After the comedy rugby league spectacular at Suncorp Stadium last week, we get to do it all again this week in the first week of the finals. Both teams will look very different with the pressure ramping up as the 2023 NRL finals series kicks off.
With Melbourne qualifying for the club’s 23rd final series, finishing in the top four for the 17th season, there’s much Storm lore forged in Septembers of the past. Looking back this week, there have only been six occasions that Melbourne have started the final series away from Victoria,1 with two of those against the Broncos back in 2004 and 2005.
S07E27 – Brisbane Broncos vs Melbourne Storm
Try as I might, I couldn’t find the highlights of this match anywhere this week. I was travelling through Europe during this time too, so my memory of this one isn’t great.2
Here’s some snippets from a couple of match reports:
A rampant Scott Hill ruined the farewell parade for Gorden Tallis last night, tearing apart the Broncos with a virtuoso second-half performance.
Brisbane led 8–0 at halftime, but six Melbourne tries — three created by Hill, who also scored the first one — spoiled Tallis' final match on Queensland soil3 and exposed the Broncos' finals claims.
The Broncos drew to within six points with less than 10 minutes remaining, but a try, conversion and field goal from Melbourne halfback Matt Orford sealed the result.
The way Melbourne blew Brisbane off the park in the second 40 minutes was almost the perfect display of finals football, built on ball control and field position.
Melbourne Storm foundation player and 1999 premiership winner Matt Geyer called it "the best half of finals this club has played" and no one was arguing as the southern outpost proved they are not in the finals just to make up the numbers.
Trailing Brisbane 8–0 at the break, the Storm caught fire in the second half to run in 31 points and restrict their opponents to one try — a runaway effort from Brent Tate against the run of play.
Led by halves Matt Orford and Scott Hill, Storm came out in the second half like a team possessed. Where they were lacklustre and flat in the first half, they were dashing and vibrant in the second.
"I think it was the best half of finals football this club has played," Geyer said. "To come back from 8–0 down against the Broncos in Brisbane and to win running away like that, it was just great to be part of.
"It does a lot for our belief, but there is a long way to go. Whoever we play next week is going to be incredibly tough and we have to get our feet back on the ground and get ready for it."
It looked like Storm might be in for a long night as they bumbled and stumbled their way through the first half.
"I don't know if it was stage fright, but we were terrible in the first half," Storm coach Craig Bellamy said.
"Our completion rate put us under pressure and we weren't playing the kind of footy we normally do.
"We looked hesitant and we were waiting for the Broncos to bring the game to us.
"But, to the guys' credit, we turned it around, we played our best footy from the start of the second half and a couple of early tries gave us a lot of confidence and we kicked on from there."
After missing the finals in 2001 and 2002, this was the second year in a row under Craig Bellamy that Melbourne would make it through to the second week of the NRL finals.4
Brisbane – 14 (Carroll 17', Tate 66' tries; Lockyer 3/3 goals)
Melbourne – 31 (Hill 42', Bell 47', King 50', Slater 59', Orford 70', Geyer 79' tries; Orford 3/6 goals; Orford field goal 74')
S08E27 – Brisbane Broncos vs Melbourne Storm
A year later the same teams would meet again in the first week of the finals, with both teams finishing in the same ladder positions. I was living in Queensland at the time, so I was at this game with the travelling Storm fans.
Again, couldn’t find any highlights online of this match, so here’s more match report snippets:
Heroic Melbourne Storm last night lifted to defeat Brisbane 24–18 and book a place in the second week of the NRL finals.
Despite losing skipper Robbie Kearns to a dislocated shoulder and fullback Billy Slater to an ankle injury, Storm dug deep to hold out the fast-finishing Broncos.
Leading 18–4 after a near-faultless first half, undermanned Storm had to dig deep to score a fine victory.
Coach Craig Bellamy labelled the win "one of the most courageous performances" in which he had been involved.
"I thought we were really gutsy," he said. "For over half an hour we only had two guys left on the bench — and a lot of those guys haven't played a lot of footy recently.
"For them to hang in how they did, and we had a lot of people busted out there, I thought it was a tremendous effort and I was really proud of them."
Long questioned over its ability to go the distance in tough matches, Storm silenced the knockers last night.
Kearns, whom Bellamy has described as the heart and soul of the team, lasted only 35 minutes before he was forced from the field.
But in his absence some unlikely heroes emerged.
Out of form and seemingly out-of-favour, France-bound prop Alex Chan wasn't expected to play a role in Storm's finals campaign, but when Dennis Scott (shoulder) was ruled out on match morning, Chan was brought into the fray.
He delivered a mighty game.
Along with rookie props Antonio Kaufusi and Brett White and backrowers Glen Turner, Ryan Hoffman and the unbreakable Dallas Johnson, he set the platform for halfback Matt Orford to dictate play.
Storm, which had promised to take on the Broncos through the air, secured its first three tries from kicks.
Winger Jake Webster scored the first in the 15th minute, and then Slater provided magic — the kind only he is capable of producing — to score Storm's second.
Those efforts were punctuated by a Scott Minto try for the Broncos, but when Matt King out leapt Minto to score Storm's third, Melbourne jumped to a deserved 18–4 lead at the break.
From there it became tough.
Darren Smith scored just after the break to close the gap to 18–10, and when Slater spilled the ball with the line wide open, Storm was on shaky ground.
It got worse in the 59th minute when Brent Tate appeared to score for the Broncos. His effort was denied by video referee Chris Ward, who ruled that decoy runner Darren Smith had taken out Orford.
For Brisbane coach Wayne Bennett, that was a matter of the referees being "conned".
"Any body with half a mind could tell that Darren Smith did not obstruct," he said. "What happened was the player (Orford) realised he had taken the wrong read, so he took a dive.
"It was pretty obvious to Blind Freddy. If that's obstruction we can't send decoys out any more."
Orford, who was close to Storm's best, denied he had taken a dive.
"Melbourne players don't take dives," he said. "I think we are known as a team that plays fair."
While his kicks set up Storm's three first-half tries, Orford also played a big part when things got tight in the second.
With Brisbane still fuming with the disallowed effort, Orford hit rookie Greg Inglis with a sublime cut-out pass.
It was only the youngster's second touch, but he pivoted like a pro and scored.
That score gave Storm breathing space at 24–12, but the Broncos weren't finished.
With Storm running out of puff, half-back Brett Seymour scored to send it to the wire.
The kicking of halfback Matt Orford was critical last night, helping the Storm take an 18–4 halftime lead. They dug defensively in the second half to protect that advantage.
Winger Jake Webster, fullback Billy Slater and centre Matt King were the beneficiaries of Orford kicks. Brisbane's sole first-half response came from a Brett Seymour kick, the move finished off by winger Scott Minto.
It was a fierce opening but the Storm gradually won the territorial arm wrestle to maximise Orford's kicking.
Leon Bott was the Melbourne halfback's first target, with Webster using his height advantage to cross after a bomb.
Orford's next trick was a chip kick for Slater to race through through and step his opposite Karmichael Hunt for a try.
King scored just before halftime when Orford got the ball over Minto's head, allowing the NSW Origin star to fly high and score in the corner.
Wayne Bennett's team found a familiar passage back into the game after the break with 36-year-old Darren Smith crossing after a sweeping movement. Seymour's conversion reduced the deficit to 18–10.
There was more purpose about the Broncos early in the second half, but they lacked composure as they chased the game.
After withstanding sustained pressure, Melbourne had the chance to kill off the game when Steve Bell broke down the right. But Slater fumbled to blow what should have been a try.
Video referee Chris Ward then had the biggest call of the game, with Smith ruled to have taken out Orford as Brent Tate crossed out wide. Slater would have been the most relieved player on the field.
Storm suffered a blow with Slater damaging an ankle and captain Robbie Kearns dislocating his shoulder.
But Slater's replacement, the 18-year-old Greg Inglis, made his mark on the finals by running on to an Orford pass to score.
Brisbane, though, refused to go quietly and Seymour charged over from close range to make it 24–18 and set up an exciting final five minutes.
Brisbane – 18 (Minto 20', Smith 42', Seymour 75' tries; Seymour 3/4 goals)
Melbourne – 24 (Webster 14', Slater 31', King 37', Inglis 68' tries; Orford 2/2, Smith 2/2 goals)
Stat pack
Melbourne have played just once on 8 September, defeating South Sydney 24–6 in the 2012 qualifying final at AAMI Park. Melbourne jumped out to a 18–0 half time lead and were never threatened by the visitors on that occasion.
Melbourne and Brisbane have faced off in the finals on eight previous occasions, with Melbourne holding a 6–2 advantage. Brisbane’s only wins coming in the third week of the 1998 finals series, and the 2006 NRL Grand Final.5
Melbourne last played against Brisbane in a final at Suncorp Stadium in 2008, winning 16–14 in one of the most famous triumphs in club history.
Overall, Melbourne have won 14 week one finals, whether they have been qualifying or elimination finals.
Since moving to the current finals system in 2012, only three times has the team in third defeated the team that finished second in week one of the finals. South Sydney the last team to do it in 2021 against Penrith.
Team line-up
Nick Meaney
Will Warbrick
Marion Seve
Young Tonumaipea
Xavier Coates
Cameron Munster
Jahrome Hughes
Tui Kamikamica
Harry Grant
Christan Welch ©
Trent Loiero
Eliesa Katoa
Josh King
Bronson Garlick
Tom Eisenhuth
Nelson Asofa-Solomona
Ryan Papenhuyzen
Tyran Wishart
Tariq Sims
Tepai Moeroa
Reimis Smith
Grant Anderson
Referee: Grant Atkins (Bunker: Chris Butler)
Preview
It feels like this season has been something of a precursor to a Grand Final that sees Penrith facing Brisbane. This is Melbourne’s first chance to upset that eventuality. To win a seventh premiership, the Storm will have to beat Brisbane first up, lest they have to potentially face off against the Panthers earlier than the first Sunday night in October. But that is all to come.6
Brisbane in Brisbane again. Last week pretty much means nothing to the players who will take the field on Friday night.
For Melbourne, there’s 13 players coming back after missing the final round match, only Ryan Papenhuyzen, Young Tonumaipea, Josh King and Bronson Garlick remain in the 17-man team. On the other side, Brisbane are bringing back 11 players who missed last week, and somehow Brendan Piakura was able to cop three fines instead of a warranted suspension for his foul play last week.7
Of course the crisis merchants will never be happy:
Young Sua Fa’alogo will need to be somewhere in Storm’s 17 given his dynamic NRL debut against Brisbane where he scored two tries, completed eight tackle breaks and ran for 108 metres.
My eyes rolled out of the back of my head reading that. How the vast majority of the News Limited trollumnists haven’t been made redundant will forever be baffling to me.
As much as Melbourne’s voodoo against the Broncos at Lang Park is a fun streak,8 the statistical anomaly will eventually come to an end. I suspect that this week might just be the match that Brisbane gets over the top of Melbourne. That will force Melbourne into the long way around this September just to even qualify for another Grand Final.
The battle between the returning halfbacks in Adam Reynolds and Jahrome Hughes will be crucial, but what I’m intrigued by is the battle on the edges. Kotoni Staggs and Herbie Farnworth have scored a bunch of tries this season, as has Selwyn Cobbo. Up against Melbourne’s centres in Marion Seve and Young Tonumaipea, both players will need the support of their wingers and edge defenders to combat the potency that Brisbane can offer. Shutting down their space and pressuring Reynolds and Ezra Mam is the cliche here, but its doing the simple things that win matches in finals footy.
In the past month Craig Bellamy has often started Harry Grant on the bench to have him come on fresh when the initial sorties are done. It’s been a useful tactic and I assume that it might be tried again. If it is, I do hope that Melbourne target Billy Walters similarly in defence to force the Broncos to think about bringing on Tyson Smoothy prematurely. That combination might be a weaker link in the Broncos line-up.
Enough has been written about Reece Walsh this season. Melbourne have had tactics to stop players of his ilk before, but I do wonder whether a similar game plan to the one adopted at AAMI Park in May might be able to blunt his impact on the game. Walsh will likely do something extraordinary at least once during the 80 minutes, it will be the Storm’s hope that it doesn’t provide the divisive factor.
I’m heading up for this one to sit with the Storm fans, so enjoy your finals football.
Excluding the pandemic affected V’Landysball seasons.
I do know that a few hours after this match I was at Villa Park watching Aston Villa play out a typical 0–0 draw against Chelsea. I vaguely recall getting up early and trying to find an internet cafe to get score updates as I don’t think this game was on Sky Sports in the UK.
Tallis would play one more match on Queensland soil the following week when the Cowboys eliminated the Broncos in a semi final, the first time the North Queensland team had defeated Brisbane.
But we won’t go into what happened the week after.
Never forget #SimpkinsIsADickhead.
Who’s to say that a first up loss won’t mean Melbourne are #TeamStraightSets🎾
How all three incidents can be classed as “first offences” when two were in the same category is a quirk of the NRL Judiciary that can easily be amended. Watch them never do that though.
Long may it continue.