S28E17 Preview – Sunday sesh

It’s Melbourne’s last daytime match at home for 2025

Jun 26, 2025

Close the beaches, the Sharks are coming to town.

Whimsy

It was the Melbourne Storm’s 28th birthday this week.1 It’s one of those in-between ages where you probably want something sensible and functional as a present.

Like socks.

Real footballers wear socks up.

themandaloriandaily:
“THE MANDALORIAN (2019- )
”

Unfortunately it seems like NRL players don’t believe themselves to be footballers anymore.2 A loss for sports aesthetics.

Over 28 seasons Melbourne Storm have had some great hosiery, even if the current pair isn’t a top ten look.3 I thought this week I would take a look back at some of those socks from down the years in a top ten.

10. 2023 home

After a long absence from the socks, Castore reintroduced yellow into the Storm hosiery in 2023. It was a marked improvement from the very plain socks they had rolled out in 2021 and 2022. While O’Neills have maintained a similar design over the last couple of seasons, their logo would be better served with the addition of a mid-calf hoop.

NRL Rd 8 - Storm v Warriors — The socks up supremacy misses Christian Welch

9. 2009 home

KooGa had kept the same home sock design that Reebok had used from 2005 through 2008, but looked to have corrected the purple colour that often tended pink. Their white wordmark on the purple hoop, while bigger than the Reebok wordmark and logo, felt less cluttered. They moved away from this design though for the club’s 2010 kit redesigns.

8. 2013 home

It took until 2013 for a manufacturer to use a lightning bolt motif on the Storm socks. The away socks (all white with a purple cuff and lightning bolt) were nice, but the home socks worked just that little bit better. These only lasted one season with the 2014 version featuring more purple around the back of the calf at the fold of the cuff.

7. 1999–2000 away

Melbourne Storm wore their gold away jerseys in just eight NRL matches. Two of those were in 2002 when they got in trouble by the NRL and were fined for not having the correct Telstra Premiership logo on their jerseys given they were recycling the 1999–2000 jerseys due to jersey clashes. The second match in 2002 they didn’t even wear these bold beauties, instead wearing the normal home socks.

Warriors v Storm — Bright and bold the gold Storm socks certainly had their moment in the sun.

6. 2018–2019 home

ISC had experimented with a single vertical stripe in 2017 which never really works on footy socks. In 2018 they had a better idea — evenly spaced navy blue and purple hoops. It wasn’t groundbreaking, but it just works.

5. 2003–2004 home

The start of the Bellamy era in Melbourne also marked change to the Storm’s uniform thanks to Canterbury NZ. Purple was in and gold was (mostly) out, with the socks now featuring silver hoops in among the purple and navy hoops. Construction-wise these were old-fashioned football socks rather than the modern type of sports hosiery.

Matt Geyer of the Storm in action — A well-balanced sock in the right colours. CCC knew they were on a winner here.

4. 2003 away

The 2003 away socks only featured in four Storm matches during before disappearing. Navy blue based with thin white and gold hoops mid-calf and purple and gold cuff hoops. These socks didn’t even last the entire season with the club wearing the home socks in the final away match the 2003 white jerseys featured in against the Warriors, and they were replaced in 2004 by an inferior version that looked a bit too messy.

Danny Buderus Of The Knights Celebrates — Boofa knew that he would at least look like a footballer with his socks up, even if the defence struggled around him.

3. 1999–2002 home

Classic Storm sock design. Plain navy blue with the cuffs containing the splashes of colour — gold and purple. The white FILA wordmark on the calf bringing together an understated design. The original 1998 socks were the same design, but the Nike Swoosh tended to get lost and misshapen.

Was there a need to include this pic? No. Should it always be included? Yes.

Storm V Knights — The only match played at Colonial Stadium with the roof open made for some great lighting for photos in 2001.

2. 2008 away

2008 might not have ended in perfection wearing these in the Grand Final, but Reebok came closest to the perfect Storm socks ever produced. White, chunky navy blue cuffs, two medium thickness purple hoops and their small “vector” logo mid-calf. Superb. Kooga kept the design in 2009, but their version wasn’t quite as nice as the original due to their larger wordmark.

NRL Semi Final 2 - Broncos v Storm — 2008 socks up gang, but of course Jeremy Smith had them pushed down.

1. 2018–2020 away

The greatest Melbourne Storm socks of all time. Peak hosiery. ISC produced tri-coloured hoops using the revised Storm colour palette and absolutely nailed it. In a perfect world these would be used in every match Melbourne wears a white-based jersey.

The GOAT wearing the GOAT socks in his last Storm match.

Agree? Disagree? Is the list missing a favourite of yours? Do I care too much about footy socks? Do I own far too many Melbourne Storm socks?

This is just a selection of my Melbourne Storm sock collection

I do know that come winter, rocking footy socks every day keeps me nice and warm.

Stat attack

Melbourne has a pretty dismal record on 29 June, losing four of five previous matches all played away from home on this date. There have been losses at Manly (2002), Parramatta (2008), Wests Tigers (2013), and Canterbury (2015); with the only win coming in 2018 against the Roosters in Adelaide. The Storm did win on 29 June last year against the Raiders in the first home match played on this date.
The Storm have won 30 of 48 matches against the Sharks, including 13 of the 16 matches played at AAMI Park. Cronulla’s only wins coming in 2017, 2018 and 2024.
Billy Slater scored 11 tries in 24 appearances against the Sharks, while no Cronulla player has scored more than five tries against Melbourne.
Players that have played for both teams in this fixture include Daniel Atkinson, Will Chambers, Dale Finucane, Blake Green, Nicho Hynes, Brett Kimmorley, Bryan Norrie, Henry Perenara, Jeremy Smith, Sam Tagataese, Aiden Tolman, and Dayne Weston.
Since the start of the 2021 season, Melbourne have won 12 of 19 matches officiated by Ashley Klein, while Cronulla have won 10 of 18 matches.
BONUS STAT: Last week was the first time ever that Melbourne conceded more tries than the opposition, but still won the match.4

Team line-up

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

Referee: Ashley Klein (Bunker: Chris Butler)

Preview

Melbourne Storm vs Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks
— AAMI Park, 2:00pm Sunday 29 June 2025

Xavier Coates is back on deck this week which is timely as Jack Howarth drops out of the squad due to illness. It means that Sua Fa’alogo will again start on the right wing, with that edge looking for some redemption after being put to the sword against Souths.

Elsewhere the team looks pretty settled for this time of year. Hopefully Alec MacDonald is better for the run last week and ready to increase his minutes this week off the bench.

For the sixth-placed Sharks that back seven looks dangerous on paper. In the forwards, Oregon Kaufusi has been named after being a late withdrawal last weekend. Former Storm player Daniel Atkinson is their bench utility, playing as the Aldi version of Tyran Wishart.

Melbourne’s last loss was against Cronulla back in May. The right edge struggled that night and I fear a repeat performance could be in prospect. Especially if Ronaldo Mulitalo is a pest again. But the Sharks this time come to Melbourne after giving up a lead against the Broncos at Lang Park and it’s hard not to disagree with Liam in this week’s Maroon Observer:

The Sharks are clearly not contenders, and haven't ever really looked like getting over the hump in the Fitzgibbon era, which begs questions about his hiring in the first place and everything that's followed.

Indeed the Sharks only win since playing Melbourne was against the Dragons a fortnight ago. They’ve dropped six points behind the top four into the pack of mediocrity where four points separate fourth from 16th.

Looking ahead, we have the Ashley Klein experience this week, so that won’t be fun for anyone at all. It’s also forecast to be a toasty 14°C max on Sunday, but hopefully without too much rain and wind.

Hopefully the lessons that came out of last week can be quickly applied. Consistency of effort and discipline will be key. It would be lovely to see the Storm concentrate and put their best in for 80 minutes, if not longer periods than they’ve shown at times in 2025. I’m looking at Stefano Utoikamanu and Nelson Asofa-Solomona to have big games this week up against their Cronulla counterparts.

Like last week, this is the kind of match that Melbourne can’t afford to lose should they wish to finish high on the ladder. With players missing next week, two points here is necessary.

What else is going on?

The Jersey Flegg Cup squad will be on their way to Fiji for a match against the Silktails on Friday afternoon (kickoff 5pm AEST). The Silktails got the better of the Storm back in April at Broadmeadows, but have struggled since then and are on an eight match losing streak.

The Bears have the bye this weekend in the NSW Cup, which isn’t great timing for the players that Melbourne have been sending to North Sydney. Perhaps a couple of them might trek further north where the Falcons take on last-placed Western Clydesdales on Sunday afternoon (kickoff 2:10pm), or to Ipswich when the Tigers head west also on Sunday (kickoff 1:40pm). The Tigers will be looking to consolidate their new-found spot in the top eight by knocking over the sixth-placed Jets.

In the Super Netball, the Lightning will need to play more than just the power fives and try for some greater consistency at home to the second-placed West Coast Fever. It’s a tough ask to knock over the green team, with the Fever winning the past nine matches between the teams.5 First pass is Saturday afternoon at 5pm.

One more thing…

This NYT column caught my eye. The costs of following sports teams, especially across multiple sports is skyrocketing. There will be a reckoning, but maybe not soon enough.