Game 735 – S28E24 Review
Penrith Panthers 18–22 Melbourne Storm
Harry Grant secures a valuable two competition points for the Storm yet again.
Penrith – 18 (Papali’i 11', Cleary 32', Sorensen 62' tries; Cleary 3/4 goals; Cleary 0/2 field goals)
Melbourne – 22 (Coates 23', 53', Chan 58', Seve 67', Grant 82' tries; Meaney 1/4 goals; Munster 0/1 field goals)
He dives, he milks penalties. He shithouses with the referee. Still, there goes the best hooker in the game right now.
Well how about that then? That was certainly something.
When Melbourne messed around with their line-up on Tuesday and again before kickoff, I could have sworn that Bellyache was cooking up a “dead” Melbourne performance. One where the players look to complete their sets without much panache or trick plays, then defend, defend some more and see what happens from there. I almost expected the halves, after the week of discussion about tries from kicks, to almost not kick in the general direction of Xavier Coates just to make a point.
To an extent Melbourne did play a very dead bat to the Panthers, only a couple of defensive lapses costing points. But the style kept them in the game and pushed the Panthers to their breaking point when forced to match their style up against a boring battering ram.
Melbourne’s conservative game plan was not without risks though. Gaining metres was hard work on the heavy turf of CommBank Stadium. It left the Storm often trapped inside their own half and struggling to keep the Panthers outside dangerous attacking territory.
The home team looked especially dangerous moving the ball to their left, scattering the Storm defence. The Panthers scoring through Isaiah Papali’i down that side of the field, taking advantage of a defensive line of Grant Anderson, Jonah Pezet and Cameron Munster. Papali’i was almost unstoppable.
The Panthers should have had their second try minutes later on their other edge with the dangerous Brian To’o only just stopped through a last ditch tackle from Marion Seve who had contributed to the move by moving forward too quickly. Of course Ashley Klein found a penalty against Cameron Munster on the play to give Penrith another chance at scoring, but Jonah Pezet was able to disarm a Nathan Cleary kick with a timely boot.
⬆️⬆️⬇️⬇️⬅️➡️⬅️➡️🅱️🅰️ Start
After not offering much in attack, it took Melbourne almost 20 minutes to mount their first real attack of the match. Tyran Wishart was unable to keep the ball and the opportunity was lost. It wasn’t until Nick Meaney drew a high tackle penalty on their next set with the ball that Melbourne finally had the ball deep into Penrith territory. It was then that the Storm entered their cheat code. Xavier Coates grabbing the kick from Wishart to score just his standard aerial superiority try. Was there a bobble? Well yes and no. Coates had regathered the ball before touched Dylan Edwards. Hey maybe Chris Butler actually does like rugby league on rare occasions.
With scores level again, the Storm went back on the attack after Pezet caught out Dylan Edwards to slide a 40/20 kick past the Panthers fullback. The attack was cut short when Grant Anderson was pushed into touch following an elongated tackle. It’s one of the things that the premiers do so well. They have this almost unmatched ability to shrink the field in defence, but expand it in attack.
The Panthers restored their lead and extended it to 10–4 through a Cleary try ending a move that included a clever kick from Izack Tago. Cleary ruled to have got the ball to the line with just enough video evidence. Again though, it wasn’t great defence from the Storm, not really playing what was in front of them rather than the possibilities of where the ball could be going.
Before the end of the half the Panthers took a gift two points when Ashley Klein decided that To’o drew a ruck interference penalty against Munster. Melbourne went to the break down by eight points and didn’t really look like they could find a way back into the match without some kind of big play.
He’s not an ambiturner
One day Xavier Coates will step off his left foot and run towards the posts instead of the corner. One day he’ll make life easier for himself. This game was not that day. Taking an intercept in a similar position to the one he took last week against the Broncos, this time he just beat Casey McLean to the corner to score. It was a close run thing though. Meaney’s sole sideline conversion cut the margin to two points, but there was so long left to play.
Melbourne lifted their intensity after the try, the involvement of Munster a good barometer to how the Storm were operating.1 That led to another try from a kick to the Storm’s left edge, Coates flying high to tap it back to Joe Chan to fall over and score. Coates beat two players in the air this time. Amazing.
Back and forth
Now behind for the first time, it was the Panthers turn to go harder. A penalty came out of nowhere and they were back hunting points inside Melbourne’s half. Again it was the defensive edge of Wishart and Seve that were breached a little too easily by Scott Sorensen. It’s not a great replay for those two to be honest.
Melbourne hit back almost straight away though, despite the Panthers attempt to grind the Storm out of the match. Meaney punched through the line on a curving run down the right channel from an Eli Katoa pass, offloading to Stefano Utoikamanu who wisely took a tackle rather than opting for a risky pass. On the final tackle, the Storm put the ball through the hands to the left edge, Seve able to get to the corner under extreme pressure from the Panthers defence. It was a great running try for the Storm with Pezet prominent too. Would love to know how Edwards escaped any monetary sanction for reefing the goggles off the face of Seve when he scored the try.
Shithousery and wizardry
With scores level and over 10 minutes remaining, this match felt like there would be only one possible conclusion, likely inside 80 minutes. I would have hoped Melbourne could have set up for a field goal when they received the ball when Edwards lost it with eight minutes left. Instead the chance was lost when a little bit of panic football got into Melbourne’s heads.
I was surprised when Cleary put up a high kick to his left wing which didn’t result in a clean chance to score, but he wouldn’t be so foolish on Penrith’s next trip deep into Melbourne’s half. This time he had the perfect set up, bar for one important detail: a blocking player.
There are a few things that are true on this play:
Moses Leota is cynically blocking;
Harry Grant milks a penalty and actually gets one for a change; and
The Panthers still had over two minutes to set up for another field goal, and over 90 seconds to march down the field after Munster’s long-range attempt fell well short. Cleary’s next attempt was charged down by Grant, but the ricochet of course fell back to them to set up again. This time Trent Loeiro has come from 20 metres back to get a hand on the ball even after slipping from his position at marker. Amazing.
There’s nothing wrong with a draw though. Interesting shenanigans at the coin toss too.
Did Melbourne play the perfect period of extra time? Munster’s dummy and run set it up, Wishart set up the plays for Grant to execute the extraordinary:
I’ve seen many funny things in rugby league, this is peak hilarity. Fooling every single Panthers player. Too good.
Post match quotes
Getting penalties helps you win, so it’s just the way it is at the moment. It comes down to just wanting to win the game, and those things help.
Oh sorry, that was Nathan Cleary before, this is now:
I thought the blocking rule was brought in so then people wouldn’t stand next to the play the ball. Essentially Harry played for it because he knew he was going to get the penalty.
Was interesting listening to Harry Grant in the post match detailing the selfless acts that went into the match, rather than talk up his try. The shout out to Roy Masters was funny too, as was making Harry speak first up after his mute performance last week.
If that’s the rules. We stick to it. If we want to change it, come out during the week and change it. But I think anyone would agree that’s been policed numerous times throughout the year. Hats off to the officials for policing it in the same way.
When he finally got on this week, Bellyache was circumspect this week.
I was really impressed with the way our guys hung in there and then came home nice and strong at the end. Penrith know what they’re good at… for us to come back from eight points down… so yeah i was really happy with the performance tonight, the effort was great.
Was interesting hear the thought process about the prematch changes too.
Stat offloads
Melbourne’s 21st golden point match saw their record improve to 12–2–7. Harry Grant is the only Storm player to score a try in extra time, now doing it twice.
It is the first time the club has featured in three golden point matches in one season.
The Storm have won six matches with a final score of 22–18, having featured in seven of the 54 NRL-era matches to end with that scoreline.
In his 49th appearance Marion Seve scored his first NRL try since the 2023 semi final against the Roosters at AAMI Park.
Joe Chan scored his second career NRL try in his 25th appearance, his first try was against Souths on Anzac Day last year.
Xavier Coates now has a career high 18 tries for the season in 17 appearances.
Cameron Munster switched to fullback for the first time since Melbourne’s loss at the #FortressShithole in 2023.
Ashley Klein awarded just one set restart for the entire match.
Chris Butler has been the NRL Bunker official in eight of Melbourne’s past nine matches.
Was it worth it?
Well for the second year in a row your correspondent chose to attend an away game against the Panthers and Melbourne won the day. Happy days.
I find it endlessly amusing though that their tens of hundreds of fans, even after winning four straight premierships seemingly prefer to watch their team on television instead of getting out to their matches. The announced crowd figure of 12,869 fans in attendance is piss poor to be honest.2 Penrith station is a pretty easy trip into Parramatta for a night match, even if it is on a Thursday night.3
Will admit though that the potential header image of this match looked a bit different before extra time was confirmed.
9/10
Storm Machine Player of the Year
Wizardry. Shithousery. Four points to Harry Grant just for the match winning moment alone. Don’t sleep on the unreal effort of Trent Loeiro to get there to get hands on the Cleary field goal attempt in the final minute. It’s also his run and quick play the ball that gets Grant the chance to score the match winning try.
I thought Cameron Munster was solid at the back, but it was his organisational skills and when he chose to step up into the attacking line that impressed.
Round 24 points:
4 – Harry Grant
2 – Xavier Coates
2 – Trent Loiero
1 – Cameron Munster
1 – Stefano Utoikamanu
Leaderboard
22 – Eliesa Katoa
15 – Harry Grant
14 – Cameron Munster, Trent Loiero
13 – Ryan Papenhuyzen
12 – Jahrome Hughes
10 – Xavier Coates
8 – Stefano Utoikamanu
7 – Shawn Blore
6 – Josh King
4 – Grant Anderson
3 – Sualauvi Fa’alogo, Nick Meaney, Jack Howarth, Tyran Wishart
2 – Nelson Asofa-Solomona, Alec MacDonald, Kane Bradley
1 – Joe Chan, Bronson Garlick, Ativalu Lisati
Around the grounds
Jersey Flegg Cup — Melbourne Storm v Sydney Roosters
Saturday 2pm
Queensland Cup — Sunshine Coast Falcons v Redcliffe Dolphins
Saturday 5pm
NSW Cup — North Sydney Bears v Sydney Roosters
Sunday 3:00pm
Next up
Round 25 vs Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs – Friday 22 August 2025, 8:00pm @ AAMI Park
Melbourne’s first meeting with the Bulldogs coming in round 25 isn’t great from the fixture makers. A win next week could wrap up a top two spot come the end of the regular season, so it’s definitely a big game. Maybe the Storm will have some more of their regular back five players on deck too.
Preview post online Thursday.
Would love to know how Mitch Kenny wasn’t penalised for passing the ball into a player at the ruck, but that would require consistency regarding the application of that rule against Penrith.
Only their matches against fellow western Sydney teams have attracted any fans while they’ve been at CommBank Stadium.
My commute around Melbourne to attend Storm games is about the same to be honest.
I too, would like to know why it wasn't a penalty for passing into the player in the ruck. Is it only one when Grant does it?