Game 683 – S26E26 Review
Melbourne Storm 37–16 Gold Coast Titans
A top four finals spot secured with Melbourne doing enough to get over the Titans in Ryan Papenhuyzen’s return to AAMI Park.
Melbourne – 37 (Coates 21', 36', 75', Warbrick 5', Welch 63', Katoa 70' tries; Meaney 6/7 goals; Munster 77' field goal)
Gold Coast – 16 (Randall 14', Kelly 26', J Fifita 54' tries; Schoupp 1/2, Weaver 1/1 goals)
Some nice moments from Melbourne this week, makes the highlights worth a look.
Bronson Garlick would start at hooker for the second time in recent weeks, with Harry Grant cooling his heels on the bench with the returning Ryan Papenhuyzen. It certainly made for an interesting start from Melbourne. I don’t mind the thinking behind starting Grant from the seats, but I do wonder about the merits of that as a tactic come finals time.1
I’ve seen this film before…
When Melbourne have been working the ball right in 2023, good things have been happening. That’s not to say the left edge has struggled, but there’s definitely more potency from the combinations in the right channel and flank. That potency feeds off Jahrome Hughes’s playmaking abilities, with the halfback again showing his skills for the first Melbourne try. Taking a pass from Garlick, he was able to evade one defender, regain his feet and put the perfect kick for the corner to Will Warbrick to score. Melbourne fans have been spoiled by some excellent halfback play over the seasons, and after a slowish start to season 2023, Hughes has been very good. Warbrick’s gather and touchdown showing how far he’s play has improved this season. I doubt he’ll get the Dally M rookie of the year award, but it’s been a great season from the winger.
On the back of the try, Melbourne looked strong with the ball, able to gain good ground to continually pressure the Titans defensive line. A loose carry and a penalty to the visitors saw them open their account, at what was a subdued AAMI Park. The try to Chris Randall wasn’t great defence from the middle forwards, with Nelson Asofa-Solomona and Christian Welch unable to hold Randall short of the line.
It did feel like it was one of those games developing when both teams scored again for the scoreboard to be level at 10–all after 26 minutes. Melbourne’s second try came after some enterprising play at the back, with Marion Seve making a break into open field to provide attacking impetus. Melbourne correctly challenging a lost ball ruling against Hughes a couple of tackles later to regain possession. Going left, it was Cameron Munster and Nick Meaney combining to send Xavier Coates over for his first try of the afternoon. The Titans hitting back a few minutes later through Brian Kelly, with Melbourne’s retreating edge defenders unable to stop the visitors from rolling through the line.
…but maybe the ending will be different…
The injection of Harry Grant (and Tom Eisenhuth) seemed to settle Melbourne into a better rhythm. Jojo Fifita was just able to gather a bouncing kick from Munster to stop Coates from scoring again, but Melbourne kept coming at the visitors, with Meaney slotting a penalty goal to give Melbourne the lead five minutes from half time.
From the restart, a couple of strong runs set up a moment of magic from Munster as he ghosted down the left channel to set up Coates to score his second try. After a quiet game last week, this play was Munster as his best, giving Melbourne a 18–10 half time lead.
…resulting in glorious victory
The second half would start with a grinding ten minutes with a few errors from both teams, and eventually the Titans would score first to bring the margin to two points, but that was as close as the visitors would get.
After that try, the crowd seemed to get into the game, raising the volume when the smallest lock forward in the history of the Melbourne Storm entered the field in the 62nd minute.2 It wasn’t so much that Paps looked a little lost on the front line in the middle of the field, but it was amusing to see him trying to work out where he needed to be in defence. After 405 days it was just nice to see Paps back on the field in Melbourne Storm colours.
The end of the set after Papenhuyzen came on saw Melbourne hit back on the scoreboard, with Grant finding the skipper to score his second try of the year. The reactions from Welch and big NAS was pure joy. You love to see it. Quick play-the-balls from Papenhuyzen and Hughes really providing the space for Grant to do what he does best and find the right pass.
From there, Melbourne dominated the final 15 minutes. Paps was lucky not to give away a penalty on a tackle that would force Kieran Foran off for a HIA, but that was merely a blip as Melbourne were able to get over the Titans. Melbourne looked like scoring off every set in attacking territory, Grant would turn provider again for the next try, his deft little grubber kick through the line bouncing nicely for Eliesa Katoa to score his sixth try of the season, his fifth since coming back from his mid-season eye injury. This spell of good play would come at a cost with Hughes succumbing to a knee injury that will keep him on the sidelines next week.
The final try of the day, which completed a hat-trick for Coates was probably Melbourne’s easiest. Coates has been able to work hard on his hands this season, and the reward is coming up with clean grabs from high balls like he did here. It certainly gives Melbourne options in going left with Munster and Meaney rather than relying totally on the right side.
There was time for one last scoring play, with Munster slotting a simple field goal from 17m out in front of the posts. In the end it was a solid second half, with Melbourne only conceding one try to outlast the visitors with some ease.
Post match quotes
Bellsa was flying solo again this week:
Our performance was a bit mixed. As soon as they down in our 20m zone in the first half they were there twice and they scored two tries. We made a couple of mistakes in the second half where we just threw the ball away. At times it looked like we were looking for the short-cuts but I was really happy with the way we steadied the ship in the second half and we scored some points in the end.
The reception for Paps, I didn't really expect that, but it was great for him and I thought he did a really good job. He didn't overplay his hand and he didn't underplay it. We weren't quite sure what the role was going to be as there were a couple of options there, but it looks like he has come through okay. We’re not expecting miracles from him.
Was it worth it?
Saturday afternoon rugby league definitely has a different feel to it. There’s an element that its the “off-Broadway special,” but it was nice to see a good number of fans inside AAMI Park. It was a subdued atmosphere until Paps was sent on in the second half, with the volume definitely increasing after that. Hopefully Melbourne fans can pack out the stadium for the upcoming finals match whether that is in week two or three of the finals series.
It was a pity that the curtain raiser Storm 21s couldn’t hang on against the Canberra Raiders to progress through to the Jersey Flegg Cup finals. Coming from 16–0 down, the young Storm players tied the match up, but a last minute try for the visitors relegated Melbourne to sixth on the ladder on points differential.
While Melbourne were playing on Saturday afternoon, another Melbourne team was progressing through the AIHL Goodall Cup Final on Sunday. The Melbourne Mustangs defeating the Sydney Bears 4–0 on Saturday, and the CBR Brave 1–0 in a tense final to take the Goodall Cup for the second time. Well done to the players and coaches of the Orange Team.
7/10
Storm Machine Player of the Year
White there were solid efforts from the forwards, thought this one was a bit of a feast for the playmakers. While Hughes and Grant didn’t play the 80 minutes, both were behind most of the good things for Melbourne.
Round 26 points:
2 – Jahrome Hughes
2 – Xavier Coates
1 – Harry Grant
1 – Cameron Munster
1 – Eliesa Katoa
Leaderboard
29 – Harry Grant
23 – Jahrome Hughes
20 – Cameron Munster
14 – Nick Meaney
10 – Christian Welch, Trent Loiero
9 – Will Warbrick, Eliesa Katoa
8 – Xavier Coates
7 – Nelson Asofa-Solomona
6 – Josh King
5 – Tui Kamikamica
2 – Alec MacDonald, Jonah Pezet, Marion Seve, Young Tonumaipea
1 – Reimis Smith, Justin Olam, Tom Eisenhuth
Next up
Brisbane Broncos – Suncorp Stadium, Thursday 31 August, 7:50pm
With Melbourne locked into fourth position, we’ll know on Tuesday with the team list whether the Storm are playing to win their “home” game against the Broncos, or if they’re happy to play dead and take the Broncos on again in the first week of the finals.
With a short turnaround this week, there might be a number of changes nonetheless.
Short week preview post coming Thursday.
Was interesting hearing Bellyache’s answers about this in the press conference.
Papenhuyzen came on for Garlick, meaning the middle forwards on at the time were: Welch, Grant, Asofa-Solomona, and Papenhuyzen. Katoa and Loiero maintaining their edge forward roles.