With the New Zealand Warriors taking shore leave this year,1 it falls to the South Sydney Rabbitohs to come to Melbourne for the Storm’s only marquee match for the season on ANZAC Day.
So break out the military-industrial complex cosplay… wait we did this last year:
Melbourne’s 2024 jersey tries to tell a lot of stories:
…the design highlights the city’s iconic Shrine of Remembrance … [the] Shrine is surrounded by four courtyards, each with jagged walls representing the sporadic nature of the trenches soldiers would dig. Similar to a game of battleship, the nature of the trenches ensured safety through on-ground combat – if opposing forces hit one area, the haphazard design made it harder to target the remainder of the trench.
Furthermore, the Shrine’s ‘education’ courtyard features paving recreating a famous evasive camouflage used by the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) throughout both World Wars - the ‘dazzle’ camouflage.
Read the rest of the information provided by the club here.
There’s just one problem with the riff on the dazzle camouflage motif — the purple and blue probably should have been either colour with white. But then that would have clashed with what South Sydney are wearing: the 2021–22 Storm clash jersey
I can see what they’re trying to achieve here, but I’ve seen this somewhere before:
This week I’ve been down a particular rabbit hole indulging in reading about the circumstances of a match that I had forgotten.
S12E14 – South Sydney Rabbitohs vs Melbourne Storm
Venturing back to 2009 today for this match against the Bunnies. Melbourne famously never having lost to South Sydney in the #DPRV, but this match in the before times was played in Perth marking Melbourne’s first visit to Western Australia since thrashing Wests Magpies there in 1999.
Melbourne came into this match in 5th on the ladder, but just one point off top position. A classic late night league with this one starting at 9:30pm AEST, but there was a chance this game might not have gone ahead:
This Saturday’s clash between the South Sydney Rabbitohs and Melbourne Storm Perth’s Members Equity Stadium will go ahead despite rumours circulating suggesting the current Swine Flu issue in the game would see the match postponed.
South Sydney CEO Shane Richardson has quashed rumours on the South Sydney Official website stating this definitely not the case.
“I have spoken to the NRL, Brian Waldron at the Melbourne Storm and Members Equity Stadium, and this Saturday’s game will definitely be going ahead,”
“There have been rumours doing the rounds today that the game will be called off but I can guarantee this is not the case,” Shane is reported to have stated.
Reports out of The West Australian:
The availability of six State of Origin players for the clash at Members Equity Stadium between the South Sydney Rabbitohs and Melbourne Storm had been thrown into doubt as concerns over swine flu threatened to engulf the league.
Storm stars Billy Slater and Greg Inglis, captain Cameron Smith and lock Dallas Johnson were placed under 72-hour quarantine following confirmation that Queensland Origin teammate Ben Hannant had contracted the virus. Fellow Origin representatives and South Sydney players Craig Wing and Michael Crocker were also quarantined over fears they had been exposed to swine flu.
Storm chief executive Brian Waldron said there was no concern over the club's Origin quartet, who would line up against South Sydney barring any misfortune.
"We're certainly not medical experts so you take advice from those that are but certainly in the Melbourne market I can tell you there's no (swine flu) issue that we're aware of," he said.
"We had a team from Western Australia — the Dockers — fly over and catch a plane back with some people that had supposedly caught the virus yet it didn't stop them participating or training, did it?"
Rabbitohs chief executive Shane Richardson described the swine flu scare as a "storm in a teacup". He said Wing and Crocker had not shown any flu-like symptoms and listed the duo as certain starters for this Saturday.
"They've been to the doctors and there's been no problems with them at all so that's the only precaution we've really had to take," he said.
WA Department of Health co-ordinator Andy Robertson said there were no restrictions on travel for adults in Australia and both NRL teams would be managed in the same way as any other interstate visitors.
It would take another pandemic for WA to famously shut the border a decade later:
I must admit I had forgotten about the swine flu scare during the 2009 season, so it was fascinating remembering some of the weirdness around May-June 2009 with teams quarantining players and some clubs threatening to boycott/postpone some matches.2
This match did go ahead as scheduled and Souths jumped out to a 10–0 lead inside the first 20 minutes through a pair of tries to Jamie Simpson. Simpson scored his first running 70m to score after taking an intercept from Brett Finch.
Firmly on the back foot, Melbourne would work their way back into the match as the half went on, getting on the board through a Greg Inglis try after he broke through on the back of an offload from Ryan Hoffman. After providing the final pass for the first try, Hoffman would be the try scorer for Melbourne’s equaliser, levelling the scores at 10–all. Cameron Smith choosing to pass left to Hoffman close to the line, putting the forward through a massive hole, even if the Storm were set up right with Cooper Cronk and Finch, but Smith did what he did best in choosing the best option.
After half time Souths would hit back and retake the lead, John Sutton setting up David Fa’alogo for an easy try down their left edge. Melbourne though would answer with a try to Wairangi Koopu.3 The big forward crashing over the line following nice passing from Cronk and Billy Slater which set Steve Turner loose down the right flank. There was a question on Slater’s pass, but the try came from the pace and agility of Turner who beat two defenders to offload to Koopu.
A bad night with the kicking tee from Cameron Smith was hurting Melbourne, and Souths would extend their lead to eight points when a Craig Wing grubber kick near the posts eluded two Storm players for Nathan Merritt to steal in and score.
Down 22–14 with 20 minutes to play, Melbourne finally upped their game going on to score three unanswered tries. The first was a classic run from Cronk4 who dummied to a number of players to ghost through the line and score in the left channel. Five minutes later Melbourne would take the lead, when after a 60m bust from Inglis, a couple of plays later Smith and Slater threw a couple of gorgeous cut-out passes for Turner to cross over down the right flank.
Melbourne wrapping up the two competition points with a try five minutes from the final whistle, when a quality pass from Finch to Inglis shredded the Souths line on the left edge, with Inglis passing to Joe Tomane to dive over untouched in the corner.5
Craig Bellamy praised his team's fighting spirit:
It was a funny sort of game. Souths got a real good star in both halves and we were always behind, so there was a little bit of pressure there. But I was happy with the way our guys stuck at it. When we had the ball we were quite threatening but we probably didn't get as much ball as we would have liked and we didn't complete as much as we would have liked.
Melbourne securing their eighth straight win over the Bunnies, a streak that would be broken the following season when Souths again forced the Storm to Perth in the middle of the 2010 season.
Melbourne – 28 (Inglis 23', Hoffman 31', Koopu 48', Cronk 62', Turner 69', Tomane 75' tries; C Smith 2/5, Tomane 0/1 goals)
South Sydney – 22 (Simpson 5', 19', Faalogo 44', Merritt 53' tries; Luke 2/2, Sandow 1/2 goals)
Stat attack
Souths will be Melbourne’s fourth different opponent to play on 25 April after Penrith (1998), Canterbury (2000), and the Warriors (2009-2014, 2016-2019, 2021-23).
Melbourne have won 12 times on ANZAC Day from 16 matches. There was a draw in 2009, with the only losses against the Warriors (2011 & 2014) and Manly (2015).
Souths have never won consecutive matches against Melbourne, having won just seven times from 39 matches between the teams.
South Sydney have never won in the state of Victoria, winless in 18 matches against the Storm (11 matches at AAMI Park and 7 at Olympic Park).
Melbourne average over 30 points per game against the Bunnies in matches played in Victoria, with the Bunnies averaging just over 10 points per game.
Alex Johnston has scored 13 tries against Melbourne in 14 appearances, scoring doubles on four occasions.
Josh Addo-Carr’s six tries against Souths at Stadium Australia in 2021 is Melbourne’s club record in a match. The Fox scored 13 tries in nine appearances for the Storm against the Bunnies. Billy Slater is the leading try scorer with 15 tries from 22 appearances.
Team line-up
Ryan Papenhuyzen
Will Warbrick
Reimis Smith
Nick Meaney
Xavier Coates
Cameron Munster
Jahrome Hughes
Nelson Asofa-Solomona
Harry Grant ©
Josh King
Shawn Blore
Eliesa Katoa
Trent Loiero
Tyran Wishart
Christian Welch
Joe Chan
Alec MacDonald
Jack Howarth
Grant Anderson
Marion Seve
Jonah Pezet
Tristan Powell
Referee: Todd Smith (Bunker: Grant Atkins)
Preview
Melbourne Storm vs South Sydney Rabbitohs
— AAMI Park, 8:00pm Thursday 25 April 2024
With Melbourne’s 17-man squad unchanged from last week, there’s not much to discuss from team list Tuesday, so have a read of this nice profile here from Nick Campton at the ABC on Eli Katoa. I doubt Melbourne will make any changes ahead of the match, unless Christian Welch starts again instead of Big Nasty.
For Souths, they’ve brought back Damien Cook for some reason, while Jai Arrow and Cameron Murray return in a boost for their forward pack. Jason Demetriou is lucky the Gold Coast Titans exist and that the NRL somehow gave Gerard Sutton the whistle on Good Friday, otherwise they would be even lower than their 16th place deserves. Thankfully he didn’t get the thumbs down from Russell Crowe ahead of this game though.
Let’s keep this short: Melbourne should win and hopefully rack up a score for the first time in 2024 and put an opponent away before the 70th minute.
Everyone’s away
Storm’s Jersey Flegg squad is away in Sydney this Saturday afternoon, playing the Wests Tigers at Campbelltown (1:20pm), with the North Sydney Bears playing straight afterwards against the Wests Magpies (3:05pm). That Bears game will be live on Fox League ahead of the 5:30pm NRL match.
Later on Saturday, the Brisbane Tigers are across the border for their Queensland Cup match against the Tweed Heads Seagulls (5pm), while the Sunshine Coast Falcons fly north to face the Capras in Rockhampton (6pm).
In the Super Netball the Sunshine Coast Lightning (6th) will be at home, looking to bounce back against last season’s premier team the Adelaide Thunderbirds (4th).
In other news
Happy trails to former Storm co-captain, 2017 and 2020 premiership player, and 2019 Storm Player of the Year Dale Finucane who retired this week on medical advice. Finucane was a standard setter in Melbourne, raising the bar for those who came next.
Forever #163⚡️
Apparently leaning into the military-industrial complex super hard.
There’s an old article on the NRL website called “We've gone Swine Flu mad: Souths boss” which also is a reminder that Shane Richardson has been around rugby league far too long.
His only try in Melbourne colours in 12 appearances.
Cronk was yet to play Origin for Queensland, making his debut in 2010.
Inglis would receive the three Dally M points for this one, with Hoffman getting the two points. The issues with Dally M points have been eternal.