A 14-point half time deficit was too much for a fumbling Melbourne squad missing key players.
Newcastle – 14 (Gagai 24', Tuala 29' tries; Ponga 3/3 goals)
Melbourne – 12 (Papenhuyzen 48', Wishart 76' tries; Meaney 2/2 goals)
Skip the highlights this week? Well at least Melbourne scored in the second half.
Almost twenty minutes into this match, with the score still 0–0 on a perfect Novocastrian evening, I think we could see how this game might pan out. Melbourne looked mediocre and pedestrian with the ball. Both teams were grinding, but making errors. Only Kayln Ponga and Ryan Papenhuyzen looked like they could elevate this match above being a bit of a bore.
It was Papenhuyzen who sparked the first chance for Melbourne after Nick Meaney attracted a couple of defenders in a nice raid down the right channel, his offload to Papenhuyzen was perfect for the fullback to either step Ponga and score himself, or pass inside to Will Warbrick to score under the posts. In hindsight Ponga had committed to tackling Warbrick and Paps whose pace had him already beyond Bradman Best shouldn’t have thrown the ball to the Brick, but his hands let him down on this occasion.
That would be Melbourne’s best chance to score in the first half. When Reimis Smith left the field due to injury shortly after this chance, it left Melbourne’s left defensive edge exposed. It wouldn’t take long for the home team to head down that channel, with a missed tackle from Kane Bradley on the try scorer Dane Gagai. Once the tackle was missed, Gagai engaged Origin Gagai mode to barge through Papenhuyzen and Xavier Coates.
For the rest of the half, Melbourne were on the back foot. A try to Enari Tuala coming from some brilliance from Ponga. He had combined with Phoenix Crossland on the play before and his pass from dummy half to the winger had Warbrick having to cover too many possibilities. A couple of minutes out from half time, Warbrick would be adjudicated to have stripped the ball when fumble fingers Bradman Best lost the ball, Ponga taking the two to extend the Knights lead to 14–0.
How to beat Melbourne
There is no secret here, simply tire out Harry Grant. By half time Grant had made 31 tackles. He would finish with 52 and five missed tackles. When Grant is having to defend that much, he seems to lack imagination when Melbourne have possession. In the first half Grant didn’t seems to make any runs from dummy half, which made Melbourne look one-dimensional. He was able to make more of an impact in the second half as Melbourne chased the game, but I do wonder if he should have dropped back to play at halfback and let Wishart try to spark things at dummy half.
Welcome Shawn Blore
With his debut, Shawn Blore became Storm player #234.1 His debut was solid. Having closely watched Joe Chan over the past two weeks, I think they are competing for that one position on the edge, with Chan ahead for mine. Blore might have to bide his time in NSW Cup with the Bears for now, unless he can displace Chris Lewis on the bench.2 Bellsa had some nice words post match too for the newbie.
Whipping boys
I’ll admit that I’m guilty of not being terribly fond of various Storm players over the years. Whether they were players who should never have been signed; players who clearly didn’t want to be in Melbourne, or didn’t fit the system; or just players who the fans generally didn’t appreciate the same way the coaching staff do.
At the moment it seems like Trent Loiero, and to a lesser extent Tyran Wishart fill this role among some Storm fans.
With Loiero I think most fans can see what he does offer the team. He plays his role (now as a middle forward) on the whole most weeks to a level that the coaching staff would be pleased with. He hardly misses a tackle and his work rate in attack is around the competition average. The criticism comes with his errors and proclivity to give away a penalty or set restart. Looking at the numbers though, his stats line up very closely with Isaah Yeo.3 The difference at this stage lies in impact on the match. Loeiro’s offload ability isn’t there, with most of his runs falling very much into the workhorse category. I think moving Loeiro into the middle forward role is the right thing for this stage of his development, and while I understand the frustration that errors and penalties cause, he’s still a net-positive for Melbourne. His kicking license has been revoked though after his grubber kick in the first half.
Wishart for mine is an interesting study. He’s clearly not a pure halfback. In many ways he reminds me of Kurt Mann after he left Melbourne. Mann was mostly used as a fill-in at Melbourne, either in the centres or fullback. After leaving, his utility value increased and his time at the Dragons and Knights was spent in a number of roles across the field. Now at the Bulldogs, he seems to be playing as a bench forward. That might be the eventual position for Wishart. For now though he is trying to be Mr Fixit for Melbourne having played at a number of backline positions and coming off the bench to provide rest for forwards or a spark at the end of matches. What this match against the Knights proved though that he is possibly more suited as a ball runner with the ability for a juicy pass when available. In other words, he’s a post modern hooker. But Melbourne has one of those already who wants to play 80 minutes each week. Definitely a conundrum for the coaching staff. I know if both Bronson Garlick and Wishart were both fit I would probably be opting for Garlick in that utility role, but the small shadow of a fit and firing Sua Fa’alogo does promise much if he can make the bench utility role his own sometime in 2024.
Second half speed run
Without Jahrome Hughes I didn’t think Melbourne had enough points in them in this one to comeback from the half time deficit. Melbourne’s attack looked disjointed, with only Papenhuyzen showing anything that looked like quality with the ball. Points finally came in the 48th minute when Paps pounced on a fumble/tap back in a contest between Coates and Knights winger Thomas Jenkins after a high kick from Jonah Pezet.
Down 14–6, nominally Melbourne were back in it with 30 minutes to play, and had the chance to cut the lead down to two points, but after making a clean break Paps couldn’t find Meaney with his pass. Handling for both teams was somewhat diabolical and another chance was lost a few minutes later when Melbourne’s last tackle options were rushed and haphazard despite good field position.
That poor handling kept plaguing Melbourne as the half continued, the Storm squandering too many chances every time they had attacking field position. Eventually the gap was reduced to two points with four minutes remaining. Wishart scoring a nice solo try to set up a frantic finish. That only led to more errors though and an amusing 45m attempt at a two-point field goal from Paps.
Newcastle grimly holding on to their lead to the final whistle with Melbourne unable to recreate the magic finish from last week.
Stat offloads
The last time Newcastle held Melbourne scoreless in the first half was the round 23 match in 2009 at Newcastle. The Knights won that match 26–14.
This is the first time in matches between these teams that one team has been held scoreless in the second half but still won the match.
Post match quotes
Bellsa was a bit philosophical post match:
It was pretty disappointing with a couple of aspects of our play, but I'm really happy with a couple of others. To come back from 14-0 here, it's a tough place to play and the Knights were pretty dominant in the first half. So to come back in that second half and get as close as we did, that was a really good effort but I think we basically got what we deserved after our first half.
We didn’t complete well and weren’t really thinking about our footy too much.
We missed [Jahrome Hughes] all-around game. But all teams lose key players at times and you’ve got to make up for it.
If we had played like we did in the second half for the 80 minutes, perhaps it might have been different.
We've got a bye next week so I'm not sure where everybody is at the moment. Nelson [Asofa-Solomona] played with the Bears today and has been out for a while and hasn't done a lot of training so he might need a little bit more time. But hopefully Joe Chan will be back for the next game too. If you sit around thinking about what you haven’t got, that ain’t gonna help no one.
Was it worth it?
For the players, defeat brings lessons to learn, especially before a bye weekend. For the fans, it just means there’s longer to wait before our next fix.
With players returning, hopefully Melbourne will be able to lift for the big match against the Broncos on Thursday week.
As for this week, it did feel as the first half went on that this wasn’t Melbourne’s night and that scoring some points in the second half would be about as much as we could have hoped for. Thankfully points were scored and there was enough effort to see where improvements can be made for the next match. Looking at the way Wishart scored his try, I can’t help but think that if Hughes was there this week instead, that the result here would have been very different.
Was really nice to see Paps taking the lead in the huddle after full time too.
3/10
Storm Machine Player of the Year
Hard to judge this week. Paps was clearly Melbourne’s best despite a couple of errors and missed chances. I thought most of the forwards played their role, but each of them had moments that they would like to have over. For consistency over the 80 minutes, Eli Katoa was probably best.
Giving honourable mentions to the two whipping boys I mentioned above. Stats wise both played their role, but both wouldn’t say they had games that they would say felt great.
Round 3 points:
1 – Ryan Papenhuyzen
1 – Eliesa Katoa
Leaderboard:
4 – Xavier Coates, Ryan Papenhuyzen
2 – Harry Grant, Jahrome Hughes, Eliesa Katoa
1 – Jonah Pezet, Tui Kamikamica, Joe Chan, Trent Loiero
Around the grounds
Harold Matthews Cup U17s — Central Coast Roosters v Melbourne Storm
This match was postponed due to flight issues. Who knows if they’ll bother with rescheduling. The HM Cup squad will face off against the Bulldogs at Seabrook Reserve on Saturday (kick off is 1pm).
SG Ball Cup U19s — Penrith Panthers 32–26 Melbourne Storm
Leading 20–16 at half time, the home team scored three tries to one in the second half to take the points at St Marys. Storm fullback Hugo Peel scored a double. The SG Ball Cup squad will end their season next week against the Bulldogs at Seabrook Reserve (kick off is 2:30pm).
Jersey Flegg Cup U21s — Newcastle Knights 34–12 Melbourne Storm
Two early tries saw Melbourne take a 12–6 lead, but it was all Newcastle after that with the home team running in six tries. The Jersey Flegg Cup team tackle the Silktails from Fiji next Saturday at Seabrook Reserve (kick off is 4pm).
Queensland Cup — Brisbane Tigers 24–0 Ipswich Jets
The reigning premiers finally got off the board for the season, avoiding a 0-3 start. Marion Seve scored two tries in the second half after a bit of an arm wrestle in the first half saw the home team lead just 4–0.
Queensland Cup — PNG Hunters 22–10 Sunshine Coast Falcons
Jack Howarth and Lazarus Vaalepu made the trek to Port Moresby with the Falcons, but the birds couldn’t get the points against the home team. Trailing 6–4 at the break, the Falcons scored first in the second half, but three tries in the final 20 minutes saw the Hunters take their second win for the season.
New South Wales Cup — Newcastle 50–24 North Sydney Bears
Tryscoring came in multiples in the curtain-raiser before the NRL match at Newcastle. Four Knights players each scored two tries in a nine tries to four win over the Bears. Norths winger Allan Fitzgibbon scored a hat trick for the Bears to keep the theme going. Nelson Asofa-Solomona made his NSW Cup debut in jersey 24 starting at prop. Dean Ieremia and Keagan Russell-Smith also playing, while Aaron Pene missed out as 19th man for the Storm.
Next up
Round 4 — Bye
Round 5 vs Brisbane Broncos – Thursday 4 April, 8:00pm @ AAMI Park
It’s an off weekend for everyone in the senior squad at Melbourne over Easter. The Storm have the bye to learn from their mistakes against the Knights, while the entire Queensland Cup goes on holiday for Easter. The Bears also have an ill-timed bye in the NSW Cup, so those on the comeback from injury won’t be able to get any match practice. Maybe an impromptu Storm v Storm game next weekend at Gosch’s Paddock… I’d come along to watch (and eat chocolate).
I have an idea for a bye week diversion here, so there could be a post before the preview for the big match against the Broncos in round 5.
As others pointed out, it’s funny that Blore is Storm player 234 and Wests Tigers player 235. The Tigers have used 280 players in two less seasons than Melbourne.
Given Alec MacDonald should be the first bench forward picked each week, and the impending returns of Nelson Asofa-Solomona and Christian Welch, there will be a couple of unlucky players missing out who would easily get game time at the lesser NRL franchises.
Yeo’s 2016 numbers (his third in the NRL) compared to Loiero’s 2023 numbers are very similar. Yeo’s progression since 2020 is the difference between a 200 game player and a 50 game player.