Game 754 – S29E13 Review
Melbourne Storm 18–4 Sydney Roosters
Melbourne played with a chip on their shoulder, but turned that into a positive emotion. Embracing the grind, the Storm played for 80 minutes and capitalised on the opposition’s errors.
Melbourne – 18 (Grant 26', Warbrick 54', Leo 63' tries; Fa’alogo 3/5 goals)
Sydney – 4 (Smith 35' try; Walker 0/1 goals)
Melbourne might have only scored three tries, but two of them were a lot of fun.
Might as well recycle this one:
The match moved as so often Storm versus Roosters matches do into a grinding phase…
As the rain fell at AAMI Park, the Storm remembered that they had played wet weather football this season and applied the lessons handed to them in those matches. Indeed Melbourne parked themselves inside the Roosters half of the field on a number of occasions and didn’t make a handling error until the 17th minute when Will Warbrick got a fingertip to a Jahrome Hughes kick. There was also moment in the 11th minute when Ativalu Lisati went close to scoring when the Roosters were offside, only to have the ball whacked out of his hands by Billy Smith.1
While Melbourne’s attack was all kinds of clunky, albeit serviceable in the opening 20 minutes,2 in the meantime they were defending with attitude and effort. Playing with the proverbial chip on their shoulder they seemed determined not to allow the Roosters, especially their halves, space and time.
The introduction of Harry Grant changed things for Melbourne — even if his first major involvement was to have a dodgy ruck infringement called against him. Easts were unable to capitalise on that though — Angus Crichton looking to trial for the NFL with an obvious forward pass. The skipper straightened Melbourne’s attack — a little kick ahead almost caught out James Tedesco — then he forced a line dropout as Melbourne built pressure in the Roosters redzone.
Eventually the Storm cracked the visitor’s defence — it might not have been the most fluently designed set in possession, but the result was what Melbourne deserved from their dominance in field position. Grant dived over as the Roosters seemingly forgot that the Storm have the services of the Queensland and Australian hooker. With Nick Meaney off with a calf injury, Fa’alogo converted the try for a 6–0 lead.
Melbourne’s try though seemed to wake up the visitors from their attacking stupor. A passing move that went through the hands of their three playmakers saw Hugo Savala put Billy Smith over in the corner on his return to the NRL. Savala had made a number of defensive stops in the first half, but this little attacking move caught out the Storm at the other end of the ground.
In the shadows of half time, I almost wondered if Melbourne were of the mind that “you can’t give up a half time lead if you’re not leading at half time.” Alec MacDonald came up with an error after Sam Walker had gifted Melbourne the ball, but the visitors had a dangerous raid pulled back for an obstruction call on Crichton. Instead it was a messy end to the half as the Roosters knocked down the ball a couple of times as Melbourne tried to attack, then Grant’s field goal attempt from out wide thankfully missed.
An error from Warbrick who had applied too much grippo at half time thankfully didn’t cost Melbourne, as the game again looked to be a bit of a grind.3 The excitement… well it was coming.
The Sua Fa’alogo Show
The only thing he didn’t do was score a try.
282 run metres, nine tackle breaks, three line breaks, no errors, and one spectacular try saving tackle.
If you didn’t have doubts on Fa’alogo at the start of the season, you weren’t paying attention. The improvements in his game through the opening three months of the season have been mind blowing. He’s not Billy Slater or Ryan Papenhuyzen,4 but he’s certainly the Melbourne fullback now for as long as he wants it.
Fa’alogo was in everything good for Melbourne — from another Sam Walker error, another linebreak and he was sprinting away with only Cody Ramsay a chance catch him. Tacking the tackle to avoid any further scrutiny on how Melbourne got the ball,5 Munster and Hughes combined in the middle for the halfback to dink it perfectly to Warbrick to score. Absolutely fantastic. Great awareness from Hughes to sum up the situation perfectly following the Fa’alogo break that left the Roosters short on the edges.
Trent Loiero’s error threatened to undo the good work with the ball for the Storm. But the defensive attitude apparent early, came back to the fore for Melbourne. A team that hasn’t been able to defend errors and repeat sets suddenly remembered how to do exactly that. A welcome change from the 2026 norm.
Melbourne extended their lead to 12–4 when Billy Smith falconed himself under a kick, and it would be extended to a winning lead a few minutes later.
Speed is such an advantage in rugby league. Moses Leo has it to burn. Cleanly taking a DCE kick on his own 10m line, he left Ramsay in his dust and old man DCE had no chance. If only he could see and hear Bellyache in the box telling him to run closer to the posts. Especially when Fa’alogo’s conversion attempt went wide.
To be honest the final 20 minutes were both a little stressful — more so if the Roosters had scored — and heart warming. This was a Melbourne team that had found their defensive mojo and that carried through to their use of the ball. It wasn’t pretty, but it didn’t need to be. I’ve developed a fun thing to do at Storm matches in 2026 — from the beginning of a set, especially in the second half — count how many times a forward touches the ball. I promise that once you see it, you can’t help but notice how few touches any forward other than Harry Grant will get.
In the end the Storm didn’t score until a penalty goal on full time after Walker was put in the naughty corner for continued niggling or something like that. Hughes had tried for a two-point field goal for comedic purposes, only to miss easily. Cooper Clarke thought he had a try, but it was rightly called back for a couple of Storm knock ons. Melbourne continued to defend, even holding out after the referee stat-padded a few set restarts late in the game.
Interchange watch
Melbourne actually replaced an injured outside back… with an outside back. The heavenly chorus rejoiced. Manaia Waitere was the option to replace an injured Nick Meaney early in the first half and he was useful in the centres. Praise be.
Harry Grant replaced Trent Toelau before the 20 minute mark backing up from Origin. That meant Stefano Utoikamanu played 30 minutes in his first stint, up from his usual amount, while Josh King played the first 50 minutes before being subbed out for Utoikamanu to return. Alec MacDonald played around 38 minutes through the middle of the field, while Trent Loiero was the other starter to have time on the bench, leaving after 57 minutes for Jack Hetherington to play his first NRL match since round 7.
Cooper Clark meanwhile played a career high 76 minutes from kickoff until he was given a late rest.
Post match quotes
Belsa was in a happy mood:
The most pleasing aspect of it was — especially considering our record in second halves for most of this year — we didn’t lose confidence or belief in what we were doing. We had a lot of good ball and field position [in the first half] but didn’t get the points that we probably would get — the second half we continued on with it.
Our players take great pride in backing up after Origin — they’ve done a great job. We were very grateful that they all backed up.
On Fa’alogo:
With all due respect, he was great tonight, but for the last six weeks he’s been outstanding for us. Not only his work rate, but also some of the big plays. He’s come a long way in a short amount of time.
Stat offloads
This was Melbourne’s third 18–4 win in club history, having now featured in four of the 16 NRL-era matches to finish with that scoreline.
Melbourne have the best record of all opponents against the Roosters, winning 34 of the 54 matches between the teams.
Jack Hetherington’s fourth appearance for Melbourne was his 100th NRL match. He made his NRL debut with Penrith in 2018, making 17 appearances from 2018 through 2020, with two matches in 2020 on loan to the Warriors. Moving to the Bulldogs in 2021 he made 20 appearances across two seasons, then made 53 appearances from 2023 through 2025 with the Knights.
Harry Grant now has 47 tries in 132 NRL matches, one behind Cameron Smith. Grant last started off the bench for Melbourne back in 2024.
Sua Fa’alogo is the 48th player to kick a NRL goal for Melbourne.
Melbourne made just five handling errors to 18 from the Roosters. The Storm had 18 offloads, to the Roosters four.
Melbourne had just 29 missed tackles to the Roosters 49.
22 points is the equal lowest scoring game this season.
Was it worth it?
On a night that Melbourne celebrated it’s partnership with the Starlight Foundation and raised more than $100k for the charity, it was good to see more than 15,000 people inside AAMI Park. The final attendance was announced as 16,628 — they were definitely late to arrive — but given the cool and eventually wet conditions, that number was not a bad result.
Hat tip to subscriber Sally for this video of Groundskeeper Harry just doing some yard work before heading on to AAMI Park and scoring a try.
8/10
What’s all this then…
This isn’t a great look at all Brisbane Broncos and News Corporation (reporting on itself)…
Losing to St Merge in 2026 is about as reprehensible as having a on the balance of probabilities war criminal in your rooms.6 Can only think that handing back last year’s trophy and replacing it at Red Hill with a five metre tall 2020 NRL wooden spoon sculpture is the appropriate punishment.
On the subject of reprehensible things, someone at AAMI Park decided during the NSW Cup match to commit a war crime and play the fucking song. If they do it again, I’ll find an offence in a statute somewhere and make it my business to prosecute them.7
Storm Machine Player of the Year
See round 1 for the ratings explanations.
Round 13
8 — Sua Fa’alogo
7 — Stefano Utoikamanu, Cooper Clarke, Harry Grant, Moses Leo
6 — Will Warbrick, Jack Howarth, Cameron Munster, Jahrome Hughes, Ativalu Lisati, Trent Loiero
5 — Josh King, Alec MacDonald
4 — Trent Toelau, Manaia Waitere, Jack Hetherington
NR — Nick Meaney
Around the grounds
Three games… three wins? Well that wasn’t on the Storm’s bingo card going into Saturday… so wow.
The U21s got the party started at Gosch’s Paddock. It wasn’t an ideal start for the boys as they conceded in the opening minute or so, eventually heading to half time 16–0 down. Bus as the showers blew through in the second half, Melbourne first worked their way into the match with a try to Suli Pole who burst through the middle, then the Storm went back-to-back for Amare Milford to also find a path to the line through the centre of the Roosters defence. On the powerplay a couple minutes later, Melbourne hit the lead when Victory Isaako converted a try from Dylan Brettle. The young halfback fooling everyone from dummy half to scramble down a short side to score untouched. Kobi Floro crashed over under the posts to extend the lead with 16 minutes to go, and Keaton Stutt put the icing on the cake for the Storm, scoring with ten minutes to go after the Roosters winger fumbled an Eli Morris kick. It’s the third win out of 11 matches for the season, and puts Melbourne in 11th position.
Inside AAMI Park, expectations were not high for the NSW Cup team on the back of five straight losses. There were a couple of debutants for Melbourne with Josh Durkin and the exciting Amaziah Murgha both stepping up to this grade. Fans who arrived early saw some great tries from a few of the Storm’s young guns. Angus Hinchey scored the opening try in the eighth minute, then halfback Hayden Watson extended the lead, grubbering for himself to score a neat solo try.
With less than 20 minutes gone, Melbourne were racing the timeclock — Gabriel Satrick was running the ball8 and sliced through to score his first try of the year. Just before the break Josiah Pahulu scored through the middle to give the Storm a deserved 24–0 lead at the break.
Coming out from the interval though, the Roosters hit back with a try — but that was as good as it got for the visitors. Liam Williams finished a movement that started inside Melbourne’s half after Josh Durkin and Davvy Moale terrorised the Roosters on the edge, restoring the 24–point lead. Watson then laid on a try for Joseph Litadamu out wide, the halfback then scored his second of the match from a midfield scrum:
Melbourne were far from done — Siulagi Tuimalatu-Brown scored a Xavier Coates like try diving over in the corner, the Storm going back-to-back when Murgha got on the end of a kick from Litadamu to score his first try at this level. Angus Hinchey scored his second to bring an end to the slaughter of the Roosters. The Storm only just falling short of their record score in this competition.9
The result saw the Storm move off the bottom of the NSW Cup ladder. Huzzah.
Next up
Round 14 vs Newcastle Knights – Friday 5 June 2026, 6:00pm @ AAMI Park
The Knights made tough work of Parramatta on Saturday afternoon, but they are on a four match winning streak since their loss to the Panthers in late April. Like the Roosters, they’re full of points, so it will be another test of Melbourne’s defensive resolve. There’ll be at least one change too with Nick Meaney’s injury.
Preview post online Thursday.
Not that Inane or Alexander noticed given they were commentating for Fox League from The Bad Place. If HRH Smarmy King PVL doesn’t put minimum service conditions in his $4b NRL broadcasting contract, then it will be another failure from his administration of the game.
I’m not sure if that was because Trent Toelau was playing hooker and his passes were just a little off, or whether that unless Fa’alogo was touching the ball, Melbourne were playing just a little cautious and static at times.
Will gloss over Jack Howarth being denied a try when he was held up after bouncing into the ingoal area. It was a correct decision from Chris Butler in the Bunker.
Or Robbie Ross.
Remembering the golden rule to never score on zero tackle.
The most excellent way to bring your crimes out in the open is to sue for defamation and lose three times. Have at it; Full Federal Court; and High Court.
The RFL Challenge Cup was ruined by that song being played after every Wigan try too. They have now made The List.
Unlike in his NRL debut last week.
A 64–12 win over the Central Coast in April 2010.