Game 717 – S28E04 Review

St George Illawarra Dragons 14–8 Melbourne Storm

Mar 31, 2025

Melbourne’s first defeat of the season coming through a combination of not adapting to the conditions, a lack of fluency and being out-enthused by the opposition. Pretty dire.

St George Illawarra – 14 (Holmes 32', Liddle 67' tries; Holmes 3/4 goals)

Melbourne – 8 (Papenhuyzen 39' try; Wishart 2/2 goals)

I wouldn’t bother with the highlights this week.

Dumb games with dumb results

Sometimes rugby league is a frustrating, dumb sport.

Sometimes coaches are too smart for their own good and do dumb things. Alarm bells were ringing from the moment that Craig Bellamy and the brains trust decided on this bench rotation in wet conditions:

Bronson Garlick
Alec MacDonald
Tui Kamikamica

Marion Seve

On the back of losing Jahrome Hughes and Nelson Asofa Solomona, this really didn’t make much sense. If there were concerns about the fitness of Grant Anderson, then pick Kane Bradley who can at least cover the middle of the field and out wide. Seve ended up playing the final three minutes and touched the ball once. Sigh.

Sometimes dumb players live up to their reputations. Like Clinton Gutherson holding back Shawn Blore from getting to the ball in the second minute and then challenging that decision claiming that Melbourne had knocked-on to try and get the ball back.

Sometimes referees and the Bunker make dumb decisions. Like not sending Gutherson to the sin bin for a professional foul.1 How you can clearly see that and not call that a sin bin is, well dumb.

Sometimes kicking for touch from a penalty is dumb, especially when you kick it backwards 17 metres. Despite having two complete sets inside the red zone deep in the Dragons half, Melbourne couldn’t capitalise or adapt to the conditions.

That lack of fluency in attack and inability to respect the ball in the conditions led to a very frustrating first half. Melbourne’s last tackle options weren’t great because there was seemingly no thought to lay a platform with hard running in the middle. Instead Melbourne tried to go around the Dragons, which in the conditions wasn’t a great plan. The unsettled popgun attack shown by Melbourne eventually provided confidence to the home team through their defence. The Dragons only conceding two points on the back of four penalties and set restart in the space of ten minutes.

Holding the Storm out sparked the Dragons attack. The play that they ran on their left edge up against Tyran Wishart, Grant Anderson and Will Warbrick found space on the third time they tried it. It came on the back of an extended spell of possession, with the Dragons receiving their first penalty and a couple of set restarts. Valentine Holmes scoring the try outside of Anderson against a passive Storm defensive structure.

Down on the scoreboard, Melbourne were able to fight back and take the lead before half time in what was the sole highlight of the afternoon. It was a simple enough buildup to the try with Cameron Munster and Wishart linking up with Eli Katoa who threw the final pass to Ryan Papenhuyzen to score. It was the most fluent Melbourne had looked all day, with the halves combining with the strike weapons out wide.

That try was the last real action of the half and Melbourne’s 8–6 lead felt tenuous at best.

The second half saw conditions brighten a little, but the rugby league didn’t. Grant Anderson did well to get back into the field of play from a Dragons kick, and Melbourne kinda made plenty of ground coming out of their own half, but the last tackle options weren’t special. Harry Grant looked hurt and like he should have gone off, but by staying on the field he became the target in defence with the Dragons wearing him down like we’ve seen teams do in the past.

Eventually the match started to reach a pseudo grinding phase. Any attacking opportunity usually ended in an error, and the one the didn’t for the home team earned them a penalty. Holmes slammed the ball into the posts, missing the chance to level the scores.

Shawn Blore did cross the line in the 54th minute, but was denied the try losing the ball in the tackle. It was just one of those days. The controversial moment of the match came in the 65th minute. A good set with the ball set up Munster to kick across for Katoa to rise up above the defence to grab the ball and score… except apparently he didn’t. To the absolute surprise of everyone Kasey Badger said no. The decision was relayed through to the referee a full 90 seconds after the try was awarded on field.

For me, it was the introduction of Jacob Liddle that proved the difference. The Dragons better option at hooker replaced Damien Cook and they looked infinitely better. Coupled with Melbourne indiscipline the Dragons looked likely to break the second half deadlock and did that, first by levelling the scores with Holmes slotting an easy penalty goal, then Liddle scored what would prove to be the match-winning try with 12 minutes to go. Wishart and Stefano Utoikamanu unable to stop Liddle from taking an opportunity close to the line from dummy half, after Gutherson sneaked an extra few metres before playing the ball.

Sometimes dumb players live up to their reputations. Emre Guler jumping from outside of the field of play to take up the first hit up. Comedy gold. Pity Melbourne couldn’t get the ball back from the line dropout.

With ten minutes left of course Melbourne entered panic football mode. Sigh. Without a steady hand to guide the attack, there was little structure and it just looked inevitable that the Dragons would grimly hold on.

Post match quotes

Belsa was displeased…

We had a lot of opportunity in the first half, we had a lot of field position and a lot of ball; but in the second half we didn’t complete so well. I thought St George defended real well. We probably had a couple of chances there that we could’ve, should’ve, but didn’t take. We paid the price for that.
We just couldn’t seem to score points. Really disappointed with that second half.
I have a different opinion (on the Katoa no try), but at the end of the day there’s not much point complaining.

Grant was also asked about the Katoa no try, but I found this interesting:

They probably stopped a fair few of our opportunities today and it took us a bit of time to move on from those. We dwelt on them a little too much.

Stat offloads

Melbourne had 46 tackles inside the opposition’s 20m zone, compared with the Dragons 34. Melbourne had 45 tackles inside Penrith’s 20m zone last week.
Melbourne’s second half completion rate of 67% was their worst half of the season so far. Melbourne made 14 errors with the ball, their most in a match in 2025.
Melbourne had never lost 14–8 in the NRL before this match, having only featured in one of the previous 11 NRL matches before that ended 14–8; defeating Cronulla at AAMI Park in round 12, 2011.2
Emre Guler was charged with a grade one crusher tackle charge against Shawn Blore in the 27th minute.

Was it worth it?

Just 6,211 fans ventured out to Kogarah, because in those conditions why would you? Oh right, I was foolish enough to make this my one trip to The Bad Place in the opening half of the season.

At least I booked tickets in the grandstand and the food at the St George Leagues Club was tasty even in defeat.

2/10

Storm Machine Player of the Year

Eli Katoa (2) and Cameron Munster (1) received points from the Dally M judges. I’m not quite as generous. If Katoa’s try wasn’t overturned it might have been a different story.

Honourable mentions this week to Trent Loiero who tried hard in the middle especially in defence with 40 tackles, and Jack Howarth who tried hard with limited opportunities.

Round 4 points:

1 – Eliesa Katoa

Leaderboard

5 – Cameron Munster
3 – Ryan Papenhuyzen, Eliesa Katoa
2 – Jack Howarth
1 – Nick Meaney
1 – Stefano Utoikamanu
1 – Josh King

Around the grounds

Jersey Flegg Cup — St George Illawarra Dragons 26–26 Melbourne Storm

A draw in Wollongong with the Storm scoring three late tries to Luke Cesari to overturn a 20–0 half time deficit. The final try coming in the last minute, but the conversion attempt from Eli Morris was no good to snatch the win.

S.G. Ball Cup — Melbourne Storm 18–22 Newcastle Knights

After falling behind early, the under-19s rallied to head to the sheds at 12–all at half time at Seabrook Reserve. The Storm took the lead just after the break, but couldn’t hold on to take the win.

Queensland Cup — Souths Logan Magpies 42–18 Sunshine Coast Falcons

After scoring in the opening minute, the Falcons scored again to take the advantage early, but it wasn’t enough against the Magpies who went to the sheds up 18–12. They would go on to win comfortably in the second half. Lazarus Vaalepu topped the metres gained stats for the Falcons, while Sua Fa’alogo and Angus Hinchey also trotted out for the Sunshine Coast team.

Queensland Cup — PNG Hunters 40–6 Brisbane Tigers

The tough times continued for the Tigers, a heavy defeat in Port Moresby their latest result. Ryley Jacks scored the Tigers only try coming up after half time, with the former Storm player partnering Keagan Russell-Smith in the halves as the only Storm player to make the trip.

NSW Cup — St George Illawarra Dragons 24–28 North Sydney Bears

After a slow start which saw the Bears trail 10–0 inside the first ten minutes, the visitors bounced back to lead 16–10 at the break. It was a try for try in the second half, with the Bears ending up holding on for a tight win. Moses Leo made his rugby league debut for the Bears, lining up at left centre. Jonah Pezet also played the first half at five-eighth, but did not return in the second half after picking up a knock just before the break.

Next up

Round 5 vs Manly Warringah Sea Eagles – Sunday 6 April 2025, 4:00pm @ 4 Pines Park

The nastiest of away trips is in store this week as the Storm tries to win again without Jahrome Hughes. Not looking forward to this one in the slightest.