Game 704 – S27E20 Review

Melbourne Storm 24–8 Sydney Roosters

Jul 22, 2024

Melbourne make a statement with the defence holding up against the high-scoring Roosters on a cold and damp night at AAMI Park.

Melbourne – 24 (Anderson 17', 37', Howarth 14', Fa’alogo 79' tries; Meaney 4/6 goals)

Sydney – 8 (Tupou 27', Young 67' tries, Walker 0/2 goals)

Not sure if the highlights give an adequate impression of this match. Melbourne dominate against a Roosters line-up with a bunch of Origin players.

But first the bad news…

When I wrote this in the preview:

the point is that if there’s a week for Melbourne’s middle and bench forwards to step up and dominate, it’s this week.

I didn’t know that big NAS would be out with hamstring awareness and then on match day Christian Welch pulled up ~~over 30~~ with a back complaint. That certainly put my hopes of Melbourne dominating the Roosters through the middle in what was going to be a match played in wintry conditions.

…a debutant though

Huzzah. Praise be that Lazarus Vaalepu, all 190cm of him with tree trunks for thighs was named to debut as Storm player #235. I was genuinely concerned that the only Storm debut for the season would be the club debut of Shawn Blore. This is still the lowest number of new Storm players in a season by a margin.1

Defence and grinding the Roosters into submission

Melbourne started the way this game needed to be played to have any success — strong defence and safe attack that ended as completed sets with kicks that tested the Roosters back three. Harry Grant set the tone early in his comeback match, his running from dummy half to engage the line setting up a line break for Shawn Blore in the left channel. That chance might have come to nothing, but there was a clear objective from Melbourne to target the edges of the Roosters by engaging their middle forwards with speed. It seemed like Melbourne especially targetted Connor Watson on their left, and penalty machine Victor Radley on their right. Meanwhile Tui Kamikamica was making sure Brandon Smith had a bad time on his return to AAMI Park, smashing the hooker whenever he could in both defence and attack. Melbourne’s much-maligned passive defence out wide even looked comfortable against whatever the Roosters could muster when putting their outside backs into limited space.

After a couple of chances that didn’t quite pan out, Melbourne opened the scoring in the 14th minute, with Jack Howarth crossing for a well-deserved try. There was the usual level of brilliance from Jahrome Hughes in the lead-up, with Blore finding Howarth in open space after causing Dom Young to miss.

Making a statement

From the restart, Melbourne put together an almost perfect set of six. Tui Kamikamica continued to torment Brandon Smith and Connor Watson. Trent Loiero’s hit up on second tackle making sure that Luke Keary had to defend with a tiring Terrell May. Eli Katoa continued that push down the right channel, engaging Keary and Watson on the 30m line. Josh King’s run attracted four defenders in the middle of the field and the retreating Roosters were punished by Harry Grant from dummy half, with the Melbourne captain running straight through Radley and May at midfield, his diagonal run piercing through the line with Tyran Wishart in support. A lazy Smith wasn’t able to put any pressure on Grant from the inside, and while his pass out to Grant Anderson did go to ground, the winger played the situation perfectly to blow past Young and Tedesco to score untouched. It was a statement of intent from Melbourne to be up 10–0 inside 20 minutes against the Roosters.

Melbourne would keep up the energy through their defence, even when the visitors brought on more Origin forwards in Spencer Lenui and Lindsay Collins. Eventually though through pressure on the Melbourne line, the Rooster were able to score through Daniel Tupou wide on the their left. The prolific winger getting outside Will Warbrick to find space, latching onto a pass from Keary.

No try of the year nominee

This moment deserves it’s own video…

Party pooper #Kleined. Boo that man.

Serial offender

Victor Radley is a walking penalty machine, use that against them.

After Anderson was denied a try with that little knock-on, the Roosters put Melbourne under pressure, but Ryan Papenhuyzen’s super drop out drilling it at Keary gave Melbourne a scrum on their 30m line. Anderson immediately went to work with Howarth giving his winger the ball at precisely the right moment again to leave the Roosters edge in despair. Radley taking a very cynical professional foul that not even Trent Robinson could defend in the post game.

On the power play Melbourne went straight to work, not taking the two points on offer from a penalty against Lenui, opting to attack. That choice paid dividends with Paps finding Anderson in space with a perfect pinpoint kick. Anderson’s second double against the Roosters after his debut double in 2022.

There was one more chance for Melbourne to score before half time, but a last tackle called forward pass from Paps to Anderson denied another try down that side of the field. Melbourne going to the half at 14–4 up on the scoreboard and feeling more dominant than the scoreboard would show.

Wait, a penalty kill?

Coming back from the break, Melbourne didn’t find any field position to capitalise on the rest of the time Radley was in the sin bin, and then as soon as it was over Joe Chan was sent to the naughty corner for a tackle on Radley that will also see Chan spend a couple of weeks on the sidelines. Looked pretty soft on first view, but the standard is there.

On the penalty kill, Melbourne were able to grind out the Roosters. During their advantage period, the visitors were unable to mount any pressure, coming up with errors. While the Storm completed sets, holding the ball and kicking deep on last tackles.

Just before Chan returned,2 the Roosters had Connor Watson binned for one of the sillier professional fouls of the season, dragging down Howarth without the ball already from an offside position. Grant goaded the Roosters into the error with his little kick, putting the Roosters back down a man while Nick Meaney took the two points on offer.

This is the way

The match moved as so often Storm versus Roosters matches do into a grinding phase…

During the Storm’s second power play of the night, Melbourne didn’t offer much. An error from Loiero ended the Storm’s best chance, while some Keary magic almost resulted in a short-handed try to Tedesco, but it was rightly pulled back for a push from Tupou on Grant.

The Roosters conceded another obvious penalty for Meaney to extend the lead to 18–4 which brought… a SMILE from Craig Bellamy?!

That smile wouldn’t have lasted long though, the Roosters scoring in the 67th minute to cut the lead back to 14 points.

The final phase of this match did drag on ever so slightly. Meaney was penalised for Joseph Sua’ali’i jumping into the defensive line and causing himself a mischief; Young was forced into touch by a great tackle from Anderson; Melbourne scrambled in defence despite the interference from Grant Atkins.

Then Sua Fa’alogo entered the field for the final three minutes and 31 seconds to steal the show.

For a match that needed to be won in the middle, Melbourne won this with speed on the edges against a Roosters defence that felt like they didn’t use their resources well. Starting Collins and Lenui on the bench might have been a mistake from the visitors, especially given Melbourne didn’t have the impact of Welsh and Asofa-Solomona. Melbourne’s defence which had been struggling during this winning streak stepped up this week in some style. Long may that continue.

Post match quotes

The coach was also pleased with the defence:

We started the season off okay with our defence, but the last four or five weeks it hasn’t been where we’ve wanted it. It was really good tonight our defence and to keep the Roosters to eight [points] is a particularly good effort. Our effort defensively in getting to the contest and then being effective in the contest was the best its been for a fair while.

He had some good words for Grant Anderson:

He knows the game well and is really skillful. He seems to find the right place at the right time.

There was a really silly question from one of the journalists about “just running out the clock” that Bellyache definitely didn’t appreciate.

Stat offloads

Sua Fa’alogo scored his first NRL try in Melbourne. His previous seven tries have been scored in Queensland (3), NSW (2) and New Zealand (2).
Since the 2019 Grand Final and the retirement of Cooper Cronk, the Roosters have lost all nine games against Penrith, and 10 of 11 matches against Melbourne.
Nick Meaney kicked his 200th goal in Melbourne colours, only Matt Orford and Cameron Smith have kicked that many goals for the club.

Was it worth it?

Yes.

It was cold, it was wet. The wind blew like it did during the days at The Graveyard.3

Plus we got to see Lazarus Vaalepu take the field. A late bloomer, his story will hopefully have a few chapters in Storm colours.

Most importantly, defence won the day for Melbourne. The points against average drops back to 19.0. Hopefully that number continues to trend down.

8/10

Storm Machine Player of the Year

Is the Jack Howarth hype actually real? Signs are starting to point to yes. He is still just 21 years old, but he’s starting to play with a confidence that matches his reported contract value. 160m from 15 runs on the Fox Sports Lab stats, five tackle breaks and 14 tackles with only one miss. It was a big night for the rookie.

Meanwhile The Grant Anderson Experience keeps getting renewed for sequels because he’s playing great. Hopefully that last second injury concern is just a scare, because he’s definitely Mr Anderson at the moment.

Big games from Josh King with the no try assist of the season, and Shawn Blore. Indeed it was a night for the unsung Melbourne players to shine with Jahrome Hughes and Ryan Papenhuyzen just their regular brilliant selves, not their extraordinarily brilliant selves. Of course Sua stole the show in his four minutes on the field…

Round 20 points:

2 – Grant Anderson
2 – Josh King
2 – Jack Howarth
2 – Shawn Blore
1 – Harry Grant

Leaderboard:

24 – Jahrome Hughes
12 – Eliesa Katoa
9 – Harry Grant
8 – Xavier Coates, Ryan Papenhuyzen
6 – Tyran Wishart, Grant Anderson, Josh King
5 – Cameron Munster
4 – Christian Welch, Shawn Blore
3 – Tui Kamikamica, Cameron Munster, Grant Anderson, Nick Meaney, Trent Loiero, Sualauvi Fa’alogo, Jack Howarth
2 – Joe Chan, Will Warbrick, Nelson Asofa-Solomona
1 – Jonah Pezet, Alec MacDonald, Reimis Smith, Bronson Garlick

Around the grounds

Jersey Flegg Cup — Canberra Raiders 34–18 Melbourne Storm

Down 30–0 at half time, the Storm had something of a moral victory, winning the second half after Canberra’s Delahia Wigmore was sent off in the 45th minute. Melbourne had a couple of players in the sin bin during the first half too, with Chase Paterson also headed to the bin at the same time Wigmore was sent. The win put the Raiders back on top in this competition, with the Storm looking like they’ll struggle to make the finals.

Queensland Cup — Sunshine Coast Falcons 66–8 PNG Hunters

A day out for the Falcons who moved into the top four on the Queensland Cup ladder after putting the sword through the Hunters. In the last home game for the season for the Falcons, the Sunshine Coast boys scored 12 tries including a hat trick to Luke Polselli and a double for Caius Faatilli. Chris Lewis was the only Storm player on duty for the Falcons this week, heading north after acting as the reserve on Saturday night.

NSW Cup — Canberra Raiders 12–20 North Sydney Bears

After the Jersey Flegg match, the Bears did the business against the Raiders at Belconnen. Another try to Allan Fitzgibbon late in the match sealing a ninth straight victory which sees Norths clear on top of the NSW Cup ladder. Reimis Smith and Ativalu Lisati played 80 minutes, while Tepai Moeroa got in some solid match time in the forwards.

Suncorp Super Netball — West Coast Fever 72–62 Sunshine Coast Lightning

The Lightning’s season came to an end at the hands of the West Coast Fever on Sunday afternoon. After leading at quarter time, the Fever powered away through the second and third quarters and weren’t headed in the last. The Fever now travel to Melbourne to face the Vixens for a spot in the Grand Final against the Thunderbirds in Adelaide.

Next up

Round 21 vs Parramatta – Friday 26 July, 8:00pm @ CommBank Stadium

Second last placed Parramatta on a Friday night. The Eels on a three-match losing streak coming off a bye with their halfback broken during the exhibition match series. What could possibly go wrong?

Preview post out Thursday.