S15E09 – Penrith Panthers vs Melbourne Storm
Randomly going back to 2012 this week for Melbourne’s trip to Penrith in early May. The Storm were undefeated through the first eight weeks of the season, the best start in club history. The Panthers were on a four game losing streak which included two consecutive matches where they were held scoreless against Manly and the Wests Tigers.
The home team brought in Etuate Uaisele and Josh Mansour replacing their wingers, while Anthony Quinn came onto the Storm bench in place of Rory Kostjasyn. This was Ivan Cleary’s first head coaching stint at Penrith after moving across from the Warriors who he had led to the Grand Final the previous season. Matt Russell and Laurie Daley had the call for Fox Sports on the old red button “viewers choice” service, calling the action from a fairly sparse crowd at Penrith.
It was a pretty sloppy start from Melbourne and indeed both teams were guilty of poor handling. On the back of the referees penalising the Panthers in defence,1 Matt Duffie crashed over the line after Dane Nielsen popped out a pass in a tackle that might have been called a lost ball by certain video referees. Rod Lawrence was not one of those and sent back the decision as refs call. Melbourne’s lead didn’t last long though when the Panthers shifted the ball left with the debutant Josh Mansour diving over in the corner. It was a nice move from the home team to fool the Storm defence into leaving Mansour almost unmarked. Blake Austin’s kick rebounded through the posts to level the scores.
From the restart and on the back of a 40/20 kick from Austin, the Panthers were immediately on the attack as they looked urgent with the ball. This time they shifted the ball to the right for Uaisele to score off a bullet pass from Lachlan Coote. Melbourne’s habit of leaving the wingers unmarked coming unstuck again. Penrith were rolling with the lead, aiming up in defence especially around the middle. It wasn’t until the Storm were able to put together some structured play that they hit back on the scoreboard, Cooper Cronk awarded a try after bouncing over the line in a tackle. Cameron Smith’s kick bounced off the upright to level the scores at 10-all.
Melbourne lifted their intensity as the half wore on and scored through Ryan Hoffman with seven minutes left in the half. It was a pinpoint kick from Cronk to Duffie on the wing that was the big play, Duffie able to catch and pass in one motion to Hoffman to crash over. A mistake from the back of a scrum by the Panthers gifted Melbourne attacking position to finish the first half and Cronk and Billy Slater almost sent Justin O’Neill over with the Panthers barely hanging on. In the end it was another error that halted the Storm’s attack — Melbourne’s seventh of the first half. On the stroke of half time, the Storm went the length of the field thanks to Slater who burst through the Panthers line at Melbourne’s 10m line, kicking ahead for O’Neill to score as the siren sounded.
Up by 12 points, Melbourne had been playing lights out in the second half in 2012. The Storm had a chance to go further ahead soon after the restart when Slater was sprinting down the sideline after latching onto a pass from Mansour. Just as he was being pushed into touch by Cameron Ciraldo, he got the ball back inside, but the home team gathered the loose ball.
It would be 10 minutes before the first try of the second half, with O’Neill scoring his second. He sliced through the Panthers defence when the Storm had a scrum on their own 10m line, sprinting over 90m to score untouched. O’Neill spotting up Michael Jennings who had entered the match under an injury cloud and his missed tackle on this play was his last involvement.
From the restart the Storm went back-to-back. This time it was Will Chambers scoring the try after Slater had drifted across field, sprinting past to get outside the defence to throw the final pass back inside. It was yet another try from inside Melbourne’s half of the field.
That burst of points had effectively ended the match as a contest, so the Storm settled back into a rhythm of completing sets with Smith, Slater and Cronk doing what they do best. 2012 saw those three start to include more than just the structured play that Melbourne were known for and the attacking style of the team’s play proved that.
A 40/20 kick from Cronk set up another Melbourne attack deep inside Penrith’s half. Jason Ryles crossed over on a smashing run, but couldn’t get the ball down for his second try in Storm colours, but the very next play O’Neill completed his hat-trick when Chambers was able to push the ball out when it looked like he would also be held up over the line.
This was O’Neill’s second hat-trick for the Storm, he would go on to score 34 tries in 44 appearances for the club before moving to the Cowboys in 2015.
There was time for one more try for Melbourne with Ryan Hinchliffe taking the Storm past 40 points, finishing a move that began just inside Penrith’s half. Hinchliffe (who was playing at hooker after Smith had been given an early mark) backing up a break made by Todd Lowrie through the middle from a Cronk pass.
The win was the Storm’s tenth straight win against the Panthers. Melbourne finished the round four points clear on top of the NRL ladder, but would have their winning start to the 2012 season ended the following weekend.
Penrith – 10 (Mansour 13', Uaisele 17' tries; Austin 1/2 goals)
Melbourne – 44 (O’Neill 40', 51', 69', Duffie 9', Cronk 24', Hoffman 33', Chambers 53', Hinchliffe 76' tries; Smith 5/7, Widdop 1/1 goals)
Stat attack
Melbourne have never previously played on 14 August.2
This will be the tenth venue these teams have played against each other.3 Melbourne have won 32 of the previous 48 matches.
The Storm’s biggest win against the Panthers is 66–14 at Olympic Park in 2004. Melbourne scored 11 tries that day with Steve Turner squeaking over for a hat-trick.
Penrith have been held scoreless against the Storm on three occasions.
Ivan Cleary’s teams have won 17 of 38 matches against Melbourne.
Melbourne’s win earlier this season ended a losing streak against the Panthers when Adam Gee has control of the whistle.
Team line-up
Nick Meaney
Grant Anderson
Joe Chan
Marion Seve
Xavier Coates
Cameron Munster
Tyran Wishart
Stefano Utoikamanu
Harry Grant ©
Josh King
Shawn Blore
Eliesa Katoa
Trent Loiero
Jonah Pezet
Alec MacDonald
Tui Kamikamica
Ativalu Lisati
Bronson Garlick
Kane Bradley
Siulagi Tuimalatu-BrownLazarus VaalepuNelson Asofa-Solomona
Referee: Ashley Klein (Bunker: Chris Butler)
Preview
Penrith Panthers vs Melbourne Storm
— CommBank Stadium, 7:50pm Thursday 14 August 2025
In the wake of the Prefects latest shenanigans,4 Liam over at Maroon Observer published some of his best work.
The Penrith Panthers are a casino with a football team taped on the side. They exist to immiserate their community, capitalising on Australia’s crippling gambling addiction, and expend that capital by offering an ostensibly brighter future to young men of limited means whose presence in that particular part of that particular city at that particular time is as much a work of merciless economic bullying and ugly historical forces as anything else. The price those men pay is measured in blood, paid now, and in mental faculty, paid later, and only they can decide whether it was worth being lubricant for an unthinking and unfeeling automaton that is comprised entirely of humans and yet lacks any humanity. That machine will pay off women for abortions, commodify players and treat them as callously as possible, and steal public money to build a carpark to funnel more through its doors to financial immolation.
Penrith fans should take heed:
Which, coming from a Melbourne Storm fan, welcome. There’s always room for more here in the legion of evil. Oh look here’s the biannual outrage about the six trophies.
“Hall of asterisks” is a good line though. Might use that next time I spot other ill-gotten NRL trophies. Given it’s August though, I’m assuming the annual hit pieces about Melbourne’s on field tactics are a week or so away.
As for this game, Penrith will be starting favourites on their nine match winning streak against some pretty poor opposition, especially in the last five weeks. But the reigning premiers just keep rolling to what will be their sixth straight Grand Final.
This Melbourne team, without Ryan Papenhuyzen and Jahrome Hughes, with makeshift centres, might be lucky not to concede a big score. It almost feels like the Storm might play this game “dead” to avoid the rule of three.5
It will be interesting to see what the Storm do over the next few weeks with certain players.6 If Hughes is going to be back before the end of the season, the need for Jonah Pezet to play more minutes isn’t as necessary. I’m surprised that Marion Seve is getting the nod ahead of playing Kane Bradley on the wing, or trying Moses Leo again after he returned for the Bears last weekend. If Seve can live up to his defensive reputation with his new eyewear, then maybe this plan might work.
I just can’t see Melbourne being able to keep the Panthers to an achievable score. They’ll get their usual preferential treatment and the Storm will probably resort to panic football and fall into their 2025 routine of poor errors and bad discipline. For the travelling Storm fans (myself included), I hope I’m wrong.
Finally, we can all guess what Ashley Klein won’t be awarding this week thanks to Ivan Cleary’s public moaning:
I think it’s one of those ones where the rule was originally made [tackling attacking players in the air], we tend to forget why it was made and we drift off and it becomes something else.
That rule is all about player safety. That’s why it was brought in. I think some of the ones you’ve seen have nothing to do with safety, so I think there’s a little bit of common sense needed around that rule.
As long as it’s deemed safe, I think you should at least get the opportunity to try to stop a try in that situation. But that’s not going to happen now, so we’ve got to deal with it the best way we can.
Looks like Xavier Coates might be in for a dangerous evening.
What else is going on?
Nelson Asofa-Solomona scored what turned out to be the match winning try for the Falcons in their 12–8 win over the Capras in Rockhampton last weekend. The win moved the Sunshine Coast squad up to fifth on the ladder and within sight of a top four spot. This week the Falcons host the sixth-placed Dolphins on Saturday afternoon (kickoff 5pm).
The Tigers fell at the final hurdle against the Seagulls (Tweed version) after leading 22–16 at half time with Keagan Russell-Smith scoring a try. After Ryley Jacks kicked a field goal with six minutes remaining the Tigers held a slender lead, but a try to Lamar Manuel-Liolevave won the match for the visitors 34–29. This week the Tigers have their final bye of the season.
It was a similar tale for the Bears in the NSW Cup, going down 32–30 against Parramatta when Jake Tago scored a try to level the scores late in the match. Earlier Siulagi Tuimalatu-Brown scored his sixth try of the season for the Bears playing on the right wing, going up the grab a high kick with a nice grab. This week Norths are at home to the Roosters on Sunday (kickoff 3pm).
Earlier the Storm’s Jersey Flegg Cup squad suffered another narrow loss against the Eels, going down 24–18. Luke Cesari scored a double in the first few minutes of the match for the Storm, but goalkicking and a late try to the Eels was costly. The loss cut their lead on top of the ladder to just one competition point with three games remaining.
This week the team is back at Seabrook Reserve on Saturday afternoon (kickoff 2pm) against the eighth-placed Roosters. There’s three games left in the season, with all matches for the Storm to be played in Melbourne, so they’re a big chance of securing the minor premiership with a couple of wins.
Ahh, those were the days.
Other dates Melbourne haven’t played on between March and September include 1 and 6 March, 23 and 28 April, and 18 July.
Olympic Park, Docklands and AAMI Park in Victoria; Hindmarsh Stadium in South Australia; Lang Park in Queensland; and Penrith, Bathurst, Campbelltown, Homebush and Parramatta in NSW.
Actually, maybe their second latest.
The rule of three is a hypothesis that posits that winning a third straight match against the same opponent in a season is more difficult than if the season series was split. Melbourne’s raw data is that they’ve achieved a sweep nine times from 15 attempts and have been swept three times from six chances. In third matches when the series was split, Melbourne have won five of 15. Might need to widen this one across the league to see if this hypothesis has any actual merit.
Nelson Asofa-Solomona looms large.
That was an awesome finish by Harry Grant!