S27E25 Preview – Weekend fishing
A weekend match‽ Outrageous!
The Red Fish finally come to Melbourne for their 46th NRL match.
NRL Hall of Fame
Last week via a press release the NRL announced the inclusion of a number of players to the NRL Hall of Fame.1 Among the inductees were the original Melbourne Storm Big Four of Cameron Smith, Billy Slater, Cooper Cronk and Greg Inglis.
All four players made their NRL debuts for Melbourne between 2002 (Smith) and 2005 (Inglis). They had all made their way to the Storm (to some extent) via the development pipeline established by the Storm in 1998, playing for the Norths Devils in the Queensland Cup.
They join inaugural Storm captain Glenn Lazarus as the Storm’s inductees into the Hall of Fame.
As a concept the NRL has done the Hall of Fame disastrously badly. The fact that this year they’ve inducted 11 male players, six female players, two coaches, two referees and a bunch of contributors after not inducting any players since 2019 just speaks to the ineptitude of those running the game.2
This week’s reminiscence is just some of my thoughts and memories about these rugby league overachievers.
⚡️55 Cameron Smith (Inductee #120)
Smith’s debut match was against Canterbury at Olympic Park in 2002. He made his debut as the club’s third string half back, replacing Marty Turner who had been badly hurt in a car accident during the previous week. Smith would himself be injured the following week against the Dragons in what would be his last NRL appearance for the season. He would instead play out the remainder of the 2002 season with the Norths Devils, winning their player of the year award.
During the 2002 season in a famous Melbourne Storm member forum held at John Cain Arena,3 club boss John Ribot fronted the crowd to explain the decision to not re-sign hooker Richard Swain for the 2003 season. Ribot telling the fans that the club couldn’t keep Swain and be able to bring through the exciting junior talents that they had coming, including “a player who will play for Australia one day.”4
From 2003 through to his retirement after the 2020 NRL Grand Final, Smith would make 428 more appearances for the Storm, only missing a total of 44 matches across those 18 seasons.5 Of all the extraordinary things about Smith’s career, that for mine is what stands out.
His list of achievements are a mile long: premierships, World Club Challenge wins, Origin triumphs, World Cups, as well as a stack of individuals honours like none has ever seen. He captained Melbourne, Queensland and Australia and made every player he played with better. Re-watching old games with fresh eyes has given me a chance to marvel at his ability to control matches from dummy half and just continually back up in defence. Smith was always the first player there to celebrate when Melbourne scored a try, and was the onfield general that knew when to fire up the players and when to calm them down.
Is he the greatest Storm player of all time? Yeah. There’s a reason this site is named Storm Machine after all.6 The best thing from a Melbourne perspective about Cameron Smith — he stayed. He didn’t sign with the Broncos, he stayed true to the Storm even after 2010, retiring with a statue as a legend of the Melbourne Storm.
⚡️58 Billy Slater (Inductee #122)
Slater famously came to the Storm as a former trackwork jockey. His debut match at Cronulla in 2003 saw him light up the Sharks scoring two tries in a famous win to kick start the Bellamy era at Melbourne. I was at that match on the hill in the Shire, witnessing something that felt impossible. Which is what Slater achieved in his career.
If Darren Lockyer redefined the fullback position, Slater took it to the next level. He was always there backing up for the pass, creating the overlap, or sprinting away to score. His defence, except when he was in “Bobby Slater” mode was the standard that all fullbacks aspire to today.
Taking over the fullback position at Melbourne from fan favourite Robbie Ross was a challenge that Slater seemed made for. He was quite quickly number one in the program, number one in our hearts from his rookie season onwards.
Just watching these tries from 2005 when he scored 20 tries is but a glimpse into his brilliance.
While he would eventually fall short of Ken Irvine’s tryscoring record,7 Slater’s 190 tries could have been many more if not for the injuries he sustained in the mid-2010s.
⚡️73 Cooper Cronk (Inductee #124)
Cronk, the manufactured halfback with a rugby union background took a little while longer than Smith and Slater to settle into an NRL role, often deployed as a utility off the bench during the 2004 and 2005 seasons. It wasn’t until 2006 that Storm fans finally saw the abilities of Cronk shine through as a halfback.
With Smith and Cronk steering the Storm attack, Melbourne were an absolute pleasure to watch for much of their careers. Cronk able to find himself of either side of the ruck to throw the perfect pass, or deploy the best kick to find a teammate.
Or to put it from Cronk’s own words:
To be brutally honest, I was in a state of grace at that particular moment.
In those few split seconds of time between receiving the ball and landing it at its intended destination, there was no noise in my head whatsoever.
Every sinew in my body came together — one perfect whole.
For those that have ever experienced that feeling - and it doesn’t happen very often - will tell you it’s in a whole other place of experience from the usual ego or vanity that drives my game.
I’m not afraid to own it for what it was. I didn’t feel good or bad about myself afterwards.
I began to realise that when we are being completely free of our own expectations, the body extends into its natural form, without impediment, and things happen.
The thinking man’s halfback.
Like Smith, Cronk was durable — from 2005–2017 he featured in 310 of a possible 343 Storm matches, with most of those matches he would miss due to Origin. Unfortunately Storm fans bid farewell to Cronk at the 2017 NRL Grand Final and he was never seen or heard from again.8
⚡️79 Greg Inglis (Inductee #125)
When Storm fans first heard of Greg Inglis we saw (grainy) footage like this from the Queensland Cup:
To say that Inglis burst on to the scene in 2005 doesn’t do him justice. At a little over 18-years-old he made his NRL debut in round 6, having scored 12 tries in five Queensland Cup matches. Inglis was like a luxury car at the Storm. He would pop up on the edges, in the middle or the back, then as the years progressed in a playmaking role.
It was in the centres that GI dominated for Melbourne. There were times it felt like you just needed to give him the ball and something would happen. That he had the other three to work off gave him the opportunity to just be. His 2009 season, capped with the 2009 Grand Final victory cemented his place in the pantheon of Melbourne Storm legends.
The salary cap scandal though had #SackGallop requiring Melbourne to make a human sacrifice, lest the Storm continue to be successful,9 and Inglis was one of many forced to leave. The soap opera of his aborted move to the Broncos that saw him end up at Souths — pure comedy. Inglis of course would go on to further success at Souths, but never the same level as with Melbourne.10
The Immortals concept was written about by Liam over at Maroon Observer this week. As much as Ron Coote (and eventually Cameron Smith) is deserving of the Immortals tag (to sell magazines and bottles of plonk), there are a bunch of other rugby league legends worthy of the moniker.11 Perhaps changing the designation to Legend would be better than having this silliness pop up every time the Hall of Fame enters the wider public consciousness, especially given the supposed cycle is to add one Immortal every four years from now on.12
Stat attack
Melbourne have played three matches on 22 August for two wins and a loss. The victories were back in 2003 at Wollongong against the Dragons, and 2004 against the Bulldogs at Olympic Park. The sole defeat was all the way back in 1999 at North Sydney Oval.
Wayne Bennett has come up against Craig Bellamy coached teams on 41 previous occasions, with Bellamy’s team coming up winners 31 times.
The last time a Wayne Bennett coached team defeated Melbourne was when the Broncos won 26–16 at AAMI Park in 2016. Since then his teams have lost 12 straight times to Melbourne.
Nelson Asofa-Solomona has scored 31 tries in his 199 NRL appearances for Melbourne.
Tyran Wishart has scored 12 tries in his 49 appearances for Melbourne, including ten this season.
Team line-up
Ryan Papenhuyzen
Will Warbrick
Jack Howarth
Nick Meaney
Tyran Wishart
Cameron Munster
Jahrome Hughes
Nelson Asofa-Solomona
Harry Grant ©
Josh King
Shawn Blore
Eliesa Katoa
Trent Loiero
Sualauvi Fa’alogo
Lazarus VaalepuTui Kamikamica
Alec MacDonald
Marion Seve
Kane Bradley
Dean IeremiaChris LewisChristian Welch
Referee: Gerard Sutton (Bunker: Matt Noyen)
Preview
Melbourne Storm vs Redcliffe Dolphins
— AAMI Park, 5:30pm Saturday 24 August 2024
With Grant Anderson in the concussion protocols, there’s some movement in the Storm back seven. It’s not Xavier Coates coming in, instead Tyran Wishart has been named to start out wide, with Sua Fa’alogo on to the bench. Curious. I can understand giving Coates one more week of training load, but it is cutting it fine for him to get match practice and fitness ahead of the finals. I would have thought that given this week’s opposition is dangerous on the edges, perhaps unleashing Coates might have been the idea. Alas, it seems like the conservative approach is winning out. There are options though should this mix not be what the coaches want to go with, as Kane Bradley, Marion Seve and Dean Ieremia are all named as reserves. Of course this could all be a red herring from Craig Bellamy to confuse the old man in the other coaching box, with Wishy potentially heading back to the bench and Sua to start. We’ll only know come Saturday afternoon.
There’s no changes though in the forward pack, with the same line-up again. Lazarus Vaalepu maintains his spot on the bench for now, despite seeing no action last Thursday for the Storm. He did get 51 minutes in for the Falcons on Sunday, the most minutes he’s played in some time. Christian Welch has been named in the reserves as he returns from his injury concerns.
There’s a couple of milestones to celebrate this week for Melbourne. The man mountain himself Nelson Asofa-Solomona will be lining up for his 200th Melbourne Storm appearance, the 10th player in club history to reach that milestone. From his debut back in 2015, NAS has been terrorising the opposition and will be out to have a big match against the Red Fish that includes a couple of Melbourne Storm 200+ game players. The other milestone man this week is Tyran Wishart who will play his 50th match for Melbourne. There’s a certain serendipity that Wishy will be wearing the number five jersey this week given his dad would sometimes wear the five jersey when not playing in the number two. It could be an emotional one for NAS and I expect he’ll want to put in a big performance.
The Red Fish have four of their former Melbourne players suiting up for this one, with Jesse Bromwich joining the top ten for most NRL appearances in his 337th match. Since we last saw the Dolphins at Lang Park back in round 16, they’ve only had a couple of wins against teams not making the finals, which has left them precariously placed in ninth position going into the last three weeks of the season. Their fall from fourth midseason to outside the finals positions coming through losses in which they could have won (pushing Penrith to golden point) or should have won (against the Titans). It was a pretty mild performance from the Red Fish at Bundaberg on Saturday afternoon, failing to trouble the scoreboard against the Bulldogs. With Wayne Bennett already with a foot out the door, have the wheels fallen off at the expansion club?
Melbourne will want to add another victim to the list of teams that lost their first game in Victoria.13 After last week’s heroics at Penrith, the concern will be whether there is any drop off in attitude and effort. The minor premiership is not yet secured and with it the all important number one seed through the finals.14
For mine, I’ll be looking for things to keep clicking like they were at Penrith last week, with every week now a tune up for September.
What else is going on?
A big game this weekend for the Falcons in the final round of the Queensland Cup. After their loss to the Magpies, they haven’t yet sown up a top four spot, and only a win can guarantee the double chance. It’s going to be a tough battle at Bishop Park (Saturday 5pm) against the Norths Devils, who sit in second place on the ladder after a win against the Capras ended a two-match losing streak. The Tigers are out of contention following their loss to the PNG Hunters. The reigning premiers haven’t had a great season and will be playing for pride only against the finals-bound Wynnum Manly Seagulls in the final game of the season (Sunday 3:10pm).
After a draw against the Panthers, North Sydney are off to Wentworth Park to face off against the Roosters (Sunday 3pm). That result cost the Bears the lead on the NSW Cup, dropping behind the Raiders. Without a win in a month, Norths need to turn things around and would hope to come back into some form with a win over the 11th-placed Roosters.
Before the Bears take the field, the Storm Jersey Flegg squad also has a date with the Roosters at Wentworth Park (kickoff 1:15pm).
Which in their infinite wisdom had renamed from the Australian Rugby League Hall of Fame that was originally launched in 2002.
The Australian Football Hall of Fame does this so much better
Then known as Vodafone Arena.
Or words to that effect.
The only season that Smith missed more than four Storm matches in an entire NRL season was 2008 when he missed five matches total because of the two games suspension during the finals.
It’s an anagram if you didn’t know.
It’s my firm belief that the Irvine’s record is cursed.
Maybe, dunno. I think he’s on television suffering from The Bad Place brain rot right?
Spoiler alert: BOOOOOOO Gallop.
GI’s record against Melbourne: 1 win and 8 defeats, scoring three tries.
Starting with Duncan Hall.
Then making the elevated status designation a minimum percentage quotient of the overall Hall of Fame… say 11% (which would have allowed for up to three designations to have been announced this year).
The shorter list is teams that won on their first trip to Melbourne: Auckland, Parramatta, St George, St George-Illawarra, and Sydney City.
If (big IF) Melbourne make the 2024 NRL GF it would be nice to be wearing our home kit.