Game 759 – S29E20 Review
Sydney Roosters 14–6 Melbourne Storm
More injuries for Melbourne were costly as the Roosters grinded their way past a struggling Storm.
Sydney – 14 (Wong 6', Smith 26', Tupou 75' tries; Walker 1/3 goals; Walker 0/1 field goals)
Melbourne – 6 (Utoikamanu 58' try; Meaney 1/1 goals)
There’s a sprinkling of highlights in amongst a lot of nothing this week.
Bravery or…
The post match narrative for this one was that Melbourne put in a brave performance. With the injury toll and more injuries, yeah that’s one way of looking at it. The problem with that is it tends to obscure the lack of imagination and initiative this team continues to display in 2026.
Melbourne might have shown defensive grit for much of this match, but offered little with the ball in hand for long periods. It’s an excuse to lay that solely on the excuse that the missing personnel would have alleviated that — there were players available that could have helped. Different reins could have been pulled.
The Roosters used their size and speed advantage to dominate Melbourne early. The Storm couldn’t stop the post-contact metres or offloads on defence, allowing Easts to have all the field position. Then with the ball in hand, Melbourne were too often static when receiving the ball and unwilling to try much in the way of lateral movement.
For mine there were a few things that could have been useful — Harry Grant needed to play one off the ruck more so that he could have had some space with the ball in hand either to distribute with intent or run more. Whether that meant playing Tyran Wishart, Trent Toelau or even Gabriel Satrick at dummy half more, well it would have been something different for the Roosters to look at.
Melbourne’s forwards seem to never attack the ball with purpose. Trent Loiero has a passing game now, which is nice, but there’s a need for more from the middle forwards in hard purposeful running.1
In a season where not much has gone right, brave performances are nice and all, but it does feel like there’s a certain something missing that isn’t just personnel.
With Melbourne firmly on the back foot from the start, it wasn’t long before the Roosters scored. A kick from Dally Cherry-Evans that was never going to be fielded by a hesitant Siulagi Tuimalatu-Brown, was all too easily tapped back by Mark Nawaqanitawase2 to Siua Wong to fall down and score. At 4–0 after just six minutes, it looked like it was already going to be a long night for the Storm.
Gerard Sutton was doing his best to play into the hands of the home team. Grant was penalised for a ball strip when he looked to have picked the right moment to target Reece Robson after he had moved clear of the ruck. That call came right after a clear forward pass that wasn’t called, but whatever. Melbourne were able to defend that interjection from the officials, but the efforts in defence were depleting the energy levels. Another Suttonism was when he didn’t let play continue from an aerial contest between Warbrick and Daniel Tupou that saw Oryn Keeley scoop up a loose ball with support players ready to dive over and score. Replays showed that there wasn’t a knock on from Melbourne, but alas.
A 40/20 kick from DCE proved to be a thing that broke Melbourne’s resolve. That and the Allianz Stadium turf. Billy Smith fell over the line to score the Roosters second try, finishing off a passing move that exploited some passive Melbourne defence, but the greater issue was the injury to Will Warbrick. The Olympian went down with an Achilles injury — his final moments as a Storm player in his 74th appearance was him leaving the field on the medicab. Did the dodgy turf play any part in the injury? Maybe.
The match moved as so often Storm versus Roosters matches do into a grinding phase…
Well that was inevitable. Especially as Melbourne were struggling to get any field position — the Storm had just 19 tackles in the Chooks half of the field before the intermission, with no tackles inside the redzone. Melbourne’s defence was admirable as the rain fell, but there were moments that it felt like they were just hanging in there.
The grind continued after half time.
It wasn’t until Sutton intervened to give Melbourne a dodgy penalty in the 56th minute — their first of the match — that the Storm finally had a set of tackles in the redzone. The dodgy penalty came after a string of missed ruck infringements that Sutton could have called against the Roosters in any event.
On their first real opportunity, Melbourne actually scored. Grant had tried to work a crash play with Cooper Clark in the middle of the set, the second time around he tried it with Stefano Utoikamanu to crash over under the posts, the big forward running over the top of two defenders.
At 8–6 down with over 20 minutes remaining, Melbourne were somehow still in this game. They even started to show a little bit more confidence with the ball in hand, despite the worsening conditions. Melbourne still couldn’t stop Naufaha Whyte and Spencer Leniu in defence though. A second Storm try… that wasn’t forthcoming. A poor kick from Grant meekly handed over possession, then a line break set up from a Trent Toelau offload to Tyran Wishart almost saw the pair combine… only for the pass from Wishart to Fa’alogo not go to hand.
Then the errors came and ended any momentum Melbourne had scrounged up. The Storm wasted their challenge on one of them. The Storm’s defence cracked with five minutes to go. If the Storm were fortunate to have received a dodgy penalty that gave them field position to score early, the home team’s try that sealed the game came via a Billy Smith pass that was at least a metre forward to Daniel Tupou. Them’s the breaks.
Down by eight after Sam Walker’s successful conversion, Melbourne needed a miracle or two. They got one last week to win against the Titans when Nick Meaney scored. Melbourne had received the ball from the restart when Marky Mark knocked on, spreading the ball back to the right flank, it looked like Fa’alogo could have ducked through and scored a try, but his pass to Meaney didn’t connect — the centre was the widest Storm player and that dropped ball was the end of Melbourne’s night.
Interchange watch
Stefano Utoikamanu was subbed after 20 minutes. He had three runs and was in 11 tackles. In his place came Alec MacDonald. Confusingly, Trent Loiero was pulled off straight after in place of Jack Hetherington. Loiero had put through a last tackle kick a few minutes before… was he pulled for using an invalid licence? I can only assume the knock that had him briefly hobbling was enough to require some attention.
Stanley Huen replaced the injured Will Warbrick and Melbourne had used 16 players inside the first 30 minutes. MacDonald left the field for a head check just before the break, clearing that at half time for Josh King to extend his rest break for a further 15 minutes.
After conceding two penalties and making one error, Hetherington was finally removed after spending 31 minutes on the field. Loiero returned in his place, while Huen made way for King. A few minutes after scoring Melbourne’s only try, Utoikamanu was taken off for the ineffective Davvy Moale — the Manly-bound forward played 10 minutes in his ninth appearance for the season. Josiah Pahulu went unused again.
When Tupou scored, both Utoikamanu and Huen returned for the final four minutes, with Melbourne using their full quota of changes. In the end MacDonald played 54 minutes and made something of an impact despite one big error, while Utoikamanu was utilised for 52 minutes against the big Roosters pack.
Post match quotes
Wishart on the field:
We had our chances and probably didn’t take them. We can probably take a little pride in our bravery, but it only takes you so far. We did fatigue a bit and it probably showed in our attack late in the game. We made some dumb choices and we definitely could have been smarter and played to the conditions — unfortunately we didn’t do that.
Tonight was a big game, but we have to move on and prepare for next week.
Brick’s a big loss for us.
I’m always intrigued to see the length of the press conference videos each week. Melbourne’s runs twice as long as the Roosters. Bellyache doesn’t ramble on that much:
I was really happy with the player’s effort for eighty minutes to be honest. There’s a few things we could have done tactically a bit better, but the effort they put in today was really good. It was a fair few things that didn’t go our way I thought, but with a bad injury run, we stuck in there with our effort.
There were a couple of big decisions out there that hurt us. It is what it is, it’s not going to change.
We’ve lost both our wingers to the same severe injury. It’s such a shame for Will to end his career with us on that note. He’s been tremendous for us.
We just take it one game at a time. We’ll have a look at our injuries and see what we have available and prepare the best we can. Whatever will be will be as long as we’re competing out there.
Harry Grant:
There was a few opportunities that we could have give ourselves a better chance. We didn’t have the most polished performance, but a five day turnaround on the road — I’m proud of the team — of how we turned up in the eighty minutes.
Stat offloads
To start 2026, only Jahrome Hughes and Cameron Munster remain from successful Storm premiership teams. If they both miss a match this year the active streak that has been going since 2020, will need the club to win a seventh premiership if this retrospective record from match one in 1998 is to continue.
Without Jahrome Hughes and Cameron Munster in the team, this was the first match since round 20 of the 2020 season for Melbourne that featured no active Storm premiership players.
Since the start of the 2020 season, Hughes and Munster have together missed six matches. Melbourne won just two of those — round 11 in 2021 and round 27 in 2023.
There have been 26 NRL-era matches that have finished with a 14–6 score with Melbourne now featuring in nine of them. Melbourne have won four of those matches, but the five losses include round 1 in 2000, the 2019 preliminary final at the ShitCG, and the 2024 NRL Grand Final.
Cooper Clarke made 49 tackles without a missed tackle, only two of those efforts were classified as ineffective. He was pinged once for a ruck infringement.
Was it worth it?
Were Melbourne ever going to win this match? Look, probably not.
Are we disappointed in the way that they played? To be honest, a little bit.
There could have been ways to compete better in this match, especially when they had the ball in hand. In the end the effort was there and luck wasn’t, but that’s the position Melbourne are in deep into the 2026 season. This loss isn’t the end of the line just yet, but it’s a very fine margin now.
Of course it rained. It usually does in The Bad Place. Maybe one day they’ll work out how to grow sports turf north of the Murray, instead of turning out a cow paddock. Watching the FIFA World Cup this past month it’s hard to imagine that it’s just three short years since the FIFA Women’s World Cup was here and each stadium that hosted matches had immaculate surfaces.
3/10
Storm Machine Player of the Year
See round 1 for the ratings explanations.
Round 20
6 — Cooper Clarke
5 — Stefano Utoikamanu, Oryn Keeley
4 — Sua Fa’alogo, Will Warbrick, Jack Howarth, Tyran Wishart, Harry Grant, Josh King, Trent Loiero, Alec MacDonald, Stanley Huen
3 — Siulagi Tuimalatu-Brown, Nick Meaney, Trent Toelau
2 — Jack Hetherington
NR — Davvy Moale
Around the grounds
No wins across all three teams for the Storm this weekend.
The NSW Cup team got off to a good start when Hayden Watson scored and converted his own try to give Melbourne a lead inside the opening five minutes. The young playmaker chasing through a kick after Manaia Waitere caused a bit of chaos out wide under a high ball.
That was as good as it got though for the Storm in the first half. The Roosters scored twice to take a 12–6 lead at the break, extending that to 18–6 just after the resumption of play, both teams were struggling though in the wet conditions.
Two tries to Angus Hinchey saw the Storm level the scores with just under 20 minutes to play. Hinchey’s first try coming from a nice offload from Suli Pole close to the line, his second came via a line break from Jai Bowden and a nice passing movement. That was Hinchey’s ninth try of the season.
With scores level, Melbourne were denied a try by the referee who called Liam Williams in front of the kicker. That would have handed Melbourne the lead, but instead the Roosters went down the other end, scored a try and a 15m field goal, icing the win with a penalty goal on full time.3
On Sunday at Wentworth Park, the Roosters dominated the first half, scoring four tries before the Storm finally got on the board when Deacon King crashed over in the final minute or so before half time. It was an improved performance in the second half with tries to Matthew Kereti, Ronnic Starkey and Isaiah Savea bringing the Storm to within two points with five minutes to play. A late try for the Chooks saw them take home the competition points.4
Next up
Round 21 vs South Sydney Rabbitohs – Friday 24 July 2026, 8:00pm @ Accor Stadium
If you thought the turf at Allianz Stadium was bad, wait until you see Homebush. Melbourne’s season hangs on by a thread — if the Bunnies can do the double over Melbourne, then the Storm will legitimately miss the finals for the first time since 2002. Hey, Jahrome might be back…
Preview post online Thursday.
Is there a Shein Payne Haas out there somewhere? Oh wait, that was probably Lazarus Vaalepu. Fuck.
I’m done typing his name out, it’s too long and I’m not putting it in my autocorrect like I did with Fa’asuamaleaui — henceforth he will be Marky Mark.
Further disappointment — the NSW Cup team has been kicked off AAMI Park for the rest of the season. Their remaining home matches will all be at Seabrook Reserve after their match against Manly next month was moved from Ironbark Fields.
Can’t say I’ve watched many rugby league games from Wentworth Park, but it’s always amusing to see the team bus parked in view of the single camera shooting the action. The unused race track scoreboard that blocks the action on one part of the ground though, that’s peak NSWRL.