S26E05 Preview – Rabbit season
Melbourne's 84% win percentage is again on the line against their Bunnies
Friday night football. Prime time.
Possibly doesn’t go as hard as back in the days of this old Nine intro.
Visiting Accor Stadium Australia on a Friday night in ninth to play eighth placed Souths. Should be an interesting one, as usual first let’s dip back in the past.
S24E09 – Melbourne Storm @ South Sydney Rabbitohs
Not going far into the past this week, just to those peak Vlandysball days of 2021 when Melbourne put high scores on almost everyone during a record 19 match winning streak. This game sticks out for the performance of one Storm favourite.
Yep, it’s the Josh Addo-Carr six tries performance, the first time a player had scored six tries in an NRL game, and the first to do so since 1950 from back in the NSWRL premiership.1
Souths were confident heading into the match,2 on a seven game winning streak after losing to Melbourne to open the season, in what was a cracking match to welcome Victorians back to rugby league.3 Melbourne would lose their round 2 (at Parramatta) and round 3 (at Penrith) games before going on their own winning streak of five matches entering this #SackThursdayNightFootball matchup.
When looking back at this game,4 it could have gone completely differently had an early forward pass from Cody Walker to Alex Johnston not been called correctly by the referees. Johnson beat George Jennings and Nicho Hynes to the corner, but it was called back and that was as close as Souths got.
Addo-Carr opened the scoring after a neat little grubber kick from Justin Olam,5 but Melbourne were put on the back foot after a Christian Welch dropped ball from the restart. Surprisingly it was still 4–0 after 20 minutes, with both teams struggling a little with the moist conditions. Addo-Carr had a second after Hynes cut the Bunnies to shreds on the left channel, the midfield shift to break Souths open was scintillating. Foxx’s hat trick try saw another break in the left channel with Munster sending Harry Grant through a gaping hole. Munster’s structured “unstructured play” just too good for Souths, and it was a steal off Cook that set up Jahrome Hughes to score Melbourne’s fourth try, the third in less than ten minutes.
Addo-Carr would score his fourth try before half time to equal the club’s then record. 26–0 at half time and the game as a contest was over. All that was left was to see if Foxx could break the club record…
There were three other tries scored between Addo-Carr’s fourth try and his fifth,6 but it was the most exceptional finishing from Addo-Carr that got the headlines. This photo of the ultimate hype man Justin Olam while the Foxx scores his fifth try is iconic.
Addo-Carr’s sixth try would come with just over 8 minutes to go as the rout of the Bunnies was complete.
This match is one that I have my tweet-sized instant review available – safe to suggest I was happy with that performance on the night.7
South Sydney – 0
Melbourne – 50 (Addo-Carr 11’, 22’, 26’, 39’, 66’, 71’, Jennings 49’, 57’, Hughes 30’, B Smith 46’ tries; Munster 5/10 goals)
Souths would go on to make the 2021 NRL Grand Final, almost making one of my favourite things on rugby league twitter redundant, but thankfully not.
Stat pack
Melbourne have previously played just once previously on 31 March, a 42–18 loss at Parramatta Stadium to the Eels.
South Sydney are Melbourne’s bunnies, having won only six of 37 matches between the teams. Souths never defeated Melbourne before they were rightfully booted from the competition, and are yet to win in the State of Victoria8 from 18 visits to Melbourne.
Souths won the last match between the teams 24–12 at the same venue as this week’s match in round 19, with Alex Johnston scoring two tries.
Souths have taken their home match against Melbourne to Perth three times in the past,9 with Melbourne winning twice.
South Sydney try-scoring machine Alex Johnston has scored 11 tries in 12 matches against Melbourne, scoring three doubles.
Melbourne have a 17–9 record at Stadium Australia, with three of those losses against Souths, including the 2013 qualifying final.10
Team line-up
Nick Meaney
Will Warbick
Remis Smith
Justin Olam
Xavier Coates
Cameron Munster
Jonah Pezet
Tui Kamikamica
Harry Grant
Christian Welch ©
Trent Loiero
Elisa Katoa
Josh King
Bronson Garlick
Alec MacDonald
Tariq Sims
Tom Eisenhuth
Grant Anderson
Tyran WishartJordan GrantGeorge JenningsJack Howarth
Preview
There’s some really good rugby league writers around at the moment, doing some top notch work. This from Oscar Pannifex at rugbyleaguewriters.com is fantastic analysis of Jonah Pezet’s work against Wests Tigers.
With Jahrome Hughes still cooling his boots on the sidelines, Pezet will again feature this week and will look to build on two solid performances in the halves. As Oscar pointed out, his pairing with Cameron Munster saw the two combine for a significant amount of Melbourne’s attacking output last week. If the two of them can withstand the pressure that will come at them from a better opponent this week, it holds Melbourne in good stead to score enough points against the Bunnies.
A short diversion to acknowledge that this week Jesse Bromwich will play his 300th NRL game when he runs out for the Dolphins against St. George-Illawarra in Wollongong. Jesse’s 295 games for Melbourne saw him score 32 tries; win the Player of the Year Award three times,11 as well as three premierships. Bromwich will be the 46th player to play 300 games and is just the sixth Kiwi to do it. Well done Jesse ⚡️1️⃣1️⃣9️⃣, play well.
Unlike last week, Souths won’t have the wrong players playing in crucial positions and Melbourne’s right edge especially will need to be at their best up against what will be a more potent attacking threat than what Wests Tigers presented. With the Bunnies winning an emotional one in #GoldenGallop last week against Manly, they will be primed to put in a sustained 80 minute effort.
For Melbourne, last week saw what happens when a team that is low in confidence at least applies themselves to the task of holding the ball, and working hard in defence. This week will be tougher, but if the first half of last week is anything to go by, perhaps a corner has been turned. An unchanged starting line-up gives some continuity to the team, with Tom Eisenhuth a chance to play his first game off the bench for the season.
This week my focus will be the battle between Harry Grant and Damien Cook. Cook has had the sum total of one above average game against Melbourne,12 with Cameron Smith, Brandon Smith and Grant all having Cook's measure. Cook to me is Robbie Farah with slightly better press, but I've seen occasions against other opposition where he has been the difference. Grant has been in great form to start the season as he now plays 80 minutes each week. His tackle numbers are sky-high, but it's not impacting his attacking play too much. His passing choices are usually spot on, especially when he trusts the playmakers to get to work. Looking for a big game from Grant this week against a representative rival.
Am loathe to predict exactly how this one might go, but it would be nice if Melbourne could keep heading in the right direction.
Bevan French’s seven tries in the Super League for Wigan Warriors in a match against Hull FC last year is the new high mark for top level rugby league in the modern era.
Albeit injury affected with Adam Reynolds and Cameron Murray notably missing, meaning the zombie Benji Marshall started at halfback with second-gamer Dean Hawkins at five-eighth. Cody Walker was at fullback.
2020-21 will never not be traumatic memories for Victorian rugby league fans, even with Melbourne winning the 2020 NRL Grand Final that NSW wouldn’t let us filthy Victorians attend.
Of course played in typically poor conditions in The Bad Place. Build a fucking roof already.
An underrated part of his game.
The pick was probably Brandon Smith doing hectic 🧀 things from dummy half.
2021 might have ended with a bit of a whimper for Melbourne, but it was a fun season to watch from lockdowns.
#DPRV forever.
2009, 2010 and 2017 with all matches played at what is currently called HBF Park (or Perth Rectangular Stadium).
#TeamStraightSets🎾
2014, 2015, and 2016.
S21E21 in 2018.