Game 687 – S26E30 Review

Penrith Panthers 38–4 Melbourne Storm

Sep 24, 2023

Well it was a hiding to nothing. Melbourne’s season comes to an end at the hands of Penrith for the second time in three years.

Penrith – 38 (To’o 4', 21', 70', Turuva 28', Cleary 54', Edwards 56' tries; Cleary 7/8 goals)

Melbourne – 4 (Olam 8' try; Meaney 0/1)

Yeah, cbf watching these either.

I’m also not bothering watching a replay either this week to be honest. There’s nothing to learn from analysing this match from a Melbourne perspective. The answers on how to beat Penrith are available, the methods can be seen when reviewing their matches. The coaches know it and provide it to the players who then have to execute those game plans. Unfortunately for Melbourne neither the coaches or players are currently able to get it done against the Panthers, let alone when Adam Gee is the referee.

Instead, this week’s review comes from a much better writer in Matt Bungard, who despite being a Souths supporter writes some good shit over at ESPN Australia after leaving WWOS.

Read the whole thing report here, but here’s a taste:

To win, Melbourne were going to have to be close to perfect - the attritional nature of Finals Footy is a science that was practically perfected by Craig Bellamy and his troops.
They were more physical in the opening exchanges, and kept the Panthers well behind halfway in both of their first two sets, only for a needless penalty late in the count to undo their hard work.
Make no mistake, risks are absolutely necessary against a team as good as Penrith. But it wasn't so much that the Storm chanced their arm too much as it was that they were unable to execute routine plays.
Melbourne were taking it to that vaunted Penrith pack right up until Nelson Asofa-Solomona went off. The rest of the Storm pack are solid first graders, but none have the impact that their star man provides.
Melbourne coach Craig Bellamy, who's seen just about every contender for the 'best ever' team tag, conceded that the theory on how to beat Penrith - through a combination of enterprising attack and physical play - was easy. It's just doing it that's the hard part.

In the end, the 38–4 defeat is Melbourne’s seventh heaviest of all time, and the Storm were probably lucky not to concede a higher score. There were points in Melbourne,1 unlike the qualifying final loss to the Broncos, but errors (11 in total for a 65% completion rate against the Panthers 93%), penalties and set restarts (nine and four respectively) cursed the Storm. They’ve been called “momentum changers” and every time Gee’s whistle blew you knew it would be against Melbourne.

Melbourne’s odd season has at times felt like a mix of the mediocre 2013–14 campaigns and the false dawn of the 2015 season. Melbourne didn’t look like they had the game plan or roster to win the premiership, but with the exception of the Panthers, looked capable enough against the rest of the competition.

It will be an interesting summer for the football staff at the Storm trying to figure out the pieces around the spine players who all have long-term contracts. There will be some player movement, but there’s going to be slim pickings for the positions that Melbourne need to fill2 to take the next step. Can’t say I agree with the fulcrum of this column either, but there is much work to be done in the quest for seven.

Post match quotes

“Just didn’t give ourselves a chance” was the line from Jahrome Hughes in his interview on the ground. Christian Welch echoed that too, while Craig Bellamy’s sentiments were similar:

We didn't give ourselves a chance, we shot ourselves in the foot – we blew our foot off actually.
We had some opportunities in the first half, but we didn't nail them, we didn't ice them. We didn't complete well and we know what Penrith do – they just strangle you.
If you make mistakes and put pressure on yourself they will hammer you. It's really disappointing for us to finish that way. We were still in it at half time, I know it was 14 points [down], but we had some opportunities and created opportunities where we just couldn’t finish them. In the second half it all got a little bit too hard.
This game was a small example of what we’ve been dishing up all year. We learned some lessons tonight and hopefully we’ll be able to take something out of it for next season.
I think it took us a little while to know what our best footy was this year. We did a good job to get where we got to on the table, and the finals series was basically what our season has been – up and down, up and down. You’re not going to go a long way in the competition unless you start evening that out.
The gap is big [between Melbourne and Penrith], but we’ll work hard to fix these things [we’ll] learn and work hard in the preseason.

Was it worth it?

Look no. Thankfully I didn’t bother with the trip to The Bad Place for this one. The airfares just didn’t seem worth it. It was amusing that over the course of the week, tickets were discounted, to the two-for-one, then free. Yet they still only got 35,578 through the gates.

That raises some interesting questions for the NRL in the wake of the stupidest man in league’s comments. Perhaps the time has come for the idiots ~~running~~ ruining rugby league to again make this clearer:

Week one finals: Home venues if that venue has at least a 20,000 seated capacity, otherwise club/NRL chooses a proper venue.
Week two finals: Home venues for teams located outside of the Sydney basin,3 the SFS for all Sydney teams playing another NSW team, or Parramatta in certain cases.
Week three finals: Eligible NSW venues are only Stadium Australia and the SFS, NZ venue of choice is Eden Park, Queensland venues are Lang Park or North Queensland only; Melbourne and Canberra can host but could consider alternatives if required.4
Grand Final: make the NSW Government pay for the roof over Stadium Australia already or take the GF elsewhere every third/fourth year.

On a personal level as I eluded to in the preview, I really hate losing preliminary finals. This is now Melbourne’s fifth and each one leaves a scar.

In the immediate aftermath it feels like a waste of a season to get close, but not have the satisfaction of a Grand Final appearance. To lose in a blowout without really competing is especially grating, and it seems like the Storm fans have been blowing up deluxe about a number of things. However, I’ll admit that I’ve become a lot more pragmatic in my advancing years. An upset win would have been amazing and wonderful, but an expected loss is still just a loss.

We move on to the next, even if the next is months away into next year.5

0/10

Storm Machine Player of the Year

Hard to come up with anyone really worthy of points. Nick Meaney tried hard at the back, but like many had moments he would want again. I though Eliesa Katoa was Melbourne’s best forward, which as an edge runner should make the other forwards worried about their roles in the team.

Preliminary Final points:

1 – Nick Meaney
1 – Eliesa Katoa

Leaderboard

31 – Harry Grant

23 – Jahrome Hughes

20 – Cameron Munster

18 – Nick Meaney

10 – Christian Welch, Trent Loiero, Will Warbrick, Eliesa Katoa

9 – Xavier Coates

7 – Nelson Asofa-Solomona, Josh King

5 – Tui Kamikamica

3 – Tepai Moeroa

2 – Alec MacDonald, Jonah Pezet, Marion Seve, Young Tonumaipea, Sualauvi Fa’alogo, Jayden Nikorima

1 – Reimis Smith, Justin Olam, Tom Eisenhuth, Grant Anderson

Next up

The Grand Final day triple-header sees the Queensland Cup premiers ~~Brisbane~~ Easts Tigers up against the NSW Cup winners South Sydney (who beat North Sydney on Sunday). Kick off is 1:20pm at what could be a very hot afternoon session at Homebush. If you’re going to the Grand Final, get in early for this one and cheer some Storm players on.

Following that at 3:55pm is the NRL Women’s Grand Final between the Knights and Titans. With Melbourne on the outer of this competition for probably the next five or more years, it’s go the Titans in this one.6

As for the NRL Grand Final, if you can be bothered paying more than fleeting attention, you can read Nick Campton’s early analysis here, which sums up the narrative of this season. It really was always going to end like this. I just think it’s amusing that Brisbane might finally have to endure some terrible refereeing in a Grand Final should the appointment go to Adam Fucking Gee.7 Couldn’t happen to a more deserving fan base should they receive the rough end of the pineapple. #SimpkinsIsADickhead.

In any event I suspect Penrith will likely march to their third premiership in a row, which for mine just adds more shine to Melbourne’s 2020 premiership. That Grand Final victory, won against the odds, heavily disadvantaged for most of that season living away and without any Victorians in the stands; holds up even better following the three years since have seen the Panthers win premierships with every possible advantage.

There will be two more posts here to come when I get to them:

Player report card and Player of the Year analysis; and
Season review of the good/fun stuff from the Storm’s season 26 in 2023.

Hopefully I get these out soon enough, but until then it’s a big thank you to those that have subscribed/shared these musings this season. It’s been nice to get back into some writing and finding time to be just a little creative. Getting the words out of my head has been a good time for me and I hope reading these missives hasn’t been a chore for you readers.