S28E13 Preview – Titanomachy
Greek mythology is very weird
By the banks of Mudgeeraba Creek the Storm look to cast the Titans into the abyss.
Origin affected matches against the Titans… I’ve seen this film before, and I didn’t like the ending.
S16E15 – Gold Coast Titans vs Melbourne Storm
When I was living in Queensland it was a long road trip to watch Melbourne on the Gold Coast. This particular weekend back in June 2013 gave me the opportunity to have a specific doubleheader of sporting events. On the Sunday afternoon I was at The Gabba for the Miracle on Grass,1 then on a chilly Monday night I went down the Pacific Motorway to Robina for this match played two nights before the second match of the 2013 Origin series.
Melbourne were missing Ryan Hoffman, Billy Slater, Cooper Cronk and Cameron Smith to the Origin camps. Coming into the team were Ben Hampton for his NRL debut — he would start at fullback after being named as five-eighth; Slade Griffin was named at hooker, but went back to the bench with acting captain Ryan Hinchcliffe2 starting at dummy half. Mitchell Garbutt retained his bench spot for just his second NRL match after making his debut the weekend before against the Knights. Junior Moors and Siosaia Vave coming onto the bench with Jordan McLean and Mahe Fonua dropping off.
Melbourne had started the 2013 season where they left off in 2012, winning the World Club Challenge then their first seven matches of the season. Consecutive losses and a draw in May brought them back to the pack ahead of the interrupted part of the season, but they would come into this match on the back of three straight wins trailing only Souths on the ladder by a point. The home team were sitting in fifth ahead of a bunch of teams on points difference. They had lost the previous week against the Bunnies in Cairns.
Melbourne had gone in with a big forward pack and early on the theme of the night seemed to be that the Storm wanted to grind this one out in a low-scoring slugfest. The home team had other plans though. They had put Sisa Waqa under pressure from a high kick and after receiving a penalty went on the attack. The only reason they didn’t open the scoring in the third minute was due to a forward pass from Jamal Idris to Anthony Don.
That close miss had a repeat in the 16th minute when Albert Kelly was denied a try by the video referee after he chased through a kick from Aiden Sezer. The kick had bounced off the padding and an attempt to kick the ball dead by Ben Hampton resulted in a miskick, Kelly ruled to have bounced the ball without any downward pressure in attempting to dive on the loose ball.
After almost conceding twice, it would be the Storm that opened the scoring a few minutes later. Ben Hampton scoring on debut to finish off a move that started inside Melbourne’s half of the field. The play had started with Gareth Widdop and Brett Finch combining to pass to Hampton, the fullback sending Will Chambers down the right edge. Chambers then threw a surprising one-handed flick pass to Waqa which saw him with just the fullback to beat after he used his pace to burn off the defence. Waqa’s final pass back to Hampton was well-timed to have the rookie cross the line.
Melbourne’s lead didn’t last long though. The game plan from the Storm seemed to be pretty basic with the ball, but it was a basic error from Waqa that saw the Titans score. Like earlier, the Fijian winger was put under pressure from a high kick, this time his knock-on went directly to the Titans and into the hands of Kevin Gordon to score. Waqa was interfered with in the contest, but the video referee disagreed with the onfield referees to award the try with the conversion levelling the scores at 6–all.
There were no further points in the last 15 minutes of the first half, with both teams guilty of silly errors with the ball, Melbourne were seemingly content to grind out the Gold Coast with defence. It was enjoyable watching Gareth Widdop running the ball in space at times though.
At the start of the second half Melbourne did look more dangerous with the ball, moving the ball around the field, there was space for Widdop and Brett Finch to create space on the edges. An extended run of possession inside the Titans half didn’t result in points though, the opportunity lost when Justin O’Neill couldn’t take a Widdop kick in the left corner. There were a couple of nearly moments for the home team too — a grubber kick from Sezer caused havoc in the in-goal area, then Gordon almost scored in the corner getting the ball over the line only for his boot to have touched the line.
Then came the low point of the match. Gareth Widdop screamed out in pain after taking a run in the middle of the field, crumpling in a heap in extreme agony.
Widdop left the field on the medicab, his dislocated hip injury forced him to sit on the sidelines until September. He did make his way back to play in Melbourne’s two finals in 2013, his last games for the club before joining the Dragons.
Without Widdop’s playmaking skills Melbourne struggled. A penalty goal gave the Titans a two-point lead, and they extended that in the 57th minute with a try to Anthony Don who ghosted across to score in the right corner. It was a bad read from the Storm defenders who left the short side open on the fourth tackle of the set just a couple of metres away from the line.
Down by eight points, Melbourne needed to be the next team to score and it was the debutant who scored off the back of another pass from Will Chambers. It was vintage play from the centre to get outside the Titans defence down the right edge with a run that started inside Melbourne’s half, his pass bouncing up for Hampton to score to bring the Storm back to within two points.
With over 15 minutes left there was plenty of time for Melbourne to go for the lead. Maurice Blair moved to partner Finch as the chief playmakers, but the quality just wasn’t the same. There was some good work from Tohu Harris and Chambers again at times, while a chip kick from Jason Ryles provided the comedy and a goal-line drop out. But errors and missed tackles were costly for the Storm as they chased the score to put them ahead.
It wasn’t until the penultimate minute that the Titans sealed the win. Melbourne had been trapped deep inside their half on the previous set gave up possession on their own 10m line on the final tackle. Gold Coast took the field position and worked over the Storm on their right edge, before moving the ball to their left to have Luke O’Dwyer slicing through. There was time for the restart and in one of the most chaotic final plays in NRL history, Melbourne recovered the ball and ended up taking the tackle on their own 20m line. It was just one of those nights.
In the end it was an impressive effort from Hampton on debut for the Storm, running for 129 metres, while stand-in Melbourne captain Hinchcliffe topped the tackle count with 48 tackles. The story of the match was Melbourne missing players to Origin was too much of a handicap, especially when Widdop went off.
Gold Coast – 18 (Gordon 24', Don 57', O’Dwyer 79' tries; Sezer 3/4 goals)
Melbourne – 12 (Hampton 20', 63' tries; Blair 1/1 goal, Widdop 1/1 goal)
Stat attack
Melbourne have played three matches on 31 May, the first against the Gold Coast Chargers back in 1998 when they won 62–6. The Storm held the Bulldogs scoreless in 2008 at Olympic Park to win 46–0, but lost 22–0 to the Cowboys in Townsville in 2014.
Melbourne have won eight of their 12 matches against the Titans at Robina.
Overall the Storm have won 21 of 28 matches between the two teams, averaging over 28 points per game, while conceding just 16 points per game.
Ryan Papenhuyzen has scored three tries in six appearances against the Gold Coast, and needs 20 points to go past 600 career points. He has never lost against the Titans in those six matches.
Titans winger Alofiana Khan-Pereira has scored 47 tries in his 49 NRL appearances, including two in his first match against Melbourne in 2023.
Since the 2012 NRL Grand Final, Des Hasler coached teams have played 17 matches against Melbourne for eight wins. Only two of those wins coming since Hasler left Belmore. Overall Hasler has a 50% winning record against the Storm.
Referee Ziggy Przeklasa-Adamski has only officiated in seven previous Storm matches, the last being the 2023 match against the Tigers at Campbelltown. That was the only occasion he was the sole referee for a Storm match. This match will be his first at NRL level this season.
Team line-up
Ryan Papenhuyzen
Sualauvi Fa’alogo
Grant Anderson
Nick Meaney
Xavier Coates (pending #wrongpriorities)
Cameron Munster (pending #wrongpriorities)
Jahrome Hughes
Stefano Utoikamanu (surely he plays after #wrongpriorities adventure camp)
Harry Grant © (seemingly highly unlikely to play after #wrongpriorities)
Josh King
Shawn Blore
Eliesa Katoa
Trent Loeiro (pending #wrongpriorities)
Tyran Wishart
Nelson Asofa-Solomona
Tui Kamikamica
Bronson Garlick
Joe Chan
Jack Howarth
Keagan Russell-Smith
Kane Bradley
Lazarus Vaalepu
Marion Seve
Ativalu Lisati
Referee: Ziggy Przeklasa-Adamski (Bunker: Kasey Badger)
Preview
Gold Coast Titans vs Melbourne Storm
— CBus Super Stadium, 3:00pm Saturday 31 May 2025
Welcome to Melbourne Josiah Pahulu. Wasn’t expecting that, but I guess that Frank Ponissi works in mysterious ways compared to those clubs with more high profile general managers. Given that I pay little attention to the Titans (miss you Tino), I’m not familiar with Pahulu’s game, so it’ll be interesting to see where he fits into Melbourne’s depth chart for the rest of this season. I assume that he’s going to be ahead of Ativalu Lisati at the very minimum.
It did get me thinking about the middle forward options and the way that they are being used in 2025. I do wonder whether Melbourne’s middle forward personnel rotation needs to be more opposition focused. I think we’ve seen enough over the past season and a bit that Tui Kamikamica should be used sparingly against mobile middle forward groups. Sparingly as in not at all in the lineup. He has a role to play up against bigger opponents, but I do think that NAS and Lazarus Vaalepu are probably better options against those types of groups. Perhaps Tui is best served up against those groups of slightly less quality than those the Storm is likely to face in September.
It’s been interesting to see the evolution in the roles that Josh King and Trent Loiero are playing this season, there’s some very subtle differences to how they were used last year. I am concerned that the distractions of the past few weeks could especially affect Loiero, so his management will be something to look for until the end of the wrong priorities period.
I think Alec MacDonald is first middle forward picked on the bench for very good reasons. I don’t think Tahulu changes that either. When Tahulu gets his chance, I hope that he brings the energy through the middle third of the match that enables both Stefano Utoikamanu and Josh King to go harder early and come back fresher later in matches. Melbourne will miss the Chin if his current injury concern lingers.
The scenario that I’m keen to see at some point soon is King/Stefano/Loeiro starting middles, with MacDonald, NAS/Vaalepu/Tui, Chan/Tahulu the bench rotation. I don’t want to see many games where NAS and Tui are the two bench options outside of MacDonald. Unless Harry Grant3 is cooked/hurt Bronson Garlick is surplus to requirements when Tyson Wishart is holding down the utility role.
Speaking of Garlick it’s good to see him getting his flowers heading to Souths next year. The dynamic will be interesting with Cheese now there and the pensioner still holding on to the clipboard. It is nice though that he’s heading to the club that made his dad famous back in the day.
If you can tell already, I’m ignoring the team named by Melbourne on Tuesday as either a legal fiction or the usual nonsense served up at this time of wrong priorities.
In the place where sport goes to die and nepo babies prosper, the Mad Hatter Des Hasler has shuffled his deck again with AJ Brimson, Keiran Foran and Jaylan de Groot all trading jersey numbers. Their forward pack looks dangerous, especially if their Origin players take the field.
Excuse me, but what is this?
Melbourne playing an away game in wet conditions again…
It would be nice to win an away game in 2025, just as a little treat. Confidence levels though? They’re not high even if the Titans have struggled in 2025.
What else is going on?
The under-21s resumed after their bye with a come from behind win against Souths last weekend, holding the Bunnies scoreless in the second half to win 34–18. This week they are on the road again, travelling to Fortress Shithole on Sunday (kickoff 12pm) to play Manly. Melbourne are currently second on the Jersey Flegg Cup ladder, just one point behind the Sharks. Manly have been struggling this season and sit in 13th having won just once since March.
Later that afternoon the Bears also face off against Manly (kickoff 5:15pm) with both teams sitting in the bottom half of the NSW Cup table with four wins each from 11 matches. Norths struggled last weekend against Souths, losing 18–2, their only points coming from a penalty goal in the final seconds.
After a good win last weekend against the Seagulls (Tweed edition), the Tigers have a bye this weekend. The Falcons are at home against the Mackay Cutters on Saturday afternoon (kickoff 5pm) after they had the bye last weekend.
Over at Sippy Downs, the Sunshine Coast Lightning host the Melbourne Mavericks at the same time on Saturday (first pass 5pm). Both teams are coming off a loss last week, the Lightning handed a bit of a lesson by Grace Nweke and the NSW Swifts. The Mavs are sitting in sixth position on the ladder with just two wins from their seven matches this season, while the Lightning are a game clear of the Vixens in fourth spot as the Super Netball season crosses the half way mark of the 2025 season. Big congrats to Steph Fretwell who made her 150th national league appearance against the Swift last weekend, having started with that club back in the ANZ Championship days.
Looking at my social media output on that weekend, my one comment about that match was:
“So that happened right? Games like that are part of the reason Cats fans are a pessimistic bunch by nature.”
Hinchcliffe became the 19th player to captain the club in an NRL match. He would get that honour in three more matches across 2013 through 2015.
This breakdown on Harry Grant from Jason Oliver over at www.rugbyleaguewriters.com is the kind of quality you can get on the regular over there. Go subscribe.