Game 721 – S28E08 Review

Melbourne Storm 24–16 South Sydney Rabbitohs

jonnyforeigner

Apr 27, 2025

Melbourne did enough in the rain to grab the two points, holding on to keep the visitors winless in Victoria.

Melbourne – 24 (Papenhuyzen 13', Coates 38', Katoa 43', Wishart 66' tries; Papenhuyzen 4/5 goals)

South Sydney – 16 (Wighton 16', 77', Bentley-Hape 32' tries; Mitchell 2/3 goals)

Four tries for Melbourne this week, was that just one or was it two from inside Melbourne’s half?

Wet weather football

Did Melbourne actually come out and play to the conditions? It was a very conservative start with the ball until a kick from Jahrome Hughes wasn’t successfully caught by Bayleigh Bentleigh-Hape. That attacking opportunity didn’t result in points with Melbourne seemingly not willing to test their ability to pass wide in the wet conditions. Is this learning to play to the conditions from certain players?

It was a bit of a slog from both teams in the opening ten minutes as both teams struggled to move the ball around the park, which wasn’t being helped by the way the game was being officiated. Souths were able to neutralise the high kicks directed at Xavier Coates by letting the winger catch the ball and tackle him immediately.

Couldn’t ignore this comment from Phil Gould in commentary:

I’d love to know what Craig Bellamy writes in that little notebook of his and what language he uses.

It’s English Gus. English.

The set of tackles in which Melbourne opened the scoring was interesting to watch on the replay. Sua Fa’alogo fielded a Latrell Mitchell kick on his own 10m line, making it to the 30m for tackle one. Nick Meaney took the second hitup gaining about six metres, then Melbourne tried to move the ball left through Hughes, Papenhuyzen and Munster, with Grant Anderson eventually cutting back inside for tackle three just short of halfway. Shawn Blore then took a hit up to gain about ten metres, but then all of a sudden the Storm played loose to the right on the back of a slowed play-the-ball. Trent Loiero cut out Josh King with Hughes and Eli Katoa deep in motion, Katoa went to Nick Meaney as the Souths defence drifted in. Meaney put Fa’alogo down the flank, the little Victorian cutting infield where the visitors had switched off. His pass was perfectly timed to Paps to beat the fullback to score untouched. It’s the kind of try that seemingly comes from nothing on fourth tackle, but comes because the defence has been worn down and can’t keep backing up their teammates.1 Melbourne putting players in motion on their right edge is always hard to stop.

Unfortunately Melbourne were unable to complete their set from the restart, Stefano Utoikamanu’s offload wasn’t the best idea. It only took a few tackles for Souths to run one of their favourite plays moving the ball to their left targeting Meaney and Fa’alogo. Keaon Koloamatangi’s final pass wasn’t slapped forward by Fa’alogo,2 rather it was forward out of the hands, but the try was awarded nonetheless.

The scores remained level for over ten minutes with both teams unable to capitalise on a couple of opportunities, including one where Coates flew very high trying to grab down a kick from the roof of AAMI Park.

Eventually it would be Melbourne that blinked first. A called forward pass from Coates to Paps gave Souths field position, Jack Wighton beat Meaney and despite Katoa knocking the ball out of his hands as he crossed the line, the try was awarded to Bentley-Hape. C’est la vie.

Melbourne were able to get back level before the break following an extended run of possession on the Souths line. Again it was a slick passing play, this time out to the left. The work of Shawn Blore to get the offload out to Coates to dive over out wide though was perfect play from the edge forward.

Winning a second half

Straight back from half time, Fa’alogo went close to scoring what would have been a great try from a scrum, but Jye Gray had tackled him into touch. Let’s hope that set play returns again sometime later this season.

While that was close, Melbourne’s next set saw the highlight try of the night scored by Eli Katoa. Again it was the backs who rucked Melbourne out of trouble before Alec MacDonald and Joe Chan got a couple of fast play-the-balls to get Melbourne to midfield. Rome’s bomb was perfectly positioned and Katoa did the rest with a fantastic effort play. How good was it seeing him beat the winger and stand up Mitchell to score.

Of course Mitchell was going to do something foul and get sent to the sin bin.3

His shot to take out Fa’alogo was cynical. He had more than seven metres to put his body in a position to make a legal tackle. Instead he chose to shoulder charge. His probable suspension looks lenient. Tyran Wishart on his first touch couldn’t keep his feet and I know Melbourne were up by six, but taking the two while a man up does waste almost two minutes of powerplay time.

Melbourne’s powerplay wasn’t great. It wasn’t helped by some interesting officiating, but there were some frustrating mistakes. The end of the powerplay came when Grant Anderson dropped the ball trying to score in the corner under pressure from Jye Gray. It felt like this wasn’t going to be Melbourne’s night with everyone just a little off their game.

Indeed the second half just felt as much of a grind as did the majority of the first half. It took a Storm special from inside their own half to blow the game open again. A judicious offload from Utoikamanu, quick hands from Rome and Paps had Katoa galloping into space. The right edge linking together put Meaney away down the flank, the centre using his support in the middle to pass through to Wishart to score.

Up by 14 points with 15 minutes to go Melbourne should have been able to ice this game. Instead they decided to challenge a clear penalty against Paps only to have that backfire into a sin bin with eight minutes to go. Sigh. Did they know that the Bunker official was the notorious Adam Gee?

A better team than Souths would have made Melbourne pay dearly. Instead they have Jai Arrow playing for them. Grant Anderson was able to stop Jack Wighton once, but couldn’t stop him the second time around when all alone against two players. Thankfully with just under three minutes left, Melbourne escaped without further additions to the scoreboard, an error from Lewis Dodd ending the contest with a minute to go.

Post match quotes

Belsa:

Our attack was quite as fluent as we probably would have liked. I thought we defended a bit better than last week. They (Souths) were really competitive in a tough situation and in tough conditions too. We were just glad to get back on the wagon again.
Our attack was disjointed, but we’ll work on that during the week.

Stat offloads

Xavier Coates scored his 49th try for Melbourne in his 61st appearance to move past Cameron Smith (48 tries).
Eliesa Katoa scored his 21st try for Melbourne in his 53rd appearance to move past Tony Martin and Stephen Kearney (20 tries).
Ryan Papenhuyzen was sent to the sin bin for the second time in his NRL career.
The final score of 24–16 is the eighth time Melbourne has won with that score, equaling 28–6 at the most common Storm winning score. Melbourne have won eight of the 11 matches they’ve played that ended with that score.
Lazarus Vaalepu came on in the 63rd minute only to be interchanged in the 72nd minute.
Reserve player Kane Bradley was a late change out of the team prior to kick off, then activated as a substitute when Sua Fa’alogo failed his HIA due to foul play. He did not take to the field though despite looking like he might come on during the Papenhuyzen sin bin.
Melbourne’s current 2025 home match attendance average of 23,348 is a 10.82% increase on last year’s record average of 21,067 (including finals).

Was it worth it?

Do better Storm. That’s poor form.4

It doesn’t matter that the rest of the observance ceremony was done well.

It doesn’t matter that it was the second sold out match in a row.

When you disrespect people, that’s just not good enough. I understand we can’t always get things right, but how you treat good people is one thing that isn’t hard to get right.

Fuck fascists and racists. Always punch Nazis.

Always was, always will be.5

0/10

Storm Machine Player of the Year

Eli Katoa won the Spirit of ANZAC Medal, and even that presentation felt like an afterthought.

Katoa and Blore were both very good with the entire forward pack lifting from their outing the week before. Filling in again out wide in the second half, Joe Chan deserves a lot of credit for his work defending inside Xavier Coates.

Thought the passing game (!) of Trent Loiero deserves highlighting. He’s going to be picked for #wrongpriorities which will be deserved, but as always annoying af.

Honourable mentions this week to Alec MacDonald who was lively in his stints and the three remaining members of the superstar spine who did was they needed to do this week, but they can’t have a point because they know what they did. It was a fun throwback seeing Munster at fullback for the time that Paps was in the naughty corner.

Round 8 points:

3 – Eliesa Katoa
2 – Shawn Blore
1 – Trent Loiero
1 – Joe Chan

Leaderboard

8 – Cameron Munster
6 – Ryan Papenhuyzen, Eliesa Katoa
3 – Stefano Utoikamanu, Harry Grant, Trent Loiero
2 – Jack Howarth, Jahrome Hughes, Grant Anderson, Josh King, Xavier Coates, Shawn Blore
1 – Nick Meaney, Kane Bradley, Joe Chan

Around the grounds

Jersey Flegg Cup — Canberra Raiders 14–52 Melbourne Storm

Matt Russell’s team got back into winning ways by smashing their hosts at Belconnen on Saturday afternoon. Gabriel Satrick, Jiale Litidamu, and Blake Kehl all scored doubles, while Frank Howarth scored a try on his Jersey Flegg Cup debut.6 Melbourne led 24–6 at the break before going on with it in the second half scoring five more tries.

Queensland Cup — Brisbane Tigers 18–22 Townsville Blackhawks

Kane Bradley did take the field on the wing for the Tigers, scoring a late try. Coby Williamson also scored a try to start the second half after the Blackhawks led 22–2 at the break. Bradley’s converted try with eight minutes to go saw the visitor’s margin cut to four points, but the comeback wasn’t completed by the Tigers who had Keagan Russell-Smith sin binned in the final minute.

Queensland Cup — Redcliffe Dolphins 20–28 Sunshine Coast Falcons

Nelson Asofa Solomona made his second Falcons appearance for the season starting at prop. Two tries to Blake Moore had the Falcons up 16–14 at half time, but it wouldn’t be until a late try to Thallon Peters that the Sunshine Coast boys sealed the win and the James Ackerman Cup.

NSW Cup — Canberra Raiders 36–26 North Sydney Bears

Ativalu Lisati was the only senior Storm player on duty for the Bears, although Storm junior Siulagi Pio did make his debut for the Bears on the wing. It was a rough start for Norths falling behind 24–4 at half time, but they did make a fight of it in the second half, getting back to within four points with five minutes to go.

Super Netball — Sunshine Coast Lightning 64–50 Queensland Firebirds

The Queensland Cup stayed with the Lightning with Cara Koenen celebrating her 100th match for the club casually slotting two late super shot goals, the first time she’s scored multiple super shot goals in a couple of seasons. The Lightning dominated their rivals setting up a seven goal lead at half time and were never headed in the second half playing some great netball.

Next up

Round 9 vs Canberra Raiders – Sunday 3 May 2025, 6:25pm @ ~~AAMI Park~~ Suncorp Stadium

Off to the mud heap that is Lang Park for what will be the ninth match played during the weekend on that already poor surface. A smart Melbourne might leave high value assets at home this weekend, or better yet petition to move the game back to AAMI Park. Alas, this stupid Magic Round farce continues for another season.

It’s a milestone match for a couple of Storm players should they play — preview post out later in the week.

One last thing — read this interesting AFR piece about the sweaty smarmy one. The AFR followed it up with this one too. Perhaps the tide is turning.