That was a welcome Sunday funday for the Melbourne Storm against a rival that usually brings their best to Victoria. A good time was had by all except those in green.
Melbourne – 48 (Welch 13', Seve 28', Smith 33', Katoa 38', Loiero 48', Grant 55', Munster 65', Meaney 75', Tonumaipea 80' tries; Meaney 6/8, Tonumaipea 0/1 goals)
Canberra – 2 (Fogarty 1/1 goal)
Tries here, get your tries here. Just a lazy nine different try scorers for Melbourne, including one to the skipper.1
Back to AAMI Park and with the lines on the lush turf still fresh from the FIFA Women’s World Cup,2 it was certainly pleasing to see Melbourne get the job done this comfortably against a team nominally playing for a top four position.
False start… not one of those days?
When looking back at Storm matches, especially home matches, the first five minutes often come as fresh information to me. A mistake from Young Tonumaipea gave Canberra the ball back on just the second tackle that Melbourne had with the ball, and from there a string of set restarts and penalties gave the visitors an easy two points.
Spoiler alert though: that was all she wrote for the visitors.
Melbourne were able to control the Raiders playmakers from there, importantly limiting the space for Jack Wighton.
Skipping clear
When Jahrome Hughes runs the ball down the right edge, good things happen for Melbourne. His run, off the back of a swerving run from Tonumaipea set up the first try for the home team. A reasonably fast play-the-ball giving Bronson Garlick the impetus at dummy half to send the skipper over for his first try of the season.3
It was a simple play, but just reward for Christian Welch whose form has been building nicely in recent weeks. The little melee with Joseph Tapine in the next set was also amusing after Welch had beaten Tapine and Josh Papali’i to score the try.
Melbourne were able to hold out the Raiders with some stiff defence, forcing Wighton into a poor kick, and from there Melbourne were hardly tested for the rest of the first half.
Tonumaipea was correctly denied a try in the 19th minute after a great chase from Xavier Coates to flick the ball back into play from a Cameron Munster kick. In his 50th appearance for Melbourne, Tonumaipea would be denied here, but with the injection of Harry Grant from the bench, the Storm would increase the intensity as the half wore on.
Forcing the Raiders into errors, Melbourne’s scramble defence was more than enough against the visitors. Melbourne were almost there in attack too, but it would take until the 28th minute to extend the lead to 10–2 when from an offload from Nelson Asofa-Solomona and some good vision in the middle from Grant and Hughes sent the ball out wide, where Marion Seve had enough strength to get the ball down over the line.4
That interchange to bring both Grant and NAS on after the first quarter of the game certainly putting Melbourne on top in attack, with Melbourne able to control the flow of possession and field position. That up-tempo play contributing to Melbourne’s next try when Eliesa Katoa was able to break the line down the right channel to get an offload away to Reimis Smith who fell over the line after the Raiders barely stopped him.5
Well on top as half time loomed, Melbourne extended the lead to 20–2 after a spell of extending possession on the Canberra line, Hughes throwing the final ball for Katoa to dive over the line. Melbourne’s work through Hughes in the right channel finding holes in the Raiders defensive line.
More of the same please
Going into this game, I was expecting more from the visitors. Melbourne though were able to get on top of the Raiders in defence, and then exploit them down the edges in attack. That edge attack, especially down the right channel coming off the back of some solid work from the middle forwards. Its always nice to see a sustained effort across the park, with Melbourne not leaving it to a few players to try and lift the rest of the team.
Trent Loiero would score Melbourne’s fifth try of the afternoon off the back of sustained pressure on the Canberra line, and when Grant strolled through a few minutes later, Melbourne had absolutely blown the Raiders off the park with over 20 minutes to go. Grant’s try to extend Melbourne’s lead to 32–2 coming through his support play of a massive line break by Nick Meaney, who continues to admirably deputise for Ryan Papenhuyzen.6
Chasing 50 points
With the game won, there was only really the question as to whether Melbourne could rack up the half century against the Raiders, fixing Melbourne’s points difference on the ladder, and ruining Canberra’s top eight chances.7
With Hughes and Munster pulling the strings, Melbourne looked dangerous whenever they had the ball in the opposition half. Munster stepping through some flimsy defence scored the Storm’s seventh try, and when Jordan Rapana was sent to the sin bin,8 Melbourne would go past 40 points for the third time this season with Meaney scored his tenth try in 2023. Melbourne were looking to score off every tackle and waves of purple jerseys overwhelmed the visitors.
With the clock winding down, Canberra would go down to 11 players when Matthew Timoko was given an early shower after catching Tonumaipea in a high tackle. The extra space provided enough room for the milestone man Tonumaipea to score out wide. The Victorian missing the chance to convert his own try to leave the score at 48–2.
Post match quotes
Bellsa was somewhat positive post match:
I knew it was the best preparation we'd had for a few weeks [or even a] couple of months probably. We had some real intent and discipline in our training sessions and drew a line on things early in the week.
I just thought we built our game on our defence and that's a bit of old school Melbourne Storm, but that’s what we want to do. They defended great, and I’m happy with how our defence worked.
We know if we do certain things at training it usually comes out in the game... We probably hadn't been training the way we should or could have. I think we set a couple of standards this week and today and hopefully we can carry on from here.
We experimented [with Harry] today. They have their big guys going at him, getting his tackle count up. We thought putting Bronson [Garlick] in there, their attack would not be quite aimed at Harry.
The skipper returned to post match too:
We’ve been up here frustrated really about our performances. It’s round 24, its now or never really to start. We got a bit of a reality check last week.
Was it worth it?
What a peach of a winter’s Sunday afternoon to return back to Swan Street. Back in familiar surroundings, watching Melbourne put the sword through the Raiders.
Good times.
Not even Homer Simpson could really be mad about getting this one wrong:
9/10
Storm Machine Player of the Year
After starting on the bench, Harry Grant came on after the first 20 minutes
Could have given points to almost every player this week, especially after such a great team effort.
Round 24 points:
2 – Jahrome Hughes
2 – Harry Grant
1 – Cameron Munster
1 – Trent Loiero
1 – Eliesa Katoa
1 – Nick Meaney
1 – Young Tonumaipea
Leaderboard
28 – Harry Grant
19 – Cameron Munster
18 – Jahrome Hughes
14 – Nick Meaney
10 – Christian Welch, Trent Loiero
7 – Nelson Asofa-Solomona
6 – Will Warbrick, Josh King, Xavier Coates
5 – Tui Kamikamica, Eliesa Katoa
2 – Alec MacDonald, Jonah Pezet, Marion Seve, Young Tonumaipea
1 – Reimis Smith, Justin Olam, Tom Eisenhuth
Next up
St George Illawarra Dragons – WIN Stadium, Saturday 19 August, 7:30pm
Off to Wollongong on Saturday night to face the lowly Dragons. St Merge are already cooked for 2023, so Melbourne will be looking to bank two points in what should be their easiest game left on the schedule. Your correspondent will hopefully be heading to the Gong for the first time to watch a match at WIN Stadium, so hopefully the right Melbourne team shows up.
Preview post later in the week.
With Andrew Voss, Steve Roach and Anthony Griffin on the Fox League commentary for this one. Hook has to possess the most laconic regional Queensland accent to be broadcast since the death of Andrew Symonds.
I had heard on the grapevine that the stadium was only handed back as a FIFA venue at midnight on Saturday, just over 12 hours before the gates opened. Credit to everyone at MOPT for getting everything ready for the players and fans.
Also his first since the 2021 finals.
Listening to Vossy’s commentary, he’s said “almost mucked it up” but it’s awfully close to “almost fucked it up”
Jordan Rapana’s attempted trip of Smith later attracting a charge from the NRL match review.
That Paps will be (likely) back for the final home game will hopefully put more bums on seats against the Titans.
Moment of zen this week was this conversation in the 63rd minute between Christian Welch and referee Grant Atkins:
Atkins: Christian you’ve gotta lower your tone…
Welch: yeah sorry
Atkins: C’mon speak to me at an adult level…
For being Jordan Rapana, or a professional foul. Possibly both.