katoa has done a shoulder injury that might see him out for a couple of games.
Round 12 points:
2 – Jahrome Hughes
2 – Eliesa Katoa
2 – Nick Meaney
1 – Christian Welch
1 – Tui Kamikamica
Leaderboard
13 – Harry Grant, Cameron Munster, Nick Meaney
8 – Christian Welch
6 – Trent Loiero
5 – Jahrome Hughes
4 – Josh King, Eliesa Katoa
3 – Nelson Asofa-Solomona, Will Warbrick
2 – Xavier Coates, Alec MacDonald Jonah Pezet
1 – Reimis Smith, Justin Olam, Tui Kamikamica
Next up
North Queensland – Queensland Country Bank Stadium, Sunday 4 June, 4:05pm
Another bye week, this time ahead of the first game of the meaningless exhibition series. Fortunately Melbourne should only have Harry Grant and Cameron Munster backing up, with Christian Welch just a reserve player for Queensland.
Back in action for a preview of the festivities of Cowboys versus Storm then. In the meantime, here’s a poll to let me know which game I should remember in the coming week:
Andrew Voss and Greg Alexander on commentary. Sigh.
Tom Gilbert probably sealing his selection for Queensland with his impression of Jarome Luai in taunting Olam.
This was one of a few handling errors from Coates – perhaps a skills session with Joel Selwood and someone like Tom Hawkins might be worthwhile over the bye week.
Credit to the work of Smith and Warbrick though to pressure the left edge of the Dolphins into the mistake.
Check out the gif of the moment in Liam’s post.
Well for rugby league at least.