Game 700 – S27E15 Review

New Zealand Warriors 24–38 Melbourne Storm

Jun 16, 2024

A roller coaster of a Saturday night in Auckland with the Storm turning around a nightmare start into a solid victory.

Warriors – 24 (Montoya 16', 75', Pompey 5', Barnett 46' tries; Pompey 3/4, Harris-Tavita 1/1 goals)

Melbourne – 38 (Fa’alogo 55', 79', Katoa 20', Anderson 26', Ieremia 30', Meaney 34' Coates 62' tries; Meaney 5/7 goals)

Highlights this week have the Kiwi commentators!1

Wake me up from this nightmare

I swear watching away games on television is a skill that I have yet to master. I hate it so very much, and yet I have no away trips planned this season because of the horrendous Storm fixture.2 The first 20 minutes of this match had me in a similar position to Craig Bellamy.

I’m not sure a list of what happened in the Auckland rain at a sold out Mt Smart Stadium can do the nightmare justice, but here goes:3

1st minute: Shawn Blore is penalised for a high tackle on the third play of the match;
2nd minute: Tyran Wishart is pinged for a ruck infringement on second tackle;
3rd minute: Nick Meaney tries for an offload in a three-man tackle on Melbourne’s second hit up of the night, losing the ball trying to find Harry Grant;
4th minute: A kick into the chest of Jahrome Hughes drops free and the halfback knocks-on trying to grab the loose ball to hand the Warriors another set inside the red zone;
5th minute: Gerard Sutton pings Tui Kamikamica for a ruck infringement, again resetting the tackle count;
5th minute: Adam Pompey crashes over in the left channel, getting through Jahrome Hughes and Sua Fa’alogo;
7th minute: Eli Katoa is put on report and penalised for “dangerous kick pressure” on Te Maire Martin’s fifth tackle kick. Katoa’s contact with Martin was a justifiable penalty,4 although getting kicked in the head can’t have been fun. The Wahs take their lead to 8–0 with Pompey slotting the two points;
10th minute: Fa’alogo loses the ball in a tackle after being called held on what should have been a zero tackle and no advantage after Dallin Watene-Zelezniak knocked-on in a contest for a high ball with Xavier Coates. Melbourne fail to challenge Sutton’s wrong decision;
11th minute: Harry Grant is penalised for stripping the ball in a tackle, after the Warriors successfully challenged another poor decision by Sutton;
13th minute: Meaney takes a high ball and loses the ball under immense pressure, the video referee rules that it was stripped in the tackle and knocked-on by Jackson Ford;
14th minute: Melbourne complete their first set of tackles for the match, gaining only 25 metres before Hughes kicks the ball deep;
15th minute: Coates fumbles a kick in the in-goal area under pressure from DWZ. Sutton rules a penalty to Melbourne for tackled in the air, but is overruled by the Bunker after the Warriors challenge. Hughes puts the drop-out straight into touch;
16th minute: Despite Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad pass looking like it would have been more suited to being thrown by Patrick Mahomes, Marcelo Montoya crosses over untouched on the Warriors left wing, Pompey adding the extras to make it Warriors 14–0.

Melbourne’s completed sets: 1. Melbourne’s tackles in the opposition half: 0.
Melbourne’s metres gained: 40. Tackle count 90 versus 18.

On the back of a penalty, Melbourne finally crossed half way with the ball in the 19th minute and in the 20th minute of the match Melbourne completed their first full set of tackles with Jahrome Hughes putting up a high kick in the direction of Warriors centre Adam Pompey.

Jahrome Hughes, superstar

I will freely admit to being all-in on Brodie Croft in 2018 and 2019. It was the first time since Matt Orford that the Storm fielded a natural halfback rather than a manufactured halfback. That’s no slight on Cooper Cronk who is a legend of the Storm, but rather that he learnt how to play halfback at NRL level after being very much a utility type player at the Norths Devils and much of his first two seasons in the NRL. I still remember the quandary that was the mix of Orford, Cronk, Scott Hill, Matt Geyer, Greg Inglis and Cameron Smith before each player found their niche under Craig Bellamy (or elsewhere). When Hughes replaced Croft at halfback late in the 2019 season I was confused. Why were we playing our fullback up in the line? Could he turn into a halfback or was this just Bellyache giving up on Croft and playing out the season to start again for 2020?

Of course, we know now how those moves in 2019 all turned out for the best with Melbourne winning a sixth premiership in 2020 while Brodie Croft took the Broncos to the wooden spoon.

My point here — Jahrome Hughes is a superstar and we’re lucky to have him happy and thriving in Melbourne. He’s not the best halfback in the league, and his worst game isn’t great (unlike Cleary), but at his best like he was in this match, I wouldn’t swap him for another. Hughes took the responsibility to drive the standards needed to get Melbourne back into this match, with his able accomplice Eli Katoa next to him. Hughes is one of Melbourne’s players who have never tasted defeat against the Warriors, and we all know how much the Storm struggle when he’s missing from the squad.

On the board and then more

Katoa pinching the ball off Pompey and crashing over was the spark that ignited Melbourne. For all the flaws this current iteration of the Melbourne Storm have, their belief that they can comeback has proven useful a number of times so far this season.

Katoa’s seventh try of the season meant that at least Melbourne had scored, so that was nice… OMG is that Grant Anderson’s music!

The Grant Anderson Experience — New Zealand Tour 2024 had him playing bass to Coates on guitar on the left flank. When I saw Melbourne with Anderson and Coates on the left (up against DWZ) and Meaney and Ieremia on the right (against Montoya) I was concerned (about the right) and excited (by the left). Another pin point kick from Hughes to Coates set up Melbourne’s second try with X tapping it back to Anderson to dive over in the corner… well I think that’s what happened, was a little difficult to tell thanks to the choice of camera angles from the NZ television director… yes, that’s what happened. Amazing. Two chances in the Wahs end of the field and Melbourne come up with two tries. How good was it to see Anderson vocal in the huddle after the try too.

With Christian Welch and Nelson Asofa-Solomona entering the play, Melbourne’s ruck speed and forward metres started to click into gear on the next set and then there was a penalty for pressure on the kicker. Now look, if the penalty against Katoa on Martin was a penalty, this was a penalty on Jackson Ford against Hughes. If the first one wasn’t then this one wasn’t.5 You get me right? Consistency. It’s better than the alternative. Much to the chagrin of the Wahs fans, of course Melbourne would take immediate advantage of the field position offered, with Hughes making the perfect pass to Ieremia to score on the right wing.

Welcome back Deano. In his first NRL action since late 2022, scoring his first try since round 19 of that season. That’s 47 Storm games ago.

From 14 points down, to level in little over ten minutes.

Can you imagine a scenario where a large human like Eli Katoa finds themselves in as much space as he did on this line break?

Everything from the pass from the ruck to the try was perfectly executed. Melbourne have scored a few long-range tries this season, this was one of the better ones.

The comeback complete, Melbourne scored 20 points in 15 minutes, upending almost all of the stat categories along the way. Hughes orchestrating it all. He had help though with Welch, Asofa-Solomona, Loeiro, Blore and Katoa all lifting their work rate, making sure their standards matched their little halfback.

Second half blues

Melbourne’s start to the second half, to recycle last week’s theme was less than ideal. A couple of errors led to the Wahs getting possession in the red zone, for which they almost capitalised upon when Marata Niukore was held up in the in-goal only for the Bunker to pick up on an obstruction play in the lead up. It was great work from Fa’alogo to hold up the marauding second rower, but I’m concerned about that ruling from the Bunker. It was marginally correct, but didn’t feel right on vibes.

The Wahs would score in the 46th minute, Mitch Barnett breaking through and across the line against Katoa and Meaney, in a set following an error from Coates under the high ball.6 Back within two points on the scoreboard, this match was evenly poised, until the Warriors lost the plot. Jazz Tevaga went over the line, but knocked-on in his two-man steal effort on Ieremia, but the scenes of Fa’alogo lying prone on the field was finally noticed by the Bunker, blowing a penalty for a high shot on the previous play instead.

The pace of the match had picked up, and Melbourne took full advantage, getting Marcelo Montoya in trouble with the referee and sent to the sin bin for a professional foul. The smart player who forced Sutton to make a decision: Jahrome Hughes.

Nearing the end of the Storm power play, DWZ found himself in hot water too for taking out Anderson without the ball and high. The sin bin was used again, with DWZ lucky not to be sent off.7

The mystique of Sua Fa’alogo

Sua seems like quiet, albeit supremely confident footballer. He is eminently watchable each week. Something is going to happen when he’s around the ball. In this match he’s credited with two missed tackles and three errors on the negative side, and five tackle breaks, two line breaks and a line break assist on the positive side. Oh and two tries, one near-run thing in the 44th minute, and a couple of try-saving tackles.

Fa’alogo’s first try came straight after Montoya was sent to the bin. His swan dive into the left corner was funny, but c’mon bro you’re gonna hurt yourself. Just put the ball down over the line!

In between Fa’alogo’s first try and his second late in the match, Coates scored his ninth try for the season, Harry Grant’s little kick the right option against an 11-man Wahs line right where DWZ was missing. Montoya would later score after his time in the naughty corner, but by that late stage it only through the home team within eight points with less than five minutes to play.

There would be no grandstand finish from the Wahs akin to Melbourne’s effort earlier this season, instead the home team would give up possession and Melbourne would defend gamely across the field to shut down the Warriors attack. Rather it would be Fa’alogo to put the exclamation point on the win, cutting the Wahs defence to ribbons after receiving the ball from Hughes 40m out from the line. Again celebrating before putting the ball down (seriously, stop that!) to score the best try of the night.

Mick Moore Trophy secured for the 16th straight time. Giddy up!

The Michael Moore Trophy heading home again. Photo credit: @Storm on Twitter

Post match quotes

Word of the day from Bellsa was resilience:

I can't remember us ever starting that badly to be honest, obviously the guys showed a lot of resilience to build our way back into the game. It was probably a bit of a surprise that we were in front at half time. I thought the second half it looked like it might be happening again, but we pulled ourselves together. We know the Warriors are a good side so to have the start we had and come back and win the game, that was a pretty good effort.
We just got back to what we planned to do, to what works well for us. We know what we want to do, we just weren’t doing it. You’re not going to be able to get out of those situations all the time, but I thought we showed a lost of resilience to do that.
I thought Jahrome was outstanding, he has been all year to be quite honest. He had a really calm head and got them back in the game.

Stat offloads

Matches where Victorian juniors8 scored tries for Melbourne: two
1. S18E19: Melbourne defeated Penrith 52–10 at AAMI Park (Mahe Fonua and Richie Kennar scored tries)
2. S27E15: Melbourne defeated Warriors 38–24 at Go Media Stadium (Sua Fa’alogo (2) and Dean Ieremia scored tries)
Nick Meaney scored his 500th point for the club, the fifth player to reach that mark for the club.
The Grant Anderson Experience report: scored his fifth career try for Melbourne, the first time he’s only scored one try and not two tries in a match.

Was it worth it?

There’s been some odd games of rugby league between Melbourne and the Warriors over the years. We’re not that far removed from the Storm thrashing the Wahs 70–10 at AAMI Park in 2022, or a late Brodie Croft field goal off the post to win 13–12 in 2019. But there’s something very odd about matches between these teams across the ditch. This is a venue that’s seen Melbourne win 4–2 in 2007, and lose 8–6 a year later. This match might look ordinary in the history books at 38–24, but the tale of this game with Melbourne missing key players, but with Victorian juniors scoring three tries after that nightmare start, and with the Melbourne Old Boys in the stands — this story will be worth telling again in years to come.

8/10

Storm Machine Player of the Year

There’s probably ten players I could have given points to this week, but with only ten points to play with, there’s a few who have missed out. Jahrome Hughes deserves all the plaudits for his performance. Yeah the first try for the Warriors went through his spot on the defensive line, but it didn’t rattle him. He stepped up from there. Everything good for Melbourne went through his hands. A supreme performance.

His edge partner on the right Eli Katoa is deservedly getting praise. He was always going to be this kind of player in Melbourne’s system and he’s showing it every week.

In the forwards, if you watch the replay in full, just watch Trent Loiero. He’s no nonsense most of the time, just getting through his work, but there’s more to his game than that. It’s been a while since I’ve watched a Storm game from front on, but I suspect that I would notice his little efforts even more from that angle. Melbourne’s bench forwards (including Joe Chan9 and Jack Howarth) were fantastic. Big Nasty and the White Rhino. There’s a buddy movie plot in there somewhere that someone ought to write. Points for NAS and Welch, but I see you Jack Howarth trying to take the Chin’s spot on a more regular basis. 👀

Two tries gets Sua a point this week too. It wasn’t a perfect game for the diminutive fullback, but he’s putting together a good spell in relief for the injured Ryan Papenhuyzen. I don’t envy the coaches when everyone is eventually fit for selection.

Round 15 points:

4 – Jahrome Hughes
2 – Eliesa Katoa
1 – Trent Loiero
1 – Sualauvi Fa’alogo
1 – Nelson Asofa-Solomona
1 – Christian Welch

Leaderboard:

18 – Jahrome Hughes
12 – 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, Trent Loiero, Sualauvi Fa’alogo
2 – Shawn Blore, Joe Chan, Josh King, Christian Welch
1 – Jonah Pezet, Alec MacDonald, Reimis Smith, Nelson Asofa-Solomona

Around the grounds

Jersey Flegg Cup — Cronulla Sutherland Sharks 34–20 Melbourne Storm

Despite scoring first against the Sharks, the young Storm squad was overrun in both halves, with only some late tries adding some kind of respectability to the scoreboard. The loss sees Melbourne stay in 10th on the ladder, with six wins from 14 matches played this season. The squad now travels to Fiji to play the Silktails at Nadi on Saturday (9am kickoff Melbourne time).

Queensland Cup — Burleigh Bears 20–24 Brisbane Tigers

A first half double from Coby Williamson had the Tigers up 20–8 at half time with an upset brewing at Pizzey Park. The Bears scored a try through Cole Geyer with just under 10 minutes to go to bring it close for the home team, but they left their run short. Keagan Russell-Smith and Gabriel Satrick also were in action for the Tigers who jump back to 10th on the ladder ahead of their third bye next weekend.

The Falcons had this weekend off with the match against the PNG Hunters moved to later in the season, they’ll face off against the lowly Clydsdales next Saturday (5pm)

New South Wales Cup — Newtown Jets 12–16 North Sydney Bears

No Storm players, no worries for the Bears at Henson Park, getting the job done against the Jets who had Melbourne Old Boy Daniel Atkinson back in NSW Cup from Cronulla. Two first half tries had Norths up 12–0 at half time, but they were only limited to penalty goals in the second half as the home team pushed hard. There was a nervy finish as the Jets scored with five minutes to go, but the Bears hung on to take sole possession of first on the NSW Cup ladder ahead of their second bye next weekend.

Suncorp Super Netball — Sunshine Coast Lightning 61–63 Melbourne Vixens

A tight tussle on the Sunny Coast with the Vixens just shading the Lightning in a high-quality game of netball. Both teams really wanted this one, with plenty of current and former Diamonds players on show. In the end it was the Vixens doing just enough to hold off the home team, a late held ball call costly. The Lightning host the Giants next Sunday (4pm) needing a win to maintain their top four spot as the Super Netball competition enters the last month of the regular season.

Next up

Round 16 vs ~~Redcliffe~~ Dolphins – Friday 21 June, 8:00pm @ Suncorp Stadium

Off to Queensland after international travel on short rest, without Grant and Coates. What could possibly go wrong?

Preview post and something more on Thursday.