Game 758 – S29E19 Review
Melbourne Storm 22–18 Gold Coast Titans
The Storm make hard work of the Titans to notch up NRL win 500.
Melbourne – 22 (Warbrick 13', Howarth 30', MacDonald 45', Meaney 79' tries; Meaney 3/4 goals)
Gold Coast – 18 (Fotuaika 18', Campbell 54', Kini 63' tries; Campbell 3/3 goals)
Maybe a $5.3bn broadcast deal could have conditions where Fox League commentators actually have to travel to Melbourne again…
No Munster, no worries? Not quite.
Cameron Munster wasn’t playing. Thankfully Craig Bellamy let us know on Saturday to prepare us for that. Harry Grant didn’t start again, so both Tyran Wishart and Trent Toelau started. You wonder why #wrongpriorities ruins the NRL product… there’s exhibit A.
It looked like it would bite Melbourne again as the team on the park got off to what looked like another slow start. The visitors had the better of the opening ten minutes with Keano Kini looking especially dangerous. The Titans probably should have opened the scoring but for Tino Fa’asuamaleaui’s pass being called forward to Jayden Campbell. That early scare seemed to set a pattern for the first part of this match — the Titans looked fast and energetic, while the Storm looked like they were just plodding along.
Eventually Melbourne looked like they could settle into a groove, helped by errors from the Titans. Some of those errors were being forced by some good defensive work by the middle forwards, I was especially pleased to see some of the efforts from Trent Loiero who seemed to be on a mission to hit his Queensland teammates with everything he could without giving away a penalty.1
That’s not to say that the errors from the Titans weren’t being matched by the Storm’s own. The final tally for both teams: Storm 13, Titans 16. Suffice to say this match didn’t reach very high standards.
It took until the 13th minute for someone to bring this game out of what was a battle between two teams likely to end up in the bottom half of the NRL ladder — that someone was Tyran Wishart. He started his run deep inside Melbourne’s half and when it was done after passing to Jack Howarth, the Titans defence was shot to pieces. An effort play from Cooper Clarke to get to acting half was almost lost in the washup as Jahrome Hughes pinpointed his kick out to Will Warbrick to score the opening try. Nick Meaney converting the try for a 6–0 lead.
If only the Storm could have built more pressure on the back of points. Instead Clarke gave up possession and on the back of a penalty and set restart, Wishart attempted an intercept only to see Moeaki Fotuaika score untouched in the space he left. Ouch. The Titans probably deserved to be 6–all to be fair given they had the better chances.
Enter Harry Grant
Against the Raiders when he came off the bench, Harry Grant changed the game. He almost immediately did it again with an audacious attempt at a 40/20 kick with his first touch of the ball. Even if he almost forgot to put his mouthguard in.
Maybe Grant was still trying to get his bearings on his next big involvement — a moment of madness that almost cost the Storm dearly. Perhaps against any other team than the Titans it would have been punished. On a broken final tackle play where the Titans recovered a kick that wasn’t touched by the Storm, they threw the ball around for a second kick from their hooker Oliver Pascoe. That kick looked to be covered by Grant, except he fumbled and in attempting to scoop the ball and flick it back to Hughes, Pascoe was able to grab it and only need to fall over the line to score… except he didn’t. He lost the ball after his elbow hit the turf, losing the ball backwards and then knocking it on trying to score. It was another chance not taken by the visitors with Melbourne fortunate to escape.2
Grant and Alec MacDonald coming off the bench did seem to brighten up the Storm. It was still somewhat clunky — the kick to Warbrick being the singular final tackle option at times. Eventually some ball movement was generated when Grant linked up with Howarth and Siulagi Tuimalatu-Brown down a short side on the left flank, with STB getting it back in to his centre partner to fight in a three man tackle to score after Howarth had initially put the ball down on an opponent’s leg. Was that a double movement though, or was it similar enough to a famous try in the 2004 NRL Grand Final? It would be Howarth’s final involvement for the half as he went to down the tunnel for a HIA to be replaced by Oryn Keeley for his Storm debut.
There would be no more points in the last eight minutes of the half — Grant was scheming for set restarts without any luck, and Melbourne did win a challenge against a penalty to get a knock on… because sure. The Titans did have further chances to score, it almost looked like they did but for a last-ditch effort from Hughes to ensure AJ Brimson had a slipper on the line before he dived over in the corner. They also had another chance when more clunky Storm attack almost caught out Melbourne’s right edge, only for Sua Fa’alogo to save the day getting his boot to a loose ball and kicking it back towards his own line.
In his first minutes in purple, Oryn Keeley was looking good on the right edge, joining in on a tackle too from Josh King that folded Beau Fermor as the Storm aimed up in defence.
Weird vibes
Sometimes rugby league matches have a flow about them. The possession shifts, teams probe for the weak links, matches enter into a grinding stasis. This match seemed to defy the regular narratives. Melbourne were leading and looking somewhat comfortable, albeit clunky. The Titans though had the better chances and only needed to fully commit to their speed advantage to find a way around Melbourne. But they couldn’t.
Instead Melbourne built pressure for the first time all match and scored next to set up a 12–point lead. The try came after Grant almost threw a horrible intercept to former teammate Dean Ieremia. Melbourne’s aerial bombardment towards the wing of Warbrick was put on hold briefly for Hughes to put MacDonald through to score his first NRL try since round 26 in 2024.
In the final 30 minutes, Melbourne played like they had a lead greater than 12 points. It was unnerving and weird vibes rugby league. Especially so when Josiah Pahulu FINALLY made his Storm debut.
It looked like Melbourne might jump to the lead they thought they had when Hughes almost broke through the line — except when Grant looked to push the play, he threw the intercept to Campbell to run the length of the field. Grant was a little unlucky not to have caught Campbell offside (he was) but alas. It was a 12 point turn around as the visitors cut the margin to six points with plenty of time on the clock.
The match was turning harder for Melbourne. STB dropped ball on a kick return. Only desperate defence, including pressure from Meaney caused a forward pass from Campbell to save the home team’s blushes. STB was able to restore some of his confidence by taking a high kick without stress, beating Jojo Fifita. I’m not sure he’s NRL quality, but Melbourne’s outside back stocks are that thin at the moment.
It was hard work for the Storm as the match entered the final 20 minutes. The field was tilted towards the river end for the Titans. The pressure on the Storm line was building and a phantom six again call on a poor Titans pass, a Warbrick error attempting to take a kick, gave the visitors a scrum in front of the posts 10m from the Storm line.
Oh that was embarrassing. Zane Harrison passed to Kini. The fullback standing up Howarth and STB to score far too easily. The conversion levelled the scores and there was plenty of time for either team to win it.
Melbourne needed a spark. Offloads helped — both Utoikamanu and Clarke were able to get some effective second phase play. Fa’alogo was trying to match the speed of his opposition, and Keeley was able to manufacture a line break. Wishart’s last tackle option though wasn’t great.
Hughes was also trying to push Melbourne forward with passing, only to come up with an error passing at the shoulder of Keeley. Time was ticking away, but almost not fast enough. With ten minutes to go, both teams should have been thinking about a field goal. The visitors seemed to forget that was an option. Melbourne was fielding a team where no one had ever slotted one.3
More errors from the visitors gave Melbourne a chance to cross halfway with the ball in hand — cue more kicking for Warbrick with limited success. It wasn’t until the final three minutes that I thought that the Titans might finally put Melbourne out of our misery and take the lead, but again no field goal was coming. Instead Fa’alogo stepped up and sparked a Storm counterattack on a kick return. Linking up with Wishart, the ball eventually landed with MacDonald who wisely took a tackle at midfield.
Following some big runs down the right from Joe Chan and Warbrick, the returning centre Nick Meaney dived over to score the winning try with less than 80 seconds left. It wasn’t quite pandemonium at AAMI Park, but there was an enormous sigh of relief that swept over the stadium… unless that was just Bellyache puffing as he paced the box. Not sure what Tino was complaining about after the try was awarded, he was certainly having words with rookie ref Brough, but his pleas went unanswered. A restart and some danger as the Titans shifted on the final play went nowhere as the ball went into touch on a wild pass. Melbourne had taken the two points, even if it was just another win against a team lower than them on the ladder.
Post match quotes
Philosophical Belsa was back this week:
It was pretty wild and woolly tonight. We didn’t play the way we wanted to play for the whole 80 minutes, we did some really good things, but there were some times we went off the road. We have a few injuries at the moment, but to hang in there and get the win was a good effort in the end.
We didn’t know whether they [Hughes, Howarth, Meaney] were going to play [at captain’s run], the physio seen them and we needed to see how they got through training. To their credit they all did and obviously Munster pulled out — I didn’t think all of them were 100%, especially Jahrome, but for the three of them to actually play when the team needed them to play, it was a great effort.
Was a lot of Grant in the press conference this week. Wonder if the journalists think they can get better quotes from the skipper these days…
Stat offloads
There have been plenty of 22–18 final scores in NRL history, with Melbourne having won seven matches now with that score, while losing just once. The last 22–18 final score before this match was the Storm’s golden point win over the Panthers last August.
Melbourne’s 500th NRL win came in the club’s 753rd match. Melbourne average 24.67 points per game in all matches, and 30.11 in those 500 wins.
Will Warbrick scored his 53rd try for Melbourne in his 73rd appearance, equalling the record of Storm player #001 Robbie Ross who scored his in 89 appearances for the club. Warbrick has now scored seven tries in his last five matches.
Oryn Keeley and Josiah Pahulu are the eleventh and twelfth players to debut for Melbourne this year.
Was it worth it?
Just 12,386 through the gates in wintry conditions in Melbourne. Thankfully the rain and showers mostly held off during the match, but it did make for a slippery surface nonetheless. The 6:15pm kickoff on a Sunday is very much the graveyard shift because is anyone ever really waiting all day for Sunday night?
Though it was nice to see a few people wearing colours from both AFL matches held on Sunday making their own personal doubleheader at the rugby league.
That does bring Melbourne’s average attendance at AAMI Park down to 19,662 for 2026 and with only two matches remaining, it might be a struggle to get that back above 20,000.
5/10
Storm Machine Player of the Year
See round 1 for the ratings explanations.
Round 19
7 — Trent Loiero, Alec MacDonald
6 — Sua Fa’alogo, Will Warbrick, Nick Meaney, Tyran Wishart, Jahrome Hughes, Josh King, Cooper Clarke
5 — Jack Howarth, Stefano Utoikamanu, Joe Chan, Harry Grant, Oryn Keeley
4 — Siulagi Tuimalatu-Brown, Trent Toelau, Josiah Pahulu
Leaderboard (season average, min 10 matches)
1 — Ativalu Lisati (5.50)
2 — Sua Fa’alogo (5.47)
3 — Harry Grant (5.38)
4 — Stefano Utoikamanu (5.29)
5 — Jahrome Hughes (5.20)
Around the grounds
The Storm had their own version of West Side Story this weekend in the lower grades. At Henson Park, the NSW Cup side shocked the Jets to pick their fifth win for the season.
Gabriel Satrick scored a double in the first ten minutes, to give the Storm a 10–0 lead. But that advantage was reduced and then squandered as the home team put on three tries, including one on the stroke of half time to take a 16–10 lead at the break.
Melbourne worked their way back into the game in the second half — tries to Liam Williams and Stanley Huen levelled the scores and a sideline conversion from Dylan Brettle saw the Storm take a two-point lead with just under 15 minutes to play.
The Jets had their chances to win it in the final ten minutes, but the Storm survived to take the win. It makes Newtown the first team to lose both their matches against Melbourne this year.
At AAMI Park, the Sharks made light work of the under-21 squad. By half time it was five tries to one as the visitors led 30–6. It was a more muted second period — Melbourne didn’t concede any points while Amara Milford was in the sin bin, with each team scoring just one converted try each for the entire half.
Next up
Round 20 vs Sydney Roosters – Friday 19 July 2026, 8:00pm @ Allianz Stadium
The first of two crucial away matches where upset wins are necessary if Melbourne are going to make a run for a finals position. Only issue — Melbourne have won just twice from eight matches outside Victoria this season.
Preview post online Thursday.
Loiero’s final stat line: 36 tackles, two missed tackles; no penalties, no errors; 16 runs for 118 metres including 42 post contact.
#Kleined really wanted to give that try too in the Bunker, perhaps just to overrule QRL referee Tyson Brough on his NRL debut.
Only ten Melbourne players have kicked field goals for the Storm in NRL matches.