S28E11 Preview – Feeding frenzy

May 15, 2025

Melbourne’s 2025 tour of the suburban shitholes reaches a nadir — The Swamp at Woolooware Bay.

The Swamp. There are no good words to be said about this venue of many monikers. Earlier this season I ventured there and I still don’t know how this venue is appropriate for anything more than community and junior sport. It’s trapped in the 1980s and could only be improved by razing it to the ground and salting the earth.

The backwards nature of certain fanbases like the Sharks will always baffle me. The distance by road from Sharks Stadium to the SFS is less than the distance I travel to AAMI Park each week, and last I checked The Bad Place still has public transport.1 Why certain clubs persist with their suburban shitholes rather than securing their future and offering a better experience for fans and their corporate sponsors… well there’s one reason why the NRL (especially in Sydney) continually fails to realise their potential as a competition.

When I looked over Melbourne’s visits to this venue, it got me reminiscing. The famous round 1 win in 2003 I looked back on a couple of years ago, and I thought about finding my old school assignment I did on the 1999 match which was part of the run to the club’s first premiership.

S20E14 – Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks vs Melbourne Storm

Instead I was drawn to Melbourne’s last win at Cronulla, the revenge tour of 2017.

Team list from *Big League* — Melbourne rested Cooper Cronk, bringing in Ryley Jacks, while Tim Glasby started with Jordan McLean coming off the bench.

This was the second match up between the 2016 Grand Finalists after the first almost ended in the comical score of 3–2, only for the Sharks to spoil that and win 11–2 at AAMI Park. The two teams meeting again in front of friends and family only2 on a Thursday night in June at what was then called Southern Cross Group Stadium.34

Melbourne opted to rest Cooper Cronk during the exhibition match series, after Cameron Smith took the previous weekend off. That put the keys to Melbourne’s attack in the hands of Ryley Jacks and Cameron Munster.

It was a cagey opening couple of minutes until Smith launched a 40/20 kick in the third minute from 35m out from the Storm line, easily clearing the 20m line. Melbourne took immediate advantage of the field position, Smith working the defence over on the right edge to put Felise Kaufusi over. The forward slicing through and then carrying defenders over the line from short range.

Melbourne pressed home their advantage with Munster and Billy Slater taking advantage down the left edge, with Munster seemingly bobbing up everywhere. The Storm’s second try came through an unlikely tryscorer in Tim Glasby, the big forward crashing over for his first try of 2017 with Smith’s pass from dummy half again splitting the defence. It was perfection from Smith to target the spot players in the defensive line to have big forwards running hard on to the ball.

As The Eighth waxed lyrical in commentary:

As a ball player and organiser of your team it’s all about deception. You want the opposition thinking the opposite. He gets to dummy half and they think he’s going to pass right, he comes out left and nails a 40/20. The first try — they were all looking out the back…he plays the short pass. Then the second time — they were all looking wide, but the deception. He’s got them thinking the opposite of what he’s going to do. He is, without doubt, the best I’ve ever seen.

The Storm were forced to defend their lead during a period of sustained possession from the home team with Melbourne guilty of some errors coming out from their own half. Kaufusi was denied a try in the 23rd minute when Suliasi Vunivalu didn’t cleanly catch a kick from Jacks. It was a marginal call from the video referee, but it did look a little dodgy on the replay.

Melbourne were able to defend admirably, but the line was eventually breached by Luke Lewis in the 27th minute. Possession had been gifted to James Maloney following a dropped pass from Billy Slater, Lewis drifting through the Melbourne middle after scooping up a bouncing ball that seemed to catch the Storm defenders flat-footed.

With their lead cut in half, the last ten minutes of the first half was a grinding phase only broken by one attacking raid by Cronulla down their right flank which was eventually snuffed out by Slater tackling Lewis into touch. Thankfully a foolish attempt at a first half field goal by Munster was wide as the siren sounded.

After the break the narrative of this match would be that Melbourne struggled without Cronk. From my viewpoint it was more that Melbourne were unable to build pressure through possession, with the end of sets too often resulting in an error. Cronulla were able to apply just enough pressure to force the Storm just slightly off their gameplan.

A smart play from the Sharks to allow Josh Addo-Carr to catch a bomb and force him over the sideline gave them attacking field position and they immediately took advantage. After working over the Storm in the middle, Cronulla directed play to their left edge, playing fast to get around Will Chambers and Vunivalu for Siosaia Feki to score out wide.

There was a moment in the 58th minute that almost was as rare as a unicorn — a Will Chambers try assist.5 Drifting over to the left edge, his kick ahead bounced nicely into the in-goal area only for Addo-Carr to knock on attempting to ground the ball.

Cronulla levelled the scores in the 62nd minute with Maloney slotting a penalty goal from adjacent to the posts. Wade Graham earned that penalty, which he was able to repeat on the next set as his agitating got the better of the Melbourne players. A brilliant 60m run from Addo-Carr after defusing a kick that landed on the goal line looked to have set Melbourne up for an attacking raid, but a lost ball again caused headaches. Melbourne had only completed three of their 10 sets with the ball during the first 25 minutes of the second half.

It would be Maloney who broke the deadlock with a field goal. Munster had missed a fairly simple attempt a couple of minutes before, but Maloney was smart and took his chance early in the tackle count from right in front of the posts.

The short restart from Smith worked to get Melbourne back in possession with the Storm going to work. While the Sharks expected Melbourne to set up for the field goal, Smith had other plans. His short ball to Slater in the right channel set up the fullback to send Kaufusi over for his second try of the night.6 It was fantastic play from Slater on the back of Smith’s cleverness to direct the Storm to that position, again deceiving the defence.

With what felt like plenty of time remaining, Melbourne held onto their five point lead by winding down the clock and finally completing a couple of sets. It was a great effort, led by Smith and Slater to get the points without Cronk.

Belsa was seemingly happy in the post match:

It was real gutsy. That’s probably our best defensive effort of the year without a doubt. But we brought it upon ourselves with a lot of handling errors. I couldn’t be more proud of their effort defensively tonight.

Cronulla coach Shane Flanagan in the post match had a good whine:

They were at their best, the Melbourne Storm, with their wrestle today. I thought they were at their best in that area; it was slow, it was frustrating. Referee Smith did a good job. He's the best player in his position. I watched him closely today and he managed the game perfectly.
He got off the line early… I can complain about it as much as I want during the week, but he just does it very, very well. I wish we had a couple of them! He's just a good player at whether you call it flaunting the rules or push the referees or whatever it is, he's the best at it and he showed it tonight. He had one of those games.

Cronulla – 13 (Lewis 27', Feki 49' tries; Maloney 2/3 goals; Maloney 72' field goal)

Melbourne – 18 (Kaufusi 3', 74', Glasby 8' tries; Smith 3/3 goals)

Stat attack

Melbourne have played just once previously on 17 May, going down 36–12 to the Dragons at Homebush back in 2006.
The Storm have won eight of their 17 visits to The Swamp, but have lost their last three matches at the venue. Melbourne haven’t ventured there since losing 28–6 back in round 17 of the 2022 season.
KL Iro has scored a try in each match he’s played in 2025.
Adam Gee has officiated 12 Storm matches since the start of the 2022 season with Melbourne winning five, including the last two matches that were held at AAMI Park.

Team line-up

Ryan Papenhuyzen
Sualauvi Fa’alogo
Grant Anderson
Nick Meaney
Xavier Coates
Cameron Munster ©
Jahrome Hughes ©
Stefano Utoikamanu
Bronson Garlick
Josh King
Shawn Blore
Eliesa Katoa
Trent Loeiro
Tyran Wishart
Alec MacDonald
Tui Kamikamica
Joe Chan
Ativalu Lisati
Lazarus Vaalepu
Kane Bradley
Harry Grant
Nelson Asofa-Solomona

Referee: Adam Gee (Bunker: Chris Butler)

Preview

Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks vs Melbourne Storm
— Sharks Stadium, 7:35pm Saturday 17 May 2025

I’m going to suggest that Melbourne Storm and Team List Tuesday need to have a conscious uncoupling. Whatever the club names on Tuesdays at 4pm seemingly has no real bearing on what will be announced 24 hours out from the match.

Nelson Asofa-Solomona has been named in the number 22 jersey, probably because that’s the size jersey that fits best. Harry Grant has been named in 21 because surely he needs to play to be named in the midseason exhibition series. If he doesn’t play, that means he’s ineligible right? Right?

There’s a school of thought that Tui Kamikamica might be done as a regular member of the forward pack and while I tend to agree, he’s still a valuable member of the squad. I would probably prefer him to get some game time this weekend though, so if he’s a late out again it might be time to get him on a plane for the Queensland Cup.

Of course the frivolity about the Storm’s team list was certainly tempered by the announcement of the officials… sigh.

For the Sharks, Siosifa Talakai returns from a concussion, replacing Tom Hazelton who went down with a shoulder injury. There’s a couple of former Storm players plying their trade in the Shire with Nicho Hynes (0 wins from 3 matches against Melbourne) and one-game wonder Daniel Atkinson both named to play. Atkinson will come off the bench in the utility role that seems to suit his game.

The last time Melbourne defeated the Wests Tigers 64–0… they lost 48–16 at Newcastle. While that was a long time ago, there is a fear that after a points frenzy, regression can hit hard and fast. The other intangible mental factor at play this week is the club’s impending bye weekend. As explored last year, there is some basis in reality that Melbourne have been prone to drop the match before a bye.

The overall arc of the season would suggest that Melbourne are likely to drop this match, given the team has been unable to string together consecutive wins over the last month and struggles away from AAMI Park. Whether that trend can be adjusted remains to be seen with this group.

My thought is that Nicho Hynes is probably due a big game against Melbourne, and he has enough weapons out wide that could cause Melbourne trouble. My interest though will be in the middle of the field. Melbourne’s forwards responded against Wests, but can they maintain that form against the Sharks? Discipline and effort are going to be key to creating enough opportunities to score. Cracking the Sharks defence could be tough, especially in conditions that aren’t expected to be conducive to playing expansive footy.

What else is going on?

Speaking of shitholes…

I assume we’re being sent to Hell in 2027 then. Or maybe not?

Rodski wasn't certain if they would consider applying for 2027, saying the club had a more pressing priority.
"Hopefully we win the comp and we'll be playing in the World Club Challenge in England instead."

The Jersey Flegg Cup has a bye weekend, so the under-21s will be back in action on 24 May. The Bears host the Dragons at North Sydney Oval on Sunday afternoon (kickoff 3pm). Assume that Ativalu Lisati will be there and maybe Marion Seve. In the Queensland Cup, the Sunshine Coast Falcons have a battle of the birds against the Seagulls (Tweed edition) on Saturday evening (kickoff 5pm), while the Tigers host the Dolphins (Redcliffe version) earlier that day (kick off 3pm). Expect Coby Williamson and Keagan Russell-Smith to be in action for Easts.

On Sunday afternoon your correspondent is off to watch the Swan Street Super Netball Smackdown between the Melbourne Vixens and the Sunshine Coast Lightning (first pass 4pm). The Vixens sit outside the top four at the moment and will be determined to get one over their old teammate Liz Watson. Should be a great match-up at JCA.