A frustrating night at AAMI Park for Melbourne saw the Storm take the win with what’s becoming a flair for the dramatic finish.
Melbourne – 16 (Papenhuyzen 3', Smith 23', Blore 75' tries; Meaney 2/3 goals)
Canterbury – 14 (Addo-Carr 48', 57', 62' tries; Burton 1/3 goals)
Another week, another highlights video with Melbourne staging a big finish:
It seems Melbourne have a theme going in 2024 already. The only match the Storm have lead after 70 minutes of play was the opening match against the Panthers. The rest of the league must surely be like Jesse Pinkman:
When Craig Bellamy was quoted in the immediate aftermath:
I’d like to watch it back before I make too many comments. The opposition, I knew they were a really good side [and] they way they play their footy really suits the players they’ve got. Which is obviously what we all try and do, but I think they do it really well. They just wouldn’t go away, they kept turning up and we were a bit the same. It would have been really easy for us to give it up when they come back and got ahead of us, but we kept hanging in there too. It was a tight old tussle…
True words coach. True words indeed.
A tight old tussle
Let’s put this out there first, while the caption on the Nine video above1 suggest this was a battle for the ages, this game was not a classic of the genre and apart from a few moments of magic, won’t linger long in the memory.2
Melbourne were afforded a fast start by the visitors when Jake Turpin dropped the ball with his first touch as a Bulldog in the NRL, the former Thunderbolt3 now at his third club. In attacking field position inside the opening minute, the Storm went to work quickly and probably should have scored without the Bulldogs touching the ball. There was a brief moment when Canterbury might have escaped without conceding, but Ryan Papenhuyzen’s steal on Josh Curren and weaving run a few plays later saw him burrow under the defence to score, even if referee Wyatt Raymond4 on debut saw fit to send it to the Bunker as no try.5
Up 6–0, it felt like Melbourne were unable to get into positions to extend their lead, with the visitors sticking firm in defence, even if they struggled to build any pressure in attack. Only the Bulldogs left edge with the dangerous Viliame Kikau looked likely to cause trouble, with captain Stephen Crichton on the other side trying to do too much on some tackles. Josh Addo-Carr, on his third visit to Melbourne since joining the Bulldogs, should have scored in the 11th minute, but his boot found the touchline short of the line. That did feel like a warning shot though at the Melbourne right flank, with Matt Burton, Kikau and Addo-Carr proving hard to stop.
As Bellyache said, this was just one of those games of rugby league where both teams were trying hard and it meant they kind of cancelled each other out. It wouldn’t be until after 20 minutes had gone by before Melbourne were in any position to attack the Bulldogs line with any field position. A Christian Welch offload, and a darting run from Harry Grant setting up a fifth tackle option for Jahrome Hughes to initiate this week’s party trick from Xavier Coates.
Taking the kick from Hughes short of the tryline, Coates fought off a number of defenders to somehow get his foot to the ball with his little kick perfectly bouncing into the ingoal for Reimis Smith to gather and score. It was a freakish effort from Coates who showed strength to stay in the field of play. Credit to Smith for his effort in getting to the ball to score his first try against his old club.
The last 15 minutes of the first half saw Melbourne attacking, but unable to break the Bulldogs, who were scrambling well in defence. The Bulldogs handling errors (8 against 4) the main difference between the teams.
Things that make you go hmmmm
In front 10–0, this match felt like one of those split personality games that Melbourne were fond of playing in the early era under Craig Bellamy. Melbourne were doing enough to be in front, but at the same time looked fragile in defence that the opposition never felt out of the contest. So it would prove in the second half.
Melbourne had started the second half well, correctly challenging an incorrect decision,6 but the Bulldogs turned defence into attack an instant in the 48th minute through Josh Addo-Carr. The fastest man on the planet scoring his first try of the season to bring the visitors back into the game on the scoreboard.
That try was the impetus for the Bulldogs to raise their game. Jacob Kiraz looked dangerous on one side of the field, but their improvement looked to have been stifled by a silly bit of play from Samuel Hughes who found himself in the sin bin for attacking the head of Christian Welch in a tackle that caused a bit of a kerfuffle. With the power play Melbourne should have been content to hold possession and put pressure on the visitors line… until Trent Loiero lost the ball immediately.
Well that power play was immediately nixed when Papenhuyzen’s silly professional foul on Crichton put the teams back to even strength. Melbourne missing a fullback the greater penalty with a player each in the bin. Crichton might have taken a Grosso, but the decision is still correct.
An off night for Will Warbrick
Last year’s rookie sensation had an off night against the Bulldogs, mostly in defence. I’ve seen some suggesting that breaking up the partnership he had last year with Reimis Smith should be reversed, with Nick Meaney switching to the left edge to partner Xavier Coates. It’s an interesting discussion point. I think the issue probably doesn’t lie with Warbick or Meaney, rather the middle forwards not applying enough pressure to the opposition playmakers. Some of the decision-making does need to be better between Meaney and Warbrick, but giving the partnership on that edge time to get things right would be best for now.
It’s not that Warbrick is a poor defender, on the contrary I think he’s above league average, it just a confidence thing with his form and decision-making at the moment.
For Addo-Carr’s second try just after Paps was binned, there wasn’t much that the right edge could have done. The passing from the Bulldogs players in the middle had Meaney and Warbrick beaten, with Melbourne failing to number up the true cause behind the defensive failure.
Indeed without Paps the 12-man Melbourne struggled to contain a fully functional Bulldogs attack. With the scores now level with 20 minutes to go, Burton and Kikau were rampant down the Bulldogs left, and a glut of possession put Melbourne squarely in panic-defence mode. Addo-Carr’s third try saw Warbrick’s defensive choice suspect, but like the second try the root cause was Melbourne failing to number up in defence. The Bulldogs attack was oriented to their left flank and the Storm failed to work for each other to cover the part of the field where their opposition was strongest.7 Addo-Carr crossing untouched was galling, but there’s plenty of good vision for the players to learn from here.
Coming from behind… again
Melbourne survived the two minutes without Paps on the field when the Bulldogs were back to full strength, going close through Smith and Coates on the left edge. With Paps back you could see Melbourne start to go to work. With 14 minutes to play and down 14–10 there was an element that Melbourne had refocused. Tyran Wishart’s energy in the middle helped, as did Paps trying to make up for his missing ten minutes.
Just want to pause and bookmark this scrum play for later:
Warbrick feeds the scrum, Grant, Hughes, Munster, Papenhuyzen to Coates. Yes the final kick from Coates wasn’t great, but this is a midfield scrum set play that will have to come out on a special occasion down the line. Long live the scrum play.
Until Melbourne scored in the 75th minute, there were waves after waves of Storm attack. It wasn’t panicked football, but it was as close to Melbourne flicking the all-out attack button that hasn’t been seen much this season. It almost felt inevitable that Melbourne would score, it was just a matter of whether the Bulldogs would crack or be able to run out the clock. It would be a final pass from Munster off the back of a weaving Hughes run the play before that set up the try. Scoring the points was Shawn Blore for his first in Storm colours. Love that Hughes targeted tired defenders in the middle on his run, gliding past players, with Munster spotting more bad defence to put Blore over the line. Meaney’s conversion was comfortably slotted for Melbourne to regain the lead that they wouldn’t give up in the final four minutes. There would be no inverse play from the match that I featured in the preview, with Canterbury’s final minute nothing like Melbourne from 2006.
Stat offloads
Reimis Smith (a penalty sufficient high tackle on Jacob Kiraz in the 9th minute); Ryan Papenhuyzen (an alleged hip drop tackle on Josh Addo-Carr in the 38th minute); and Alec MacDonald (an alleged hip-drop tackle on Matt Burton in the 52nd minute) were all charged by the NRL match review.8 All three will likely take the early guilty plea fines on offer, even if all three shouldn’t.
The charge and sin bin were Papenhuyzen’s first of each in the NRL.
The corresponding match last season also saw a sin bin for Melbourne with Young Tonumaipea also sitting out for ten minutes.
By the next home match on ANZAC Day, it will be over 400 days since Melbourne’s last defeat at AAMI Park.
The loss was Cameron Ciraldo’s first against Melbourne, having previously won two games as Penrith coach (2018R25 and 2022R10) and last year at the Bulldogs.
Post match quotes
Bellamy was in a playful mood this week (note to journos: never imply he physically leaves the box):
I was reasonably happy with the way we played. There’s some times during the game where we are getting a little too excited and we need to stick to what we see as our strengths. We got a little bit impatient and we need to stick to what works for us. We went looking for a couple of short cuts… we found something at the end
On Shawn Blore:
He didn’t have a great preseason. He’s still a little underdone. But that’s the first time he’s gone the full 80 minutes with us. There were a couple of times we thought we might have to replace him, but the real positive sign is that he kept hanging in there. We know what he did there at the end with that try, we know he’s capable of that. He’s starting to forge a pretty good combination with Munster there on that edge.
He’s been working real hard and has more improvement in him. He’s got power and pace.
Grant:
It comes back to the trust within the group, and within each other. We’ve had a bit of time now together, everyone knows each other as people and as players and you’re comfortable to work hard and stick to our processes.
Papenhuyzen:
It was a bit like a Monopoly, the get out of jail free card, wasn’t it?
Belief is probably the word. Confidence that we can come back from anything, that our footy’s good enough.
People talk about being confident in close games but I think it’s more about being confident in our game plan. If we can just stick to it, we’ll get opportunities to score and get ourselves back.
Was it worth it?
Watching this one live it felt frustrating. Melbourne should have been more in front at half time, but on replay didn’t really have any clear-cut chances to add to the lead. The two sin bins did change the game, but the Bulldogs losing a middle forward didn’t impact them the same way it did with Paps going off.
While it would be nice if Melbourne could run up a score at some point this season, for now banking the two competition points is enough.
5/10
Storm Machine Player of the Year
Jahrome Hughes looked dangerous and was the key to Melbourne’s comeback. His calm head and clarity of decision-making is part of his elite level play. Also he was up against Kikau in defence, making a number of big tackles to stop the damaging back-rower.
Points this week to Shawn Blore who recovered from a stinger in the first half to score the match-winning try, and Xavier Coates for his efforts, although he almost lost it with the kick on the scrum play highlighted above.
Josh King had a heavy workload in the first half, making 14 runs for 104 metres with the ball, while making 14 tackles. It might just be a coincidence that the Bulldogs started to get on top when he had to go off the field in the second half when Paps went to the bin, but his efforts are deserving of praise. His second stint was the final four minutes where he went full Gandalf mode.
Ryan Papenhuyzen’s game probably deserved a point this week. He was busy and threatening, but getting put in bin for a professional foul while Melbourne were on the power play was just silly. Hopefully his first sin bin in the NRL is his last for a while.
Honourable mention to Cameron Munster this week. He was well up for this one, was more involved and looked better than last week while still not at full flight. It can’t be too long before he busts a game wide open.
Round 6 points:
2 – Jahrome Hughes
1 – Shawn Blore
1 – Xavier Coates
1 – Christian Welch
1 – Josh King
Leaderboard:
7 – Jahrome Hughes,
5 – Xavier Coates, Eliesa Katoa
4 – Ryan Papenhuyzen
3 – Tui Kamikamica
2 – Harry Grant, Shawn Blore
1 – Jonah Pezet, Joe Chan, Trent Loiero, Christian Welch, Josh King
Around the grounds
Jersey Flegg Cup U21s — Parramatta Eels 12–24 Melbourne Storm
After scoring the first try, Melbourne went to the break down 12–6, but held the Eels scoreless in the second half to take home the two points. Matthew Hill scored a double as the Storm moved into the top eight with a four wins and two losses record.
Queensland Cup — Sunshine Coast Falcons 48–12 Souths Logan Magpies
Level at 12–all at half time, a big second half from the Falcons smashed the Magpies scoring six tries to none to run out comfortable winners. Grant Anderson and Lazarus Vaalepu scored tries, with Young Tonumaipea, Aaron Pene, Jack Howarth and Chris Lewis also running out for the Falcons.
New South Wales Cup — Parramatta Eels 30–28 North Sydney Bears
Big Nasty didn’t travel to Sydney this week to play with the Bears, leaving Dean Ieremia, Keagan Russell-Smith and Bronson Garlick to play with North Sydney. Leading 18–14 at half time, the Bears extended that lead to 28–14 when Ieremia scored with 32 minutes to go. The Eels fought back in the next 20 minutes to take the lead and hang on in the final ten minutes.
The Tigers had a bye.
Next up
Round 7 vs Sydney Roosters – Thursday 18 April, 8:00pm @ Allianz Stadium
Back on #SackThursdayNightFootball this week meaning few interstate fans will be able to head up to The Bad Place to avoid the commentators. Tui Kamikamica will likely be missing, and Tepai Moeroa might also need a week off after picking up an injury.
The Roosters have issues of their own at the moment, despite their two point win over the Knights in Newcastle. I wonder if the Graham Annesley Comedy Hour on Monday will explain how Luke Keary isn’t facing a week on the sideline this week for his assault on a referee at the weekend given what happened to Jahrome Hughes. But then…9
Preview post out on Wednesday.
The NRL are now blocking YouTube embedding, so it is what it is.
Not helped by the commentary pairing either. No, it wasn’t “Reimis Smith’s 50th game as a Melbourne player” you terrible impression of Ray Warren. Unless 61 somehow equals 50 when doing maths in a studio 1000km away.
43 games for the Melbourne U20s from 2014–16.
Trying hard to avoid ref chat this week.
It wasn’t all good news with Tui Kamikamica leaving the field with a calf injury from which he would not return.
More evidence that you should never burn challenges for turnovers in the opposition’s half.
We saw this last year a couple of times for Melbourne against Penrith.
Regular reminder that these are under the purview of Luke Patten, who absolutely loathes Melbourne Storm. If they ever wanted to be transparent on what they’ve done in this space, explanation videos should be published with the daily report sheets with every angle of the incident made available. For one example, with the Smith charge there was only one angle that did not show the incident in the broadcast, while Papenhuyzen’s joke about needing $750 is less of a joke than his charge for a supposed hip-drop.
See previous comment about General Bias the head of the MRC.