Game 705 – S27E21 Review

Parramatta Eels 14–32 Melbourne Storm

Jul 28, 2024

It wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t comfortable, but Melbourne take home the points against an overmatched opponent for win number 15 for the season.

Parramatta – 14 (Russell 19', 76', Tago 4' tries; Gutherson 1/3 goals)

Melbourne – 32 (Anderson 13', Grant 29', Warbrick 47', Wishart 58', Papenhuyzen 69' tries; Meaney 6/6 goals)

Winning ugly can have some highlights right?

Winning in July is okay

If you’d told me in March that after 21 rounds of the 2024 NRL season Melbourne would be two games clear on top, with the second best attacking record and the fourth best defensive record, I would have been surprised and filled with many questions.1 That Melbourne has achieved that result at the end of July with a squad that had missed various members of their attacking spine and one of the key back ups will be forever to the coaching staff’s credit. Should Melbourne go on from here to claim the J.J. Giltinan Trophy again, may well score Craig Bellamy another Dally M Coach of the Year award.2 Melbourne completed a perfect July to extend their winning streak to seven matches with this win over Parramatta.

But starting this way wasn’t fun

In front of a sparse crowd at CommBank Stadium, Melbourne seemingly were not allowed to have possession in the first five minutes. It took the Storm over eight minutes to get into the Parramatta half on the back of a penalty, but Shawn Blore coughed up possession to hand the home team the ball that they had owned up to that point, scoring the opening try through Jake Tago in the 4th minute. In contrast to Melbourne’s ordinary start, the home team looked bright and on their game, as overmatched as they were against the Storm.3

Matters weren’t helped by Melbourne reverting back to the passive defensive structure that has been exhibited at various times this season, but against the run of play the Storm took the lead through a try to Grant Anderson. The winger finishing a movement that began inside Melbourne’s 10m line, with Jahrome Hughes sending Ryan Papenhuyzen away. Paps was caught at not far into the Parramatta half,4 but Melbourne were able to spread the ball wide to the left edge, Blore juggling his offload, but still able to send Jack Howarth into space, with the young centre finding Anderson with enough time to cut inside to score untouched.

That lead didn’t last too long though. Melbourne felt at least 10% off their game and kept making errors in the first 15 minutes. It allowed the home team to keep running the ball as their option on final tackles, the Eels going in again by exploiting the numbers on their right edge around Howarth and Anderson. Sean Russell crossing over to restore the a lead for Parramatta inside the first 20 minutes.

An inability to mount pressure

The headline statistic from this match is that Melbourne had one play the ball inside the Parramatta red zone. Parramatta had 43. Melbourne couldn’t control the flow of this match, and as such it felt like the Storm had to live of scraps. Parramatta looked like they were able to gain plenty of metres too against a Storm defence that only seemed to muscle up on the line.

Until the introduction of Nelson Asofa-Solomona, Melbourne’s middle forwards were lacking in intensity. Big Nasty was the catalyst, but it was Eli Katoa who forced an error from Shaun Lane to cough up possession straight to Harry Grant who crossed over for Melbourne’s second try.

Welcome back Mun

That try saw Cameron Munster come on for his first action since Magic Round. It’s great to see Munster back, even if he did look a little bit lost on his left edge in the ten minutes before half time. His injection into the play put Tyran Wishart into a middle forward role, with the utility helping Melbourne look brighter as the half progressed. It wouldn’t lead to any further tries before the end of the first half,5 but it did see Tago put into the naughty corner for a professional foul right on half time. Nick Meaney kicking the penalty goal to take the score to 14–8.

Liam Kennedy: I was unfamiliar with your game…

…and now that I am, I am confident you won’t be refereeing a Melbourne Storm game again anytime soon.

My note during the match about the refereeing:

Liam Kennedy you are cooked.

His management of the ruck was a nonsense.6 His 10m was inconsistent and often shorter for Melbourne than it was for Parramatta. He frustrated fans, but more pertinently the players with his rulings. Again, he is one of those referees who would greatly benefit from having a colleague out there to assist with decision making. If only the refereeing union was strong enough to push to have the pre-pandemic regime restored.

Finally an attacking try

During the reduced 8:34 power play,7 Melbourne started poorly, copped some rubbish decisions from Kennedy and burnt a challenge through that frustration. But the power play was finally saved by Will Warbrick who got around the Parramatta defence on the back of some nice passing from Trent Loiero. Warbrick finishing the play after backing up to take the bounce pass from Hughes down the right flank.

From the restart Liam Kennedy seemed to erase the word held from his vocabulary, allowing Parramatta to force a line drop out. Paps put the drop out into touch, but the defence stood up and kept out the Eels despite the insistence of Kennedy in gifting the home team chance after chance with the whistle.8

Defence brings points

Eventually Melbourne got the ball back and on the back of their defence were finally able to mount an attacking raid.9 It was still disjointed and messy from Melbourne, but eventually more points were put on the board. Tyran Wishart backing up a line break from Katoa to score under the posts. The pass from Hughes that led to the try was probably forward… did it make up for the shit calls from Kennedy? Probs not,10 but at this point, Melbourne had a defensible lead going into the final 20 minutes.

At 26–8 up, Melbourne meandered through the next ten minutes, eventually extending their lead when Munster drifted across to the right to find Katoa with Paps in support to burst through the line. It was a classy try and that it came through Munster linking up with Katoa was good to watch.

In the final ten minutes of what was in all honesty junk time, Parramatta scored a consolation try after Grant had left the field, Sean Russell scoring his second of the night getting around a hobbled Anderson.

Post match quotes

Was defence the word of the day from the coach:

I thought we backed up good with our defence, ut we were just really untidy coming out of our own end at the start of both halves. They had a whole heap of field position on us. We defended that well, but you’re not going to get away with that too often if it gets repeated.
Our forwards did a lot of defence, a lot of defence inside our own 20m, and I just thought they really stood up tonight.

On Munster:

We just wanted to ease him back in and get his timing back. The biggest thing for me was (for him to) get your defence right and attack will come off the back of that.

Harry acknowledged that with the spine:

There’s a lot of improvement still to go. Refine and do a bit more work — everyone who’s stepped in there has done a good job. It’s on us to take it to the next level.

Stat offloads

Will Warbrick (41 matches) and Harry Grant (77 matches) each scored their 25th NRL try for Melbourne.
The win was Melbourne’s second against Parramatta at CommBank Stadium, and third from six matches at the venue.
Harry Grant has scored a try in all three matches he’s played for Melbourne against Parramatta at the venue.

Was it worth it?

Playing to the level of the opposition is a dangerous move to pull off. Melbourne keep succeeding at it in season 2024. It’s a strange vibe. Better opponents would have been able to apply pressure to Melbourne both by tiring out the defence and by putting points on the board, making the Storm play panic football. Parramatta just couldn’t do that despite the advantages that they had.

Guess the fair-weather Parra fans aren’t a fan of what the Trent Barrett Eels are serving up either. Crowd numbers at CommBank Stadium are usually more inflated than CBA’s share price, but it certainly looked a lot less than half full on television.11

6/10

Storm Machine Player of the Year

NRL.com credited Will Warbrick with a massive 312 run metres, with the Fox Sports Lab also giving him 276m including 94 post contact metres and four line breaks. Brick’s stat history has never seen him go more than 200m in a match before, so those numbers are massive. His choices when and when not to pass were very good this week too.

Brick was assisted in having a big game by the work in the middle. I thought Trent Loiero was great in the middle this week, he made a ton of tackle without missing, and while he wasn’t as flashy with the ball as Eli Katoa on the edge, his ball playing is always welcome.

Might be a little indulgent, but I’m also giving a shout out to big NAS this week. When he came on in the first half, his presence alone seemed to lift the intensity for the Storm. He sticks his tackles, didn’t give away anything via the referee and always contests.

In an effort that was very much about sacrificing for the team, especially working hard after a slow start, there’s a bunch of players who could have received a point this week. I settled on giving one to Paps who is quite clearly playing through the pain of his foot injury. A lesser player wouldn’t be going through what he is just to train and play. Full credit to him after missing so much footy through injury.

Round 21 points:

3 – Will Warbrick
2 – Trent Loiero
1 – Ryan Papenhuyzen
1 – Nelson Asofa-Solomona

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

Queensland Cup — Sunshine Coast Falcons 32–16 Ipswich Jets

in the cane fields west of Bundaberg, the Falcons kept on their winning ways, this time having no issues with the Jets. Leading 24–6 at the half, Sunshine Coast might be a little disappointed in their second half, but the heavy pitch may have been a factor.

AJ Gudgeon and Chris Lewis were in action for the Falcons.

Queensland Cup — Brisbane Tigers 18–30 Townsville Blackhawks

In Mt Isa, the Tigers lost their fourth straight match which has seen them drop out of finals contention and down to 13th on the ladder after this weekend’s matches.

Marion Seve, Thomas Powell, Keagan Russell-Smith, and Coby Williamson were all in action.

NSW Cup — Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs 32–10 North Sydney Bears

Sua Fa’alogo did double time this weekend, starting at fullback for the Bears after his nine minutes of game time the night before. Joining him was Reimis Smith, Tepai Moeroa, and Ativalu Lisati this week, with Reimis Smith scoring a first half try. It wasn’t the Bears day though, the Bulldogs ending Norths winning streak, keeping the Bears scoreless in the second half after leading 16–10 at half time.

Next up

Round 22 vs St George-Illawarra Dragons – Saturday 3 August, 5:30pm @ AAMI Park

Another season where the Storm only play the Dragons once — at least in 2024 the match will be at AAMI Park, where the visitors have never won. Melbourne will be defending the fortress for the second to last home game this season, aiming for the club’s 8th win in a row.

Preview post with something special posted on Thursday.