Game 742 – S29E01 Review
Melbourne Storm 52–4 Parramatta Eels
The round 1 streak continues with the Eels sliced and diced for a second straight year.
Melbourne – 52 (Grant 15', 51', Fa’alogo 64', 77', Warbrick 11', Howarth 27', Chan 47', Leo 56', Lisati 67' tries; Meaney 8/9 goals)
Parramatta – 4 (Russell 5' try; Moses 0/1 goals)
Nine tries against Parramatta to start the season. Enjoy the highlights.
That’s one way to start a match
Poor Alec MacDonald. Left prone on the field on the fourth tackle of the match after 36 seconds. J’maine Hopgood’s high tackle ending his night and leaving the visitors down to 12 men for ten minutes when Todd Smith elected to put the Eels prop in the naughty corner.
I tend to disagree with the luminaries in the Nine commentary box — that’s more often that not going to be a sin bin. Did the sin bin benefit Melbourne though? With the extra man, Melbourne’s first attacking foray came to an abrupt halt short of the line and they compounded that by giving away a penalty to allow more time to leak off the clock. Another error from Nick Meaney trying to field a kick from Mitchell Moses allowed Parramatta to go to work deep in Melbourne’s territory.
It only took three tackles for Moses and Jonah Pezet to combine to have a tip-on pass from Isaiah Iongi to send Sean Russell over down the Eels left edge. The defensive combination of Jahrome Hughes, Jack Howarth and Will Warbrick caught outnumbered from the speed of the ball movement from the visitors.
Set restarts
The narrative that emerged throughout this match was the proliferation of set restarts. Todd Smith awarded 14 of them.1 We all warned this would happen when then zone for their use increased again, despite the evidence of the last few seasons. Sigh.
I guess the issue is that almost all of them were justified. Already under fatigue down a player, Parramatta gave up two ruck infringements within seconds,2 and just before Hopgood returned to the field, Melbourne put on two expansive sweeping plays.
The first saw Moses Leo almost crack the defence down Melbourne’s left edge, the second had Melbourne’s attacking weapons in total control. Through the hands of Cameron Munster, Harry Grant and Jahrome Hughes, the Eels had no answer. Hughes probably could have ducked through a potential tackle to score himself, instead his final pass to Will Warbrick floated the winger into the corner to do his customary thing and score diving over the line.
Harry Grant, owner of the Parramatta Eels
The leading tryscorer in matches between Parramatta and Melbourne is Billy Slater with 18, next up is Harry Grant and Ryan Papenhuyzen with eight tries each. Grant had scored in six straight matches against the Eels, with his streak ending in the match at Parramatta last July.
Harry Grant lost his first four matches against Parramatta. Two of those were with Melbourne. Since then he’s been on the winning side in seven straight matches and after this match has 10 tries against the Asbestos.
Watch his first try again and see how he picks apart the defence. That’s eyes up footy. The way he sliced them open is just majestic. No wonder he’s signed to the end of 2028.
As if to put an exclamation mark on that try, the next ten or so minutes were messy football by comparison. There were more set restarts, but Melbourne couldn’t capitalise. Both teams made errors and gave away cheap penalties.
It wasn’t until Jack Howarth, matched up on the right edge of Melbourne’s attack3 that the scoreboard ticked over again. Howarth crashed over from a short ball from Hughes, fending off Brian Kelly to get the ball down over the line.
That was the end of the scoring for the first half. The final 12 minutes of the half were a mess of Parramatta errors — their completion rate was 62% with eight errors — while Melbourne were able to hold out the Eels when they looked like they could have scored. The defensive rollercoaster that is Sua Fa’alogo in 2026 had a couple of little moments that he’ll be looking at in the video review.
This moment though ended the first half — Jonah Pezet had a massive target on his jersey and played like it too. A tough start at his temporary club.
With an 18–4 lead at the break, Melbourne seemed to start the second half by playing disciplined rugby league. The backs all took to their work to gain metres, while the middles defended anything put to them by the visitors. Cooper Clarke was a very useful injection of youth to the middles, but it would be Joe Chan that got the reward of a try. Filling in on the right edge for Eli Katoa, Chan looks like he’s set for a big season. It was an easy charging line that he ran to score the try, but the timing of the play was key from Grant and Hughes. Melbourne targeted Kitione Kautoga in defence as well as Pezet on that edge.
The final 30 minutes saw Melbourne pile on 28 points. Grant scored his second try on a crash play from dummy half under the posts, Clarke was held up over the line with the defence just stopping him on the final tackle of a set where Melbourne looked dangerous on every play.
Moses Leo got his first Storm try in the 56th minute. It was reward for his work on the left in just his third NRL appearance. Getting on the end of a sweeping play that went through the hands of Hughes, Munster and Fa’alogo was poetry in motion.
That was the end of the section for the captain who went down, then hobbled off with what looked like an injury, only for it to be cramp. Thank fuck for that. Was I panicking? Well, yes. For a moment at least. The play immediately prior to Grant going off… oh man that was brilliance that deserved a try.
His work done, Grant rested up for the final 20 minutes at which point the Storm went into overdrive.
The Fa’alogo Flurry
There will be matches where Fa’alogo comes up rocks. There will be matches where he comes up diamonds. Those diamonds will be sparkling. Fa’alogo lights up AAMI Park when he has the ball. His chip and chase to score a try — brilliant. Will it come off every week? Maybe. It’s going to be an adventure.
Parramatta went down to 12-men for the second time with Bailey Simonsson put in the sin bin for a professional foul. Melbourne took almost immediate advantage. Ativalu Lisati scored off a bit of Munster magic — his little grubber kick was spot on under pressure.
Fifty points was on the cards for the Storm with over 10 minutes to go, and that mark was hit for just on three minutes remaining when Fa’alogo scored his second try. The fullback finishing off the work of Tyran Wishart, Tui Kamikamica and Munster to progress the ball from deep inside Melbourne’s half. It was enough. Parra’s season is done again and there’s always next year when they are sent to Vegas.4 Bellyache will be happy about not conceding a try for 70+ minutes and keeping them scoreless for the second half.
I have no words for Parramatta. I have plenty for Melbourne.
Thanks Vossy. That’s usually my domain.
Post match quotes
Belsa “didn’t see that coming”…
Our guys really prepared well this week, our last couple of sessions were really good. What we planned to do, we basically done out there tonight. In the second half we were pretty exceptional … if you’re that good with ball control this early in the season, that goes a long way towards getting the result that you want.
On Harry Grant:
That second try we scored was really important to us and there wouldn’t be too many dummy halves who could score a try in that situation. Harry had one hell of a pre-season and one hell of a game there tonight.
We have been blessed as a club and me as a coach to have two guys that touch the ball more than anyone else in the team and to have Cameron [Smith] play as long as he did and as soon as he retired Harry came in afterwards.
The club has been very fortunate to have two players like Cam and Harry.
It’s a great start but consistency week in and week out is the key. Starting strong and just petering out is not going to cut it.
He had some good zingers about Harry Grant going off with cramps too.
The journos brought up the streak too, which was played with a straight bat by Harry Grant as normal:
At the end of the day it’s just an outcome of how we perform and prepare. The work that was done in the preseason, you get a chance to showcase it. The playing group respects it (the round 1 record) and there’s a lot of old boys sitting at home watching, knowing that they’ve contributed to that as a part of the history of the club, there’s plenty of people who have played a part in that and hopefully they can be proud that it’s still rolling.
Stat offloads
The final score of 52–4 is a Melbourne Storm scorigami. This was just the second match in the NRL era to end with that scoreline.
It is the third season that Melbourne will start the season on top of the NRL ladder. (2005, 2025, 2026)
Melbourne have scored 50+ against Parramatta on five occasions, with the Eels only hitting the 50+ just once against Melbourne.
Melbourne are undefeated with 18 wins on Thursday nights at AAMI Park. The Storm average over 28 points per match, while conceding only 18 points.
Stefano Utoikamanu was credited with 204 run metres from 19 runs. That’s the first time he’s hit 200+ in his 104 NRL matches. (via Fox Sports Lab)
Ativalu Lisati scored his third try for Melbourne in his 16th NRL appearance.
Nick Meaney’s eight conversion took him to 750 points for Melbourne in 95 appearances.
Sua Fa’alogo has scored in 10 of his 23 Melbourne Storm appearances, scoring 16 tries. He has only played in one loss at AAMI Park from nine matches.
Was it worth it?
Was a crowd of 18,264 a little disappointing for the first home game of the season? Yeah kinda. With over 30,000 members already signed up for 2026, you would have hoped that would translate to bums on seats. But of course it was a Thursday night which always impacts attendance.
Thankfully the afternoon heat gave way to a pleasant evening at AAMI Park.
Melbourne’s start did lend itself towards anxiety, but once the Harry Grant show kicked into gear, it felt like the Storm would not be denied that customary round 1 victory.
The second half turned into an orgy of tries with Sua Fa’alogo igniting the crowd as Melbourne chased 50 points to end Parramatta’s premiership chances.
You do love to see it.
8/10
Storm Machine Player of the Year
Going to try something new in 2026. Rather than giving out votes to some players and trying to stick to some arbitrary limit, I’m going to lean into the old Rugby League Week ranking system and give everyone a score out of ten on something akin to this scale:5
10 — Absolutely transcendent performance. One that will be talked about for years, we are all better for the experience.
9 — Near perfection. Best on ground and was brilliant in almost everything that they did.
8 — How fucken good! Made some key plays and played their role in a great performance.
7 — Superb effort. Was a big part of the team success and didn’t put a foot wrong.
6 — Fantastic work. Did their role to the best of their ability and made some good plays to get the team over the line.
5 — Solid, but not spectacular. Played their role, did the work, showed up and didn’t make too many mistakes that cost the team.
4 — Average. The starting point. Played their role, but might have made a few mistakes. Not in danger of losing their spot in the team.
3 — Just going okay. Had a few poor moments and could have done a little better.
2 — Not great. Might be in danger of losing their spot in the team due to their mistakes and/or poor discipline.
1 — Absolute shocker.
NR — Didn’t play enough minutes (~10) to receive a rating.
Round 1
9 — Harry Grant, Stefano Utoikamanu
8 — Sua Fa’alogo, Moses Leo, Cameron Munster, Jahrome Hughes, Joe Chan, Ativalu Lisati
7 — Nick Meaney
6 — Will Warbrick, Jack Howarth, Josh King, Tyran Wishart, Cooper Clarke
5 — Tui Kamikamica, Davvy Moale
NR — Alec MacDonald, Preston Conn
Around the grounds
NSW Cup — Melbourne Storm 22–36 Parramatta Eels
Before the main game on Thursday night, the Melbourne Storm ran out a team in the NSW Cup for the first time in 5,653 days. It’s only a little off-putting seeing a NSWRL logo on a Storm jersey, but it is nice to get in to AAMI Park to see a meaningful curtain raiser again.
Due to the club’s long injury list, the team was a little undermanned and fell behind 16–0 within the first 16 minutes, giving away multiple defensive penalties and set restarts. The Storm would get on the board just over halfway through the first half when Angus Hinchey powered through some flimsy Parramatta defence near the posts. That would be Melbourne’s only try until the final seconds of the first half when Luke Cesari pounced on a loose pass from the visitors to dash 70m to score in the AAMI Park sunshine to head to the sheds trailing 28–10.
Parramatta scored again early in the second half, capitalising on a Storm error. Hugo Peel shifted to fullback at times during the second half, replacing Manaia Waitere, and Peel would score Melbourne’s third try from long range, running off a line break generated by Trent Toelau and Talas Abell.
With the Storm well beaten, it was a chaotic ending to the match. Parramatta’s Bradley Avery was sent to the sin bin for a professional foul in the final minute and decided to exit the field via the deadball line. From a restart as time expired, Melbourne scored a try through Mitchell Jennings, from which a scuffle emerged in the Parramatta ingoal area. Avery got involved in the scuffle which seemed to give the officials a little bit of a conniption.
When everything was sorted out, Zayvian Langkilde-Fale was sent to the sin bin for Melbourne. Parramatta’s Charlie Guymer joined him, while Avery was recalled from the sideline to then be sent off. Eli Morris converted the try and the final score was Parramatta 36–22. Melbourne still looking for their first win in this competition since August 2010.6
On Saturday afternoon it was a bumper day of rugby league at Gosch’s Paddock with the U17 and U19 boys teams taking on Balmain, while the U21 team started their season off against Parramatta.
The U17 boys got on the board for 2026, winning their first match thanks to the sharp goalkicking of Hunter Stokie. His conversion of Tupou Tuifua’s try in the final ten minutes secured the win. Stokie also scored a great try to start the second half after Melbourne trailed 16–6 at the break.
Matt Duffie’s U19 team continued their great start to the season, remaining undefeated level on top of the SG Ball Cup ladder after five rounds.
In front of some interested onlookers, the Jersey Flegg Cup season commenced for the U21 team who are looking to defend the title won last year.
It took 16 minutes for the first try of the day, coming via this barnstorming run from Frank Howarth. Yes, he is the goods.
Scores were level at 12-all at half time and Keaton Stutt drew the Storm back level at 18-all with a nice try with 20 minutes to go, but from there the visitors gained the ascendancy with Melbourne fading badly in the final 15 minutes.
Over at Seabrook Reserve, the U17 girls held a slender lead going into the final ten minutes, but conceded four tries to end up on the wrong side of a 26–14 scoreline. The U19 girls couldn’t hold on to their half time lead, but did get one competition point following an 18-all draw.
Next up
Round 2 – Saturday 14 March 2026, 5:30pm @ WIN Stadium
Teams returning from Las Vegas after a week off seemingly have no rhyme or reason for their performances in round two over the past couple of seasons. So make of that what you will when Melbourne head to Wollongong to play the Dragons on Saturday afternoon. It will be interesting to see if there are any changes to the Storm squad other than Alec MacDonald and perhaps Cooper Clarke who also picked up a upper body injury.7
Preview post online Thursday.
The equal third most awarded in a match (1× 16 by Adam Gee (because of course), 3× 15 (including one match from Todd Smith), and 6× 14 set restarts) (h/t Rugby League Eye Test.)
One was against the sex offender, the other wasn’t credited as against him… but should have been.
Melbourne lined up with the 2/3 and 4/5 jerseys on the same edges. That’s not usual!
Give them Wests Tigers maybe instead of Melbourne.
Or vibes… it could just be vibes.
If anyone remembers, the NSW Cup team played some of their matches in 2010 at Olympic Park before NRL matches at AAMI Park next door. I suspect that the last rugby league match at Olympic Park was the final round NSW Cup match against the Bulldogs in September 2010.
Fingers crossed Will Warbrick has no ill-effects from his late head contact.