S27E23 Preview – BYO Myxomatosis
Let's hunt some bunnies
Game day for Thursday night football. With four of the last five matches in this accursed weeknight time slot, it would be nice to go to work on a Friday with a win.
In looking back at old Storm matches here, I haven’t ventured back to 2010. It wasn’t exactly on purpose. It’s not that the events of that season are still raw1 because there were some fun matches played during that season. It’s just that I hadn’t found a compelling reason.2 But it’s time to head to August 2010 this week as I decided to watch a replay of this match from that lost season.
S13E23 – Melbourne Storm vs South Sydney Rabbitohs
Souths came into this one in ninth place on the NRL ladder, two points out of the finals spots and only four points behind the chasing pack trailing St Merge. The visitors to AAMI Park were looking to have a change of fortunes after never winning at Olympic Park in seven appearances.
The John Lang coached Souths had beaten Melbourne earlier in the 2010 season in Perth 16–14 when the Storm were struggling for motivation after the events of late April.
By this stage of the season, the finishing line was in sight for the Storm players. In front of a small crowd on an initially sunny Sunday afternoon they would take to AAMI Park with the Points for a Purpose partner that week the Healesville Sanctuary and Australian Wildlife Health Centre.3
On the Fox Sports broadcast Mark Braybrook and Gary Belcher had the call with the paint still fresh at AAMI Park.4 I used to enjoy their commentary most of the time. Braybrook was definitely hard done by the insipid management at Fox, while Belcher was a decidedly better analyst than some of his contemporaries.
It would be Souths that scored the first try of the match in the sixth minute, a last tackle passing move from inside their own half catching Melbourne by surprise down their right flank, with Nathan Merritt getting outside of Dane Neilsen, passing inside for Luke Capewell to score. Chris Sandow’s kick from the sidelines was waved away.
It wasn’t the best of starts for Melbourne and Souths looked like they had found a seam in attacking the defensive edge of Dane Neilsen and Greg Inglis. Melbourne were struggling to get anything going in the initial exchanges, unable to gain much ground and a couple of Cooper Cronk trick plays didn’t pay off. But just like that almost out of nowhere Brett Finch combined with Cronk behind the ruck to put Billy Slater over for a try in their first visit to that end of the field. Slater’s try was his 112th of his career, putting him one short of Matt Geyer’s then club record. The try was typical of Melbourne’s gung-ho and carefree playing style of 2010.
Indeed in keeping with that trend, there was plenty of plays that would have usually caused Craig Bellamy conniptions. Plenty of offloads and low percentage plays that were either fantastic to watch, or cringe worthy. As such this was a pretty sloppy error-ridden match of rugby league in what turned into drizzling conditions. Melbourne ended up completing just 69% of their sets, Souths weren’t much better at 77%.
Chase Stanley would leave the field with an arm injury in the first half, ending his season on the sidelines. The centre would make just one more Storm appearance in the first match of the 2011 season where he suffered a season-ending knee injury. While Stanley was in the hands of the medical staff, Ryan Hinchcliffe jumped out of dummy half to score next to the posts, plopping the ball down despite the attention of a number of Souths players. It was Hinchy’s first try for the season, the utility throwing a massive dummy to fool the defence.
Just after half time, Hinchcliffe would score his second try of the match. It was a case of right place, right time for Hinchy, grabbing the ball from a knock back from Matt Duffie contesting a high ball from Cronk in front of The Bai Stand. Hinchcliffe famously would go on to be crowned Melbourne’s Player of the Year at the end of season awards.5
Up 18–4 with the rain now pouring down at AAMI Park, Melbourne tried to grind out the result by taking time off the clock. Cronk looked to pin the visitors with his kicking game, with ball handling increasingly difficult in the conditions.
With a bit of possession Souths were able to pressure the Melbourne line, but it was some tough defence from Inglis and others that kept the visitors at bay. When the sunshine returned midway through the second half, the Bunnies took a chance to go around the Storm on the right flank, Merritt getting over for his 99th career try.
With less than ten minutes remaining, Souths got within two points of the home team, Merritt awarded a try by the video referee that looked to have been stopped short and then held up by a Slater tackle. Somehow the video referee plucked a benefit of the doubt decision on extremely dubious evidence. Merritt popping up on the other side of the field to bring the visitors within touching distance of a win.
Souths had lifted, but the Melbourne players matched their intensity. GI was stopped just short of scoring, and the Storm played an almost perfect final five minutes to hold on and take the win.
Melbourne – 18 (Hinchcliffe 26', 42', Slater 12' tries; Smith 3/3 goals)
South Sydney – 16 (Merritt 64', 71', Capewell 6' tries; Sandow 2/3 goals)
Souths would end up finishing ninth in 2010, two points and points difference out of the finals, while Melbourne’s 14 wins would have seen them easily make the finals had they been allowed to accrue competition points.
Stat attack
Melbourne have won their previous two matches played on 8 August, beating Manly 16–10 at #FortressShithole in 2008, and Canterbury 41–10 at the Sunshine Coast in 2020.
Melbourne have won 33 of the 40 previous matches between the Storm and South Sydney, the club’s second highest win percentage against active opponents.
Souths have won their past three matches at Accor Stadium, but have won just three of the ten matches played between these teams at the venue.
Melbourne have won 18 of 28 matches played at this venue, having played eight different opponents at the 2000 Olympic stadium.
South Sydney’s Richard Kennar made nine NRL appearances for the Storm from 2015–2016 scoring two tries, the Victorian junior a graduate of the Thunderbolts where he scored 18 tries in 40 appearances in the NRL Under-20s from 2012 through 2014.
This will be the fourth match between Melbourne and Souths refereed by Todd Smith, with Melbourne winning twice previously, including the meeting earlier this year at AAMI Park.
Team line-up
Ryan Papenhuyzen
Will Warbrick
Jack Howarth
Nick Meaney
Grant Anderson
Cameron Munster
Jahrome Hughes
Tui Kamikamica
Harry Grant ©
Josh King
Shawn Blore
Trent Loiero
Nelson Asofa-Solomona
Tyran Wishart
Lazarus Vaalepu
Chris Lewis
Alec MacDonald
Sualauvi Fa’alogo
Kane Bradley
Tepai MoeroaDean IeremiaTristan Powell
Referee: Todd Smith (Bunker: Ashley Klein)
Preview
South Sydney Rabbitohs vs Melbourne Storm
— Accor Stadium, 8:00pm Thursday 8 August 2024
Eli Katoa was not named this week with the edge forward’s knee injury causing him to sit out for at least a week. That’s resulted in something of a reshuffle of the forward pack, with Trent Loiero moving wider and Nelson Asofa-Solomona finding a number 13 away jersey that fits. Curiously Joe Chan was not named to return from suspension for Melbourne, with the club opting to rest him from action this weekend.
Instead Chris Lewis has been rewarded for his season-long toil at prop forward for the Falcons, returning to the squad for what would be his fourth appearance of the season, his first since round 3. Tui Kamikamica also returns after being a scratching last week. Christian Welch (back/old) and Bronson Garlick (back/not as old) must be sorely missing playing at this time of the year. Hopefully we see them both back in action soon.
For the back seven it’s business as usual with Xavier Coates not far away from a return, and Sua Fa’alogo missing out again.
At the Bunnies, Cody Walker has been named after missing last week. There’s other changes, but as has been the case for most of the season, Souths will be missing a number of their regulars through injury. Ben Hornby probably wishing he never took on the caretaker coaching role after Souths sacked Jason Demetriou following their loss to Melbourne on ANZAC Day.
Since their visit to Melbourne in April, Souths did go on a five match winning streak, but really only one of those wins was against a team that is likely to make the finals. When the Dolphins ended that run in July, they’ve only beaten the Tigers, losing their last two against the Raiders and Sharks. Setting up this as something of a trap game for Melbourne.
In any other week, this match screams danger. Melbourne have failed to rise above opponents that they should be running a score on a number of times in recent weeks, with the Roosters game the only really impressive performance during the winning streak. Coming off a shitty loss on short rest though? This might be the week that Melbourne actually step it up and run up a score without conceding a score. Failure to win this week will likely hand the minor premiership to Penrith, which will cause some consternation.
What else is going on?
On Saturday afternoon (kick off 2pm) the Storm Jersey Flegg team face off against the Sharks at Seabrook Reserve. Melbourne are pretty much out of the running for the finals, stuck in 11th on the table, while the Sharks sit in eighth. This will be the Storm’s second last game in Victoria for the season.
In Queensland, the Falcons will be up against it when they visit Cairns on Saturday (kick off 2pm) to play top of the ladder Northern Pride. The Cowboys affiliate has been riding high this season and look likely to take the Queensland Cup minor premiership. On Sunday afternoon (kick off 3pm) the Tigers travel west to Toowoomba to face off against the hapless Western Clydesdales. The home team has won one (1) game all season and have conceded an average of almost 40 points per week. The Tigers are technically not quite out of finals contention just yet, so a win here will keep them alive (just), but there’s always next season for the reigning premiers.
North Sydney will be looking to right their season after a couple of losses, this week coming up against the Newtown Jets at North Sydney Oval on Sunday afternoon (kick off 3pm). The Sharks affiliate are technically second in the NSW Cup behind the Bears, so it could be a tough match in prospect.
In the Olympics teams events, most of the medal prospects for Australia in a number of ball sports have ended in ignominy/heartbreak/despair/controversy (pick whichever one suits your own narrative), so as the games in Paris winds down it’s hard not to look ahead to the next summer versions in LA and Brisbane.6 Meanwhile: girt.
#SackGallop
The match I wanted to look back at this week was from 2006, but I have only seen a couple of snippets of that around so will have to try for that another time.
The Points with a Purpose program that the players initially came up with in the wake of the salary cap scandal was fantastic. The breakdown was: $3,000 for a win; $1,500 for each Storm try; $1000 for each conversion and penalty goal kicked; $500 for each field goal — with a minimum $5,000 given to the nominated charity whether they won, lost or drew.
Future Storm Under-20s coach Matt Adamson was on the sidelines.
Hinchcliffe in 2010 was the sole winner of that award from 2005 through 2017 not named Smith, Slater or Bromwich.
You’ve had three years and done nothing Brisbane. Build a fucking Olympic Stadium already that won’t be an embarrassment. I find it painfully annoying that in a country that has sports that actually use oval shaped venues, that the Queenslanders can’t just copy/paste Perth Stadium (at say Victoria Park) given that cricket and Australian football will easily make use of it for decades to come. Give the Gabba a farewell moment at the Olympics with the T20 cricket tournament then either demolish/downsize it. Also, copy Paris and LA by hosting the swimming at Lang Park. You know it makes sense.