S28E23 Preview – Head on collision

Big Battle LVIII

Aug 06, 2025

Some recent upgrades to my record keeping has given me a bunch of new Storm stats that I can pull out, including this table:

Melbourne’s Thursday night record is pretty extraordinary. The club had played four Thursday matches before they became a regular weekly occurrence in 2017, winning all four of those matches. Indeed Melbourne would win their first 14 matches played on a Thursday evening, their first loss coming in the round 15 of the 2020 season against Parramatta.1

The Storm have continued on their winning way on Thursday nights, now unbeaten in 16 matches at AAMI Park, including four wins against the Broncos.2 The first of those wins came back in 2017…

S20E03 – Melbourne Storm vs Brisbane Broncos

The narrative about this game was the return of Billy Slater from injury. It was his first match in 374 days and his second in 670 days. His return coming 14 years to the day since his NRL debut.

Slater was named at fullback, but would start from the bench with Cameron Munster moving back to fullback, so Ryley Jacks came into the squad to start with Cooper Cronk in the halves. Tim Glasby also dropped back to the bench, with Jesse Bromich starting. Dropping out of the 17 was Joe Stimson and Vincent Leuluai.3 The Broncos were 1-13, with one change on the bench as Benji Marshall replaced Tevita Pangai Junior.

Melbourne had started the season with a couple of wins against the Bulldogs and Warriors away from Melbourne. The Broncos had won their season opener against the reigning premiers, but lost to the Cowboys in golden point in round two.

For some reason the match replay and comprehensive highlights are missing on the NRL website and the vision beyond a few snippets is eluding me on other sources for this one. I do remember this one was an interesting match for Suliasi Vunivalu. He acrobatically kept in a Broncos touch-finding kick early, but it was the visitors who opened the scoring in the 10th minute, James Roberts running 70m to score after picking up a loose pass from Cooper Cronk on Melbourne’s left edge.

The Storm hit back in the 22nd minute when Cameron Smith sent Jacks down the short side on that left edge to score. It was typical sleight of hand from Smith that caught out the Broncos, with his conversion locking up the scores at 6-all.

Slater was called into action in the 29th minute, coming on for Jacks to a standing ovation from the AAMI Park crowd. Smith would take a penalty goal for Melbourne to take the lead 8–6 which they held to the break.

Melbourne were caught out though in the 49th minute when Brisbane halfback Ben Hunt sliced through the defence to score. His diagonal run to the posts saw him evade four would-be tacklers to go straight through in a piece of individual brilliance.

Sam Thaiday was lucky not to have been sent to the sin bin a few minutes later, giving his best Third Man Thaiday impression when he shoved Vunivalu and sent him flying out of the playing surface. Later, Melbourne would be down a player when Munster clashed heads trying to tackle Corey Oates. Off with concussion, Munster would later miss three weeks recovering from a broken jaw.

There was a controversial no try ruling from the NRL Bunker with 12 minutes remaining when Will Chambers looked to have scored. It was certainly less clear-cut than a call in the first half when Cronk was denied a try for a double movement.

Melbourne had dominated possession and field position with the Broncos seemingly on defence for the vast majority of the match. Melbourne were struggling for cohesion in the face of the brick wall presented by the resilient visitors.

In the end it came down to this play with less than five minutes remaining with Josh Addo-Carr introducing himself to the Storm fans with his first try for the club:

The Fox coming up with the double ricochet to score out wide to level the scores and Smith landing the sideline conversion to win the match. Melbourne probably deserved the win given the entirety of the 80 minutes, but it did show that things weren’t going to be easy in getting back to the Grand Final in 2017.4

Melbourne – 14 (Jacks 22', Addo-Carr 76' tries; Smith 3/3 goals)

Brisbane – 12 (Roberts 10', Hunt 49' tries; Kahu 2/2 goals)

Stats from *Big League*. Dally M Medal points went to Smith (3), Hunt (2), Kaufusi (1)

Stat attack

Melbourne have played five previous matches on 7 August, winning four. The last match the club played on this date was a 28–18 win against Manly in 2021.
The club’s overall record in August is 81-1-36.
Brisbane have won three of their 15 visits to AAMI Park, winning in 2015, 2016, and the Storm’s opening match at the venue in 2010.
Brisbane have a winning record against every NRL team except Melbourne. The Storm have won 42 of the previous 57 matches between these teams.
Harry Grant will make his 100th appearance for the Storm coming seven years after his NRL debut in 2018. Grant has scored 37 tries in 99 appearances for Melbourne and three tries in 15 appearances for the Wests Tigers when on loan in 2020. Grant has been Storm captain in 36 matches.
Adam Reynolds has been on the winning side just three times in 20 matches against Melbourne, with only one of those wins coming in the regular season.
The City of Brisbane were awarded the 2032 Olympic Games on 21 July 2021. There are still no finalised designs or master plan for the Olympic Stadium and surrounding precinct.

Team line-up

Ryan Papenhuyzen
Grant Anderson
~~Jack Howarth~~
Nick Meaney
Xavier Coates
Cameron Munster
Tyran Wishart
Stefano Utoikamanu
Harry Grant © (100th Storm match)
Josh King
Shawn Blore
Eliesa Katoa
Trent Loiero
Jonah Pezet
Ativalu Lisati
Tui Kamikamica
Joe Chan
Kane Bradley
Bronson Garlick
~~Siulagi Tuimalatu-Brown~~
Alec MacDonald
~~Lazarus Vaalepu~~

Referee: Grant Atkins (Bunker: Chris Butler)

Preview

Melbourne Storm vs Brisbane Broncos
— AAMI Park, 7:50pm Thursday 7 August 2025

It’s the first week of two that the NRL will be celebrating Indigenous communities and culture. In a bout of self-flagellation the club released another statement following the events of Anzac Day. I get it, but being the last club to officially unveil their Indigenous Round jersey was a little silly. Surely the last possible time for all this was last Friday afternoon. In any event, hopefully the actions of the club going forward can make up for what they did in April.

As for the jersey itself, continuing on this theme from 2024 and previous seasons:-

Indigenous Round jerseys

jonnyforeigner

May 17, 2023

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2025

The dot painting draws from Roey’s heritage in Warumungu Country (Tennant Creek), while the inclusion of turtles honour his maternal ties to Yawuru Country, near Broome. Five turtles feature prominently on the design, representing Roey himself, his partner, and their three children.

The back of the jersey pays tribute to Peter Robinson, which is a nice touch.

thetorchvic

A post shared by @thetorchvic

This will be the second time Melbourne have worn an Indigenous jersey design against the Broncos.

On field, Melbourne’s squad welcomes back Trent Loiero to the lock forward position and Bronson Garlick drops back to the reserves. That might mean the bench rotations are a little more balanced, although I would feel better if Alec MacDonald was back this week rather than still named as a reserve. Elsewhere the lineup is pretty settled, even if Tyran Wishart and Jonah Pezet should be in the other’s jersey number.

Hold the press: Jack Howarth is out and Kane Bradley is in.

The Broncos welcome back Payne Haas who missed their big win over the hapless Bunnies. He comes back in place of Xavier Willison who broke his arm in that match. Somehow Reece Walsh escaped suspension for his shoulder charge that looked like it might have been a grade two charge if he wasn’t Reece Walsh. As such he’ll take his place in a Broncos backline that is guided by the Thoroughbreds 2020s salary cap subversion scheme5 and sponsored by Ford Ranger driver Ezra Mam. He’ll be meeting head on with something bigger than a small white car, although Nelson Asofa-Solomona won’t be in Melbourne’s line up even after his two week suspension expired.

I think, just maybe, the Storm are very vulnerable this week. July might have seen the Storm win four of their five matches, but they didn’t play well in any of them. Without Jahrome Hughes, the attack looks clunky. I would hope that the defence could restrict the Broncos to a score that Melbourne could obtain, but that hope comes with a few caveats. It wouldn’t surprise me to see the Storm fall behind in the first half and resort to panic football in the second half. But maybe the Storm can freeze out the Broncos from scoring after their points explosion last weekend, well maybe the temperature might at least.6

To host a week one final Melbourne need to win at least three and probably four of their remaining five matches. A loss here won’t be terminal to those chances, but it won’t be great ahead of a tough month to complete the regular season.

What else is going on?

In atrocious conditions last Saturday, the Storm Jersey Flegg Cup squad were drowned against the Knights, going down 20–18 in Newcastle. The loss didn’t affect the team’s position on top of the ladder though, still three points clear of the Panthers with four matches remaining. This week the team is up against the fifth-placed Eels at Kellyville Park on Saturday (kickoff 1pm).

Marion Seve made his return to rugby league at North Sydney Oval last week with the Storm centre scoring a hat trick for the Bears in their 32–18 win over the Knights.7 This weekend Norths travel to Parramatta on Sunday afternoon (kickoff 1:30pm).

Everyone’s back in action in the Queensland Cup this weekend, with the Falcons travelling to Rockhampton on Saturday (kickoff 4pm) to face the Capras who surprisingly won their rescheduled match against the Burleigh Bears last weekend. If the Sunshine Coast squad are serious about playing finals, they need to win games like this one. On Sunday afternoon (kickoff 2:10pm) the Tigers will be at home against the Seagulls (Tweed version) in a match that will also be on 9Now and Kayo for those without Qplus subscriptions.