Game 699 – S27E14 Review

Melbourne Storm 36–28 Newcastle Knights

jonnyforeigner

Jun 11, 2024

A Sunday afternoon shootout at AAMI Park with defence seemingly optional at times.1

Melbourne – 36 (Meaney 17', 40', Wishart 48', 60', Hughes 39', Coates 55' tries; Meaney 6/7 goals)

Newcastle – 28 (Lucas 21', 42', Sharpe 31', Gagai 66', Tuala 76' tries; Hastings 4/5 goals)

Yes, I suppose there were some good tries scored in between all the bad defence…

Less than ideal

If there’s a theme to this week’s match, let it be “less than ideal.” When the news dropped on Saturday that Alec MacDonald wasn’t playing this week through an ankle injury, well that wasn’t great. Then after playing just 38 minutes for Queensland on Wednesday night, Harry Grant dropped back to the bench, meaning Bronson Garlick would start in his first NRL action for the season. Chatting with a former Storm player about Origin at the game we were surprised that Grant wasn’t starting, given that most players want to prove that they can back up at the reduced speed of NRL matches compared to Origin. It was also less than ideal that the Storm banner, while spelling out Tui Kamikamica’s full name, had a spelling error in the word success.

A not so successful banner this week. C’est la vie.

The Fox League broadcast was also quite less than ideal — Warren Smith having to carry Blocker Roach through two hours in the Fox studios should make him eligible for some kind of NDIS payment.

The middle forwards also had a bit of a shuffle this week, back to what the Storm were operating earlier this season, with Kamikamica and Josh King starting at prop and Trent Loiero back at lock forward. Would love to know whether the different rotations are horses for courses or if there’s a deeper reason behind the change.

Scrambling

Melbourne’s defensive pattern in 2024 has seen teams week after week shift the ball to their left side to go after Jahrome Hughes, Eli Katoa, Nick Meaney and Will Warbrick. With Warbrick missing this week, I expected the Knights to go after Grant Anderson and Meaney with gusto. Instead it was the Knights ball movement to their right through Jack Cogger that had Melbourne’s left edge defence scrambling. There was a seam down that edge that the Newcastle playmakers seemed to like the look of, starting very early they probed for the weak spot that they had spotted around Tyran Wishart and Reimis Smith.

Before that though, Melbourne’s back five looked to bring a better attitude and commitment about getting the ball out of the defensive half of the field. Sua Fa’alogo has been an interesting watch during this extended run at fullback. His ability to break tackles is great, it only wish that his little hop-step didn’t come out on every run back after defusing a kick. It would be nice to see him run hard and try and use his slight frame to fool the defence into missing tackles. It’s an element of his game that I’m sure the coaches will be working on. Something Melbourne has needed to work on has been captain’s challenges and in the 13th minute the Storm actually won a challenge after the officials had ruled that a Loiero offload went forward. It was a bit of fortune for the Storm with the play breaking down after the whistle that would have resulted in a turnover regardless of the original decision.

Topsy-turvy land

Left was right and right was left in this match. Melbourne’s usually trustworthy defence defending down the opposition’s right channel was under constant threat. Dane Gagai was giving Smith a hard time, and the Knights would get over the line in the 16th minute through Fletcher Sharpe. The referee and the bunker denying a try in what some called a harsh decision against the visitors. Serial pest Jackson Hastings thought it was a try, but I think there were a couple of knock-ons between Sharpe trying to get the ball free, and Cogger trying to pick up the loose ball.

From the resulting seven tackle set, aided by two set restarts, Melbourne themselves moved the ball to their right for Nick Meaney to score off a Jahrome Hughes pass. It was clinical from the Storm, although it did come with a question mark over the decoy run of Eli Katoa. His run ended up with Hastings on his back after hamming it up in the hopes of having the try denied. We’ve seen this exact play denied a try already this season, but this time it went Melbourne’s way.

Melbourne’s lead didn’t last long though. A horrible pass from dummy half from Garlick to Fa’alogo ended up in the hands of Hastings who passed to Dylan Lucas to score untouched.

That pass brought Harry Grant on to the field, with the skipper seeing Melbourne have the following sequence of play all inside the attacking red zone:

Knights line drop out fielded by Melbourne just over the 10m;
A set restart after the second tackle;
A set restart after the fourth tackle;
A Newcastle penalty after the third tackle;
A Newcastle penalty after the fourth tackle.

That final penalty saw the sin bin chat to Newcastle captain Tyson Frizzell, but Melbourne couldn’t capitalise on all this possession to score, losing the ball through a Loeiro error in a crunching tackle. Of course that error would lead to the referee affording the Knights a cheap penalty to get out of trouble.

Newcastle almost immediately moving the ball to their right through Cogger and the debutant Sharpe who scored on debut beating Smith and Fa’alogo to cross the line and put the Knights in front.

Down on the scoreboard, Melbourne brought on both Christian Welch and Nelson Asofa-Solomona for their first action of the afternoon, and Newcastle were lucky to stay at 13 on 13 in the 37th minute when Kai Pearce-Paul was lucky to only be put on report for a dangerous tackle on Loiero.2

Highlighting the topsy-turvy nature of the first half, Melbourne’s now dangerous right edge went close to scoring, only to see Fa’alogo decked by Greg Marzhew’s late shoulder charge that has escaped punishment, Melbourne spinning the ball back to the middle of the field for NAS to put out a great offload to Grant who found Hughes to crash over under the posts.

Back on level terms with less than a minute to play, I expected Melbourne to head to the sheds after a couple of simple rucks to end the half. Seemingly Newcastle thought the same, until Grant, Hughes and Anderson combined in the final seconds of the half. Anderson had tried a kick earlier which evaded the chasers on the bounce. This time the ball landed perfectly in the arms of Meaney to score his second of the day with the karma bus running over Marzhew in the lead up. It was, dare I say it, scintillating rugby league.

Truth be told, Melbourne probably deserved their lead.Newcastle had capitalised on an error and a penalty, but the balance of play had Melbourne in front in possession and territory.

Defence optional

Coming back from the break, any good vibes Melbourne had from the two tries just before half time was immediately lost when big NAS lost the ball from the kickoff. The visitors scoring straight away with the Knights skills on show to score in the left channel.

Rather than this match going into a grinding phase, it felt like this one went into shootout mode. Defences were stretched, the Knights again were fortunate not to be reduced in numbers for a professional foul by Marzhew against Anderson, but it wouldn’t matter too much when Wishart used his running skills to step and crash over a few plays later. It was what is fast becoming a signature try from Wishart, running hard with a step or two to make defenders miss.

Following the Wishart try, Melbourne’s middle forwards looked to be able to find more metres this week, getting over the advantage line a lot more than they did against Manly. That go-forward creating a platform for the Storm to set up this week’s spectacular Coates’ Corner antics.

Coates jump this week wasn’t quite as dramatic as his try of the year against the Warriors, but it was yet another special effort down in that corner of AAMI Park, extending Melbourne’s lead to 12 points with 25 minutes to play.

Newcastle’s defence melted away again just a few minutes later, with Melbourne’s right flank again outpointing the Knights resulting in Wishart’s second try. Watching Wishart’s movements in the lead up shows how much more thought he’s able to put into his game with the stability of playing one position each week.

With less than 20 minutes to play, with Melbourne already scoring 34 points it did feel like the Storm needed one more try just to secure the win in this one. That feeling grew as the Knights scored through Gagai in the 66th minute. He had gone close to scoring a minute or so before, beating Smith on both occasions. Smith wasn’t having a fun afternoon, leaving the field for a HIA not long after this try after running into Jayden Brailey.

In the final ten minutes, Newcastle looked like they should have scored via Enari Tuala, but it was some great defence from Fa’alogo that would save the day. Tuala would score a few minutes later to set up a nervy final few moments, but errors and silly penalties from the visitors saw them unable to mount pressure and had Frizell put in the sin bin, with Meaney’s last minute penalty goal sealing the result.

Post match quotes

It didn’t seem like Bellsa had a Sunday funday:

I'm glad we won obviously, but I just thought how many points we let in and how many line breaks they had through our middle was really disappointing. After a bye and a long turnaround sometimes it's a little bit hard to get into it. The game could have gone either way and I was just disappointed with our defence at times.
When we’re well in front to still have that attitude to try and finish it off, but I never felt comfortable at any point. They never give in and it almost came to bite us at the end there.

On Tyran Wishart:

He’s filled in a number of positions [this year] and I just love what he’s doing for us at the moment. He just competes hard and plays to his strengths. It’s not very often he lets us down.

On Grant Anderson:

He’s playing with a lot more confidence than he has in the past. I thought him and Nick Meaney were exceptional.

Stat offloads

Melbourne snap a two game losing streak against the Knights, extending the visitors losing streak at AAMI Park to five matches.
Nick Meaney scored his 50th and 51st career tries, taking his career points tally to 702 in 125 appearances.
The Grant Anderson Experience report: See below!

Was it worth it?

A lively 20,269 in attendance at AAMI Park for this one on a cool but thankfully dry Sunday afternoon.

Watching this one live it felt like Melbourne had the better of the Knights, with the exception of when they moved the ball to their right. It was a strange sensation seeing that side struggle when it’s usually the other side of Melbourne’s defence breaking under the pressure of constant attacking raids.

In the end though, the two points was enough reward for Melbourne to win against a team that are missing a few of their better players. Plus ending the streak under that referee was a nice bonus.

6/10

Storm Machine Player of the Year

The Grant Anderson Experience report: Maybe he is a right winger‽ I’m confused! Anderson might not have scored a try, but this was one of his best performances for Melbourne. No errors, no glaring missed tackles, but a bunch of positive stats (most run metres for Melbourne!) and involvements with kicks, passes, line breaks and try assists. He formed a great combination with Nick Meaney, with that pairing’s confidence sky high. You love to see it. Both Meaney and Anderson deserve three points, especially after Meaney switched sides to shore up the left edge when Smith went off.

The other theme for this week has to be Tyran Wishart. Since settling into his role at five-eighth, Wishart has been given the left side of attack to make his own. He has been great at running the ball, definitely straightening Melbourne’s attack down that edge. He ventured a bit more into the middle at times this week, even bobbing up occasionally to link with Hughes and the right edge. His two tries were just reward for a great match.

Honourable mentions to Trent Loeiro and Joe Chan this week. Loeiro’s move back into the starting side paid off, while Chan stepped in to cover right centre after Smith went off and Meaney switched sides. He was able to get the job done in the limited minutes he played.

Also wanted to make mention of Harry Grant after he came on Melbourne looked brighter in attack. His kicking on fourth tackles in the second half put the visitors on the back foot too, which was something that Melbourne had struggled with recently.

Round 14 points:

3 – Grant Anderson
3 – Nick Meaney
2 – Tyran Wishart
1 – Jahrome Hughes

Leaderboard:

14 – Jahrome Hughes
10 – Eliesa Katoa
8 – Xavier Coates, Harry Grant
6 – Ryan Papenhuyzen
5 – Cameron Munster
4 – Tyran Wishart, Grant Anderson
3 – Tui Kamikamica, Cameron Munster, Grant Anderson, Nick Meaney
2 – Shawn Blore, Joe Chan, Josh King, Trent Loiero, Sualauvi Fa’alogo
1 – Jonah Pezet, Christian Welch, Alec MacDonald, Reimis Smith

Around the grounds

Jersey Flegg Cup — Melbourne Storm 18–22 Penrith Panthers

Level at 8-all at half time, the Panthers pulled away in the second half in the curtain raiser at AAMI Park on Sunday, taking a 22–14 led into the final ten minutes. A second try of the match to Angus Hinchey drew Melbourne within four points with a few minutes left, but it wasn’t meant to be for the young Storm squad. Stuck in 10th spot on the ladder, they’ll now back up on Thursday afternoon against the 13th placed Sharks at The Swamp.

Queensland Cup — Brisbane Tigers 16–18 Wynnum Manly Seagulls

Three quick tries in the first half while Jontay-Junior Betham-Misa was in the sin bin put the visitors on the front foot at Coorparoo on Saturday afternoon. The Tigers would eventually head to half time down 18–6 with Kane Bradley scoring a try not long after the home team were back at full strength. Bradley would score a second try as the Tigers continued to come at the Seagulls, but despite another late try couldn’t they couldn’t get back level or in front. Keagan Russell-Smith and Coby Williamson also played for the Tigers this week, with young hooker Gabriel Satrick making his Queensland Cup debut. The Ipswich SHS and Yarrabah Seahawks product is one to look out for in the future having already played for Queensland U19s last year. The Tigers travel to Burleigh next Saturday (3pm), while the Falcons will be back from their bye to host the PNG Hunters on Sunday (2pm)

New South Wales Cup — Penrith Panthers 16–22 North Sydney Bears

Norths won their first match at Penrith since 2012, extending their winning streak to four matches. Only Dean Ieremia turned out for the Bears, who led 12–0 at half time. The Bears have the best win percentage in the NSW Cup and head to Henson Park next Saturday (3pm) to play the Jets who sit just one spot behind them on the ladder.

Suncorp Super Netball — NSW Swifts 64–66 Sunshine Coast Lightning

The Lightning consolidated fourth spot on the Super Netball ladder with a hard-fought win over the Swifts on Saturday afternoon. Courtney Bruce returned from injury during the match, subbing in for new Diamonds selection Ash Ervin at GK. Ervin, Bruce and Tara Hinchliffe doing just enough in the last quarter to fend off a comeback from the Swifts led by shooters Sophie Fawns and England international Helen Housby during the final five minutes. The Lightning had led by eight at 3QT with the shooters Cara Koenen, Steph Fretwell and Reilly Batcheldor all shooting above 90%. The Lightning host the Melbourne Vixens next Saturday (7pm).

Next up

Round 15 vs New Zealand Warriors – Saturday 15 June, 5:30pm @ Go Media Stadium

The Michael Moore Trophy goes back on the line against the Warriors, with the Storm crossing the Tasman for the first time in a couple of years. The Wahs will probably enter this match as the favourites to beat the Storm, trying to end a 15-match streak that goes all the way back to 2015.

Preview post coming later in the week for what will be the Storm’s 700th first grade game, with the 700th NRL game coming up later this year (round 21 against Parramatta).