Game 745 – S29E04 Review

North Queensland Cowboys 28–24 Melbourne Storm

Mar 29, 2026

Melbourne melt in another second half fade out.

North Queensland – 28 (Burns 12', 75', Clifford 5', Taulagi 53', McIntyre 69', Luki 72' tries; Clifford 1/4, Drinkwater 1/2 goals)

Melbourne – 24 (Warbrick 9', 23', 44', 65', Fa’alogo 37' tries; Grant 2/5 goals)

Will Fourbrick provided the highlights for Melbourne this week.

Seriously though, this pass from Harry Grant is worth another look.

So it’s come to this

Sua Fa’alogo kicked the ball out on the full from the opening kickoff. We’re in a great need to know his alter ego name like Bobby Slater was for Billy Slater. At least Melbourne were able to tackle their way out of danger on the resulting Cowboys set in attack, but only just. Jake Clifford looked very dangerous in that set and after Melbourne’s first set with the ball saw them only just get into the Cowboys half of the field, the home team came right back at the Storm with Clifford running on the final tackle and gaining a line drop-out from a retreating Storm defence.

Clifford scored the Cowboys first try with a clean catch from a kick put up from Scott Drinkwater. It was the kind of kick that is almost impossible to defend these days, perfectly positioned away from the outside backs with players in the channel coming up against somewhat static defenders unable to get protection or momentum to get up high enough to contest the ball. Maybe if Melbourne had a taller, more experienced fullback they would be able to try and contest that ball, but that’s not the way the Storm are set up in 2026.

From the restart, the Cowboys should have gone coast-to-coast on first tackle. Only a little knock-on from Jaxon Perdue a probable 12–0 lead inside the first seven minutes.

After Gerard Sutton didn’t blow any number of clear set restarts on Melbourne’s first real set inside the Cowboys half,1 Jahrome Hughes took matters into his own hands. His dinky little bomb was the match of Drinkwater’s down the other end, isolating Murray Taulagi in an aerial contest against Will Warbrick.2 The Brick doing what he does best to finish the movement with strength to find the corner up against Drinkwater. Harry Grant converting the try for the teams to effectively cancel out the first 10 minutes at 6–all.

Cameron Munster then had one of his now weekly brain explosions. Maybe he needs to read a book with Paps or something. Defending their own line seemingly was far to hard for Melbourne. It took just two plays for the Cowboys to locate and exploit the weak edge of Melbourne’s defensive structure. A combination of Munster, Moses Leo and Siulagi Tuimalatu-Brown up against any right edge attack will concede tries at a very unsustainable rate. Braiden Burns the beneficiary as he barged over through flimsy attempted tackles from Leo and Fa’alogo.

Up by four points and with the wealth of possession, stemming from Melbourne’s brain explosions and undisciplined efforts, North Queensland should have extended their lead but for their own errors with the ball and a string of interventions from Sutton in Melbourne’s favour. From the 20th to the 23rd minute when Melbourne scored, Sutton awarded three straight set restarts and a penalty against the home team.

Were the set restarts there? The first one came on a fifth tackle when the Cowboys did try and slow down the ruck after a 40m dash from Hughes that saw him only just stopped close to the line. Sutton paying it for the Cowboys failing to retreat. It seemed fair I suppose. The second intervention was a clear high tackle against Drinkwater on Joe Chan that stopped a try. An argument could be raised that could have resulted in supplementary discipline, but no one is ready for that debate in rugby league at the moment. The third intervention from Sutton was on the fifth tackle of the resulting set which did look borderline at best. It was one of those ruck infringements that really are referees being weird units. Melbourne scored two plays later with Hughes again finding numbers down Melbourne’s right flank, Warbrick this time getting on the outside from a great pass from the halfback.

With Melbourne leading for the first time, the home team made their first changes, but it would take another five minutes for the Storm to sub out Alec MacDonald for Cooper Clarke. I’m not sold on the way that the Melbourne coaching staff are adapting to the new interchange options in 2026.

Storm interchanges vs Cowboys

28th minute — MacDonald off for Clarke;
30th minute — Wishart on for Leo (head injury assessment)
30th minute — Utoikamanu off for Kamikamica
36th minute — Howarth (injury) off for MacDonald
41st minute — Leo returns, Loiero off
41st minute — MacDonald off for Waitere
55th minute — Kamikamica off for Utoikamanu
61st minute — King off for Loiero
70th minute — Clarke off for MacDonald
77th minute — Wishart off for King

Now there’s a couple of changes that were enforced, but I think it’s clear that the middle rotation is far from perfect and without an 80 minute effort from the left edge forward, there’s a level of chaos in play that just isn’t working. If Clarke can’t play 80 minutes on the left edge, then maybe Loiero needs to head back there. I’m also very concerned at leaving Josh King out there for 50+ minutes each week. It just doesn’t seem to be working the way its intended.

Hey, Melbourne won a captain’s challenge in the 31st minute. That’s different.

In the final ten minutes of the first half, Grant and Hughes almost conjured a try in a broken final tackle play, but that chance came to naught. Instead, it was a slice of fortune when the home team was called for a forward pass from Burns on a move down their right edge. After Jack Howarth succumbed to injury, Melbourne received some good fortune when Siulagi Tuimalatu-Brown was “tackled” in the air contesting for a high ball. We did warn that this would be one of the unintended consequences of the rule change before the start of last season.

Melbourne took just four plays to take advantage, scoring through Fa’alogo in the right channel, the fullback stepping through two tackles to plant the ball down for his seventh try of the season. Grant’s conversion attempt, which he probably should have slotted from just outside the numbers, was waived away, leaving Melbourne with a 16–10 lead to take to half time.

Fading away

Melbourne’s win probability percentage at half time last week was 96.88%.

This week: 82.1%. That probability increased to 98.34% in the 68th minute.3

That would indicate that for 28 minutes after half time, Melbourne looked the likely winners of this match.

Early on it was the Fa’alogo show making an appearance to send Chan into a gap around midfield, only for the edge forward to spill his lollies with a potential try beckoning to Manaia Waitere on his Storm debut.4 That moment didn’t seem to matter though a few minutes later when Hughes and Fa’alogo attacked down the right edge again to put Waitere into space. The former Raider looked to have given Warbrick a little too much to do from 10m out with little sideline to work with, but the Olympian brushed past Drinkwater and Purdue to score his third try of the night.

The one type of match that Melbourne could least afford to get into against the Cowboys was a shootout. So of course North Queensland scored next. The home team benefitting from the same generosity Sutton showed Melbourne in the first half, calling a set restart on fifth tackle for reasons, capitalising on an error from Fa’alogo, and another intervention from Sutton, scoring a try from scrum play, Taulagi getting on the end of a passing move outside Warbrick to get one back for the Cowboys.

Warbrick then dropped a bomb to further spoil his good night. This time though, the Cowboys couldn’t capitalise on their field position to level the scores. Melbourne kept inviting the Cowboys to score with handling errors, and Sutton inventions. He called out King for being inside 10m when both his feet were on the tryline. Sigh. Melbourne only saved through a steal from master thief Munster.

Then came the special pass from Grant to Warbrick for his fourth try. The play started special too — Chan found Fa’alogo on Melbourne’s 10m line. Fa’alogo made a 60m dash before he was tackled, then Munster and Loiero ran hard. Indeed, Fa’alogo almost scored the play before Grant’s pass to Warbrick.

A better Melbourne team wouldn’t lose a 24–14 lead with less than 15 minutes remaining. This isn’t that Melbourne team. We all need to get with the program on that. Too few players look to do the hard work. Too many fail to do the little things well, let alone adequately.

North Queensland shredded Melbourne through the middle, then shifted left to score through Sam McIntyre to cut the margin to four points. On the restart, Sutton intervened on fourth tackle with a set restart decision that can only be described as the equivalent to a Joel Wilson lbw decision where the batter has smashed it into their pads.5 It was as close to match fixing as Sutton has pulled against Melbourne since Magic Round last year. No player should bother making a legs tackle in 2026 knowing what the referees are calling now as ruck interference.

It only took the Cowboys that set to probe Melbourne’s edges to score and level the scores. The try came through their right edge, the Storm playing with 11 defenders and two warm bodies out on that side of the field.

Melbourne had melted, their defence wilting. A terrible set coming out from their own line saw the Storm gain just 16m in five tackles. The Cowboys could have set up for a field goal with five minutes to go, instead they went back to their right edge and Drinkwater and Zac Laybutt put Burns away down the sideline, the Storm’s warm bodies that pretend to defend that side of the park beaten yet again.

Three tries. In seven minutes. Melbourne were roasted.

The final few minutes gave the Storm a chance to engage in panic football, but they weren’t even up to that standard. Sutton stat-padded a few more set restarts, but whatever.

#EmbraceMediocrity

The stink about this version of the Melbourne Storm grows more pungent. A loss like this, coming the week following another demoralising loss… oh there’s something rotten festering at AAMI Park, and it’s not just the 42 missed tackles.

Melbourne have had losing streaks under Craig Bellamy since Cameron Smith retired, but this current streak of two could get quite out of hand very fast. If this is to be a rebuilding season, then so be it, because I think we’d rather brutal honesty than being strung along by some kind of hope.

Because, it’s the hope that kills you.

I’ve used the embrace mediocrity epithet for well over a decade whenever I’ve noticed standards slipping at the football teams that I support.6 I’m pretty sure I first used it about the Storm as early as 2014,7 but definitely in 2015 when that Storm team looked to be squandering their chance at a serious tilt at the premiership.

In 2026 though, Melbourne aren’t squandering their chance at a premiership, because as we’re about to find out in April, there is no chance of that happening this year.

Post match quotes

Bellyache was in “I’m not mad, I’m just disappointed mode…”

I'm just probably frustrated. The last two games we’ve [lost] after having good leads. It’s why. I think you we all have different opinion on on the whys, but you gotta give the opposition credit too — obviously in both second halves last week and this week you know they play really well, but that pattern — we don't want to keep going. We need to try and work it out, or get a little formula where it doesn't happen too often.
It’s worrying. I don’t know what the worry scale is, but yeah it’s a worry. Yeah I think the errors are one thing — I think we were really good in the first half, and then the second half our completions fell right away. It's a lack of willingness in the contact that's concerning me a little bit.
It’s the same thing two weeks in a row so we've got to work out why that's happened. There's a few things it could be and hopefully we can get some honesty from the players… we need to work it out [so that] they can be a bit more consistent over the 80 minutes.

Stat offloads

Melbourne Storm have now lost two matches with a final score of 28–24, the last being the stupid golden point loss to the Eels at AAMI Park in 2022. There have been four matches in club history with that final scoreline of the 40 NRL matches that have ended with that final score.
Melbourne have now lost seven matches after leading at half time since the start of the 2025 season. The last time the Storm have lost consecutive matches after leading at half time was rounds 14 and 15 during the 2015 season against Parramatta and Brisbane.8
The Storm have dropped out of the top four on the NRL ladder for the first time since round four of the 2024 season. The club spent 61 rounds (including finals) inside the top four. A loss next week will see them fall out of the top eight for the first time since round 4 of the 2023 season.
Will Warbrick scored four tries in a match for the second time in his career. His first four try match was against the Wests Tigers at Campbelltown in 2023. It is the second time a Storm player has scored four tries in a losing effort after Sisa Waqa did it against the Knights in 2014.
Warbrick now has 43 tries in 60 appearances for Melbourne, putting him 23rd highest in the list of Melbourne Storm tryscorers. He’s back into fourth place among active players, jumping back in front of Harry Grant.
Siulagi Tuimalatu-Brown has played 163 total minutes in three NRL matches — 160 of them at Queensland Country Bank Stadium.

Was it worth it?

Melbourne’s trip to Townsville in recent years has come much later in the season. The Storm haven’t played in March or April in the tropical north since 2019.

It kinda showed during their second half meltdown.

For those of us watching at home, the combination of Andrew Voss and Greg Alexander would be high on the list of commentary pairings that Storm fans would immediately mute. It’s not as bad as what Fox League served up earlier in the day, but Alexander should never be given Storm matches given his enmity towards the Storm, and Voss has been firmly in AM radio shock jock mode far too often this decade.

Alexander did come awfully close to full on rules insurrection though, so that was a treat at least.

4/10

Storm Machine Player of the Year

See round 1 for the ratings explanations.

Round 4

5 — Sua Fa’alogo, Will Warbrick
4 — Cameron Munster, Jahrome Hughes, Harry Grant, Stefano Utoikamanu, Trent Loiero, Josh King, Alec MacDonald, Joe Chan, Cooper Clarke
3 — Jack Howarth, Tyran Wishart, Tui Kamikamica, Manaia Waitere
2 — Moses Leo, Siulagi Tuimalatu-Brown

Around the grounds

Everyone had the bye for the Storm this weekend, which was ill-timed for the NSW Cup players wanting to impress to get into the NRL squad.

In the netball, the Vixens won a thriller over the Mavericks in extra time, while the Lightning held on to score a 66–65 win over the Swifts.

Next up

Round 5 – Friday 3 April 2026, 8:00pm @ CommBank Stadium

It looms as a very bad Friday for Melbourne. Penrith on current form will likely put on a clinic against Melbourne. The Storm’s porous edges and flanks in defence are in for a test that they will find to be an impossible task.

Preview post online Thursday.

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