Let’s be real, Melbourne aren’t playing finals footy in 2026. It’s time to be the spoiler…
Returning to early 1999 this week for a look back at a Storm classic where the visitors to Olympic Park turned up looking a little odd.
S02E04 – Melbourne Storm vs Canterbury Bulldogs
In the pantheon of jerseys worn by NRL teams over the 29 seasons, there have been some interesting looks. From the weird and wacky promotion jerseys — Melbourne have been guilty of showing up in a few of those — to some very interesting clash/away jerseys.
Back in round 4 1999, Canterbury turned up to Olympic Park in this jersey:
Now to my eye, it’s not a bad jersey, even if it was totally unnecessary as a clash jersey given that there’s not enough change from their traditional jersey design. It was seemingly almost universally loathed by Bulldogs fans back in 1999.1 Maybe it was because it was paired with white shorts and the worst grey socks ever to grace Olympic Park:
Seriously… what are those! As someone who advocates for the adage that real footballers wear socks up, this might have been an exception to the rule.
This jersey has since gone full circle. It was worn only a couple of times by the Bulldogs in 1999 and now is a highly sought after retro design that is beloved by both Bulldogs fans who might have originally hated it back in 1999, as well as those who might not have been around back then.
There’s a few Storm jerseys that might qualify in this category too — it’s been interesting to see the 2001–02 and 2003–04 away jerseys brought back as retro replicas in recent years being embraced by younger Storm fans. Both of those designs had very vocal critics when they were originally worn.
Back to this match — Melbourne had won their season opener against Penrith, but lost the following week to Balmain at the Lilyfield Rectangle. In round 3, Melbourne stunned the reigning premiers Brisbane Broncos at ANZ Stadium, thrashing the champs 48–6. Melbourne had suffered a blow at the hands of the NRL Judiciary following that match when Stephen Kearney was suspended for five matches for a dangerous throw charge.
Melbourne were indignant — CEO Chris Johns went off in the media and the Storm responded with a stunt that risked further punishment from the NRL by parading “Skirt Man” before the crowd ahead of this match against the Bulldogs. From memory, Storm Man looked quite fetching in a tutu.2 Somehow Melbourne escaped further disciplinary action, but it did put something of a target on the club’s back ahead of the reduction of teams in the competition from 2000.
The early season conditions at Olympic Park were perfect for this match. It was a clear and warm March evening that greeted the players. Ricky Stuart returned to Olympic Park just a few months on from losing two matches with Canberra in his final season with the Raiders. The 1998 grand finalists had added Stuart to their squad and like the Storm had started the season with two wins from their opening three matches.
Hazem El Masri returned to the Bulldogs team for his first match since round 10 the previous season. El Masri had scored a stack of tries in the Super League season, but had lost his spot in the Canterbury team during the 1998 season. He replaced superboot Daryl Halligan who was out with a broken jaw. Halligan had taken every Bulldogs penalty and conversion attempt from during the 1995 season all the way through to this match — for the future NRL points leader, this match would mark the first attempts at goal for El Masri.
It felt like the visitors had the better field position in this match early on until Richard Swain scampered 30m from dummy half on his first run of the night. That run set up an impressive set in possession for the Storm which took them from their own line right to the other end of Olympic Park. In defence, they looked strong with Robbie Ross anchoring them at the back and taking every tricky kick from Stuart with clean hands.
The kicking game of Stuart was just a bit better than that being offered by Brett Kimmorley — his first kicks in this one weren’t great, with one attacking kick sailing clear of the field and almost into the running track.
Melbourne opened the scoring in the tenth minute, taking a penalty goal from the boot of Matt Geyer. A lost ball from El Masri on a kick return gave the Storm possession in the Bulldogs half, with Kimmorley ripping the ball out of the wingers hands. Kimmorley had knocked on a couple of times on the play, both of which went unseen by the officials.
The visitors answered in the 14th minute when a Corey Hughes kick ricocheted to an offside Paul Marquet — El Masri easily taking the two points to level the scores.
As the half wore on, both teams kicking game were looking dangerous, the playmakers taking advantage of the dry and fast conditions. Melbourne were clean with the ball in hand too, completing their first eight sets in the opening 15 minutes. The Storm’s defence created opportunities for their attack to go to work. A Canterbury lost ball gave Melbourne a full set in possession to attack at the river end of Olympic Park. It didn’t take long for Melbourne to find the right move to score — Kimmorley receiving the ball near the middle, passing out to Tawera Nikau who passed to a wide-running Robbie Kearns to go through the line untouched to score in the right channel. Geyer badly missing the conversion attempt, with Melbourne’s lead at 6–2.
Kimmorley had risen to the performance output of Stuart for the Dogs — Noddy was probing away and despite some stout defence from the men in blue and white (and grey), a little grubber kick evaded El Masri and with the line wide open it looked like Geyer would easily gather and score… except Paul Bell had got a hand on the ball to knock on. It was a simple decision for video referee Doug Wintin, although he seemingly took an age to make a call. Perhaps the curse of the small little CRT televisions that the officials used to deal with when ruling on video evidence back in the day.
Another Dogs error gave the Storm further chances at their line — after both Aaron Moule and Scott Hill went close, Wayne Evans took a chance to crash over, but the visitors were able to repel those attacks and a kick from Kimmorley that was tapped back by Marcus Bai to Tony Martin was again well defended.
Melbourne’s turn to defend would come soon enough and it came on the back of an unforced error on a kick return. With the ball down the Swan Street end for the first time in a while, it only took Canterbury a couple of plays to score. It was a poor defensive read from Hill that allowed a gap in the line to appear for Corey Hughes to slide through off a Stuart pass. Melbourne looked to have the play covered, but it was the poor read that opened up the running lanes just enough. El Masri couldn’t convert to keep the scores locked at 6–all.
Melbourne tried to muscle-up in defence as a result of the try, and with the ball their kick returns from Ross and Bai gave their forwards colleagues a chance to bend the line. The kicking battle between Kimmorley and Stuart was also worth the price of admission.
Five minutes before half time, the Bulldogs scored a stunning try to take the lead. On the final tackle, Stuart attacked down a short side on the left flank, running to link up with El Masri. The winger put in an audacious banana kick towards the middle of the field, the Steeden bouncing dangerously 25m out from the Storm line, evading Tony Martin and Corey Hughes in pursuit only for the ball to bounce straight up into the hands of Rod Silva who ran away to score under the posts and give the visitors a 12–6 lead.3 It was a competitive and quick first half, the visitors taking the advantage even if Melbourne had the better possession
After the break, Melbourne grabbed a loose pass to go on the attack. A dangerous offfload from Nikau to Kimmorley, almost set up a try for Hill, but the pass was ruled forward after it was knocked out of Kimmorley’s hands within sight of the line. The match, even for 1999 standards was fast and end-to-end with both teams bending the line and getting offloads. Only a couple of final tackle options were a little lacking from both teams to add to the scoreboard.
Eventually the Storm would score when Bai got on the end of a passing move that put him into space with no defenders in front of him. The PNG winger able to beat Silva to the corner to score out wide. In the lead up, Kimmorley, Hill and Ross combined, using Martin as the decoy to lure defenders out of position. It was Bai’s first try of the season, with every touch he had lifting the volume of the Storm fans. Geyer couldn’t add the extra though, leaving Melbourne behind 12–10.
Melbourne almost took the lead through a Rusty Bawden offload to Hill who reached out to score, but the five-eighth lost the ball trying to roll out of a tackle with momentum to score. Again, it was a clear decision for the video referee.
After that near-miss, the visitors pushed hard. Steve Hughes almost took an intercept, but the pass from Martin was called forward to still give the visitors the ball. With just over 20 mins to go, an error from Ben Roarty — Melbourne’s tenth for the match compared to the Bulldogs six — gave the visitors field position. Perfecly manipulating the defence, a Stuart high kick saw El Masri bring down a spectacular grab over Geyer, leaping up above the pack to score. It was a perfect kick from Stuart, handing the Bulldogs a 16–10 advantage.
Adding to the Storm’s problems at the NRL Judiciary, Nikau was put on report for a high shot on Troy Stone — he would later be suspended for two weeks. With over 15 minutes remaining, Stuart opted to take a field goal from 23m out to give the visitors a seven point lead. From there it looked like the Bulldogs wanted to play simple and grind out the win.
Melbourne had other ideas. A Moule break from deep inside Melbourne territory, saw the ball move through the hands to the other wing, Kimmorley and Martin sent Bai down the sideline with 60m to cover — Bai broke through a Craig Polla-Mounter tackle, evaded Silva to score a scintillating try, carrying Stuart to the line to score. That was Melbourne Storm football with expansive passing and great hands, speed and agility to finish.
Down by just three points with 12 minutes to go — Melbourne were looking to keep the ball at all costs. Silva just kept out a kick from Hill that could have been more dangerous, while a Kimmorley kick to the right wing had the ball bouncing forward off El Masri into Geyer and then out of bounds. From the resulting scrum, Melbourne kept probing — Glenn Lazarus skittled defenders on one play, then Kimmorley jinked and stepped past defenders, carrying tacklers across the line to plant the ball down after the dogs missed tackles. Melbourne had the 13,297 fans roaring taking a 20–17 lead with still time available.
The Bulldogs tried to fight back with the own style of expansive play, but strong defence from Bai and Bawden put Willie Talau into touch 25m out from the Dogs line. From the scrum Moule looked dangerous, then a couple of plays later Hill sliced through the middle of the defence to score next to the posts. There were some badly missed tackles, but Hill stepped through them to run the ball and do what he did best. Blocker Roach in commentary saying that Hill was “a lock forward if I’ve ever seen one.”
Melbourne had scored 16 points in ten minutes after Stuart’s field goal to take the golden Children’s Cup, which was to be perpetually contested between the two teams. It was said that the Storm had “done a Canterbury on Canterbury” coming from behind in a similar fashion to the way the Bulldogs had marched through the 1998 finals with some spectacular comebacks.
Melbourne – 26 (Bai 53', 66', Kearns 17', Kimmorley 71', Hill 75' tries; Geyer 3/6 goals)
Canterbury – 17 (C Hughes 27', Silva 36', El Masri 61' tries; El Masri 2/4 goals; Stuart 64' field goal)
Dally M votes: Glenn Lazarus (3), Rod Silva (2), Robbie Ross (1)
Stat attack
Melbourne have won one of their three previous matches played on 31 July, having lost in both 2009 and 2015, winning their match against Parramatta last year.
Canterbury have won just four of their 13 previous visits to AAMI Park, last winning in Melbourne in 2023.
The Bulldogs have won 23 of the 49 matches between the two teams, the most number of wins against the Storm of any opponent. They are the only team to have restricted Melbourne to less than 1000 points (minimum 40 matches).
Canterbury’s win earlier this season ended a three match losing streak against Melbourne — the Bulldogs won nine straight matches against the Storm from 2000 through 2004, also winning six straight between 2013 and 2016.
Bulldogs winger Jacob Kiraz has scored five tries in his last five games against the Storm. Josh Addo-Carr (seven tries with Melbourne, four with Canterbury) and Matt Geyer are the leading try scorers in this fixture, both scoring 11 tries.
Recently retired Bulldogs outside back Marcelo Montoya made four NRL and one NRL Under 20s appearance at AAMI Park without featuring on the winning team.
This week in Storm history
Birthdays:
28 July: Josh Addo-Carr ⚡️176
30 July: Junior Moors ⚡️145
31 July: Wade Fenton ⚡️023; Paul Whatuira ⚡️045
1 August: Shawn Blore ⚡️234
2 August: Junior Langi ⚡️042
Blast from the past:
League fans in seats of power (Herald Sun/Ben Vernon)
30 July 2001
The reconfigured seating at Colonial Stadium for yesterday’s Melbourne Storm-Brisbane Broncos clash received the thumbs-up, but won’t be seen again — at least this year.
With the bottom tier of seating moved about 20m on to the field, the atmosphere at the enclosed stadium, fuelled by the 15,470 crowd, was electric.
But Storm chief executive Chris Johns said changing the seating, which costs $60,000, was cost-prohibitive.
“It was fantastic but unfortunately, it’s too expensive to do it again this year,” Johns said.
“But when they redo the turf at the end of the season they’re going to look at a better way of doing it, which will hopefully make it more cost-effective.”
Nigel Parrant of Dandenong, a long-time Storm fan, described Colonial’s rectangular set-up as “incredible.”
“It was awesome, just incredible,” Parrant said. “They should have done it ages ago.”
Fellow Storm supporter Peter Boothey of Berwick, was no less impressed.
“You’re a lot closer, you feel like you’re there,” he said.4
After the Storm’s heroic win over the Broncos yesterday, you couldn't take the grin off Storm coach Mark Murray's face.
“The atmosphere out there was amazing,” Murray said. “It was the team’s best performance and it was a sensational atmosphere with the seats in.”
That was the only Storm match that ever featured the seats brought forward while the club played at Docklands. The price tag mentioned in that report was apparently somewhat underestimated, and no other rugby league match played at the venue ever used that functionality again. It was later used for a couple of Yawnion internationals and some Melbourne Victory matches.
If someone could fetch a pair of my gloves that fell down under the moving seats section next time they’re in use, that would be nice.
Do you remember:
Robbie Ross was featured on the cover of Big League this week in 1999, with some former Australian test fullbacks nominating him as the best fullback in the NRL at the time.
Ross had earned the NSW number one jersey in the 1999 season, playing in all three matches. He scored 20 tries in 25 appearances for Melbourne that year, also playing his only test match against New Zealand in the October 1999 Tri-Nations series. He was overlooked for the rest of the series, with Darren Lockyer preferred at the back. Ross wouldn’t add to his NSW appearances, restricted by injury he was replaced by David Peachey and then Tim Brasher.
Team line-up
Sualauvi Fa’alogo
Siulagi Tuimalatu-Brown
Manaia Waitere
Nick Meaney
Moses Leo
Tyran Wishart
Jahrome Hughes ©
Stefano Utoikamanu
Trent Toelau
Josh King
Cooper Clarke
Oryn Keeley
Trent Loiero
Hayden Watson (potential NRL debut)
Alec MacDonald
Jack Hetherington
Shawn Blore
Joe Chan
Angus Hinchey
Davvy Moale
Stanley Huen
Jai Bowden (potential NRL debut)
Referee: Gerard Sutton (Bunker: Chris Butler)
Forecast: Partly cloudy, slight chance of a shower 5–13°C
Preview
Melbourne Storm versus Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs
— AAMI Park, 8:00pm Friday 31 July 2026
More injuries? Sure, why not. Harry Grant will be missing until well into August, while Jack Howarth is a new addition to the injury list with a shoulder injury sustained at training. Since the start of the 2025 season, Howarth has missed 14 of a possible 46 matches.
In for Howarth is Manaia Waitere who played out of position in the NSW Cup match against Souths last weekend. Hard to know which side the four outside backs will play this week, spin the wheel?
Trent Toelau has been named at hooker with Tyran Wishart still covering for Cameron Munster at five-eighth. Toelau looked more assured in that role during the second half against the Bunnies, but while he might have the stamina and attacking capabilities for that role, the defensive workload will however be a concern. If teams target Grant in defence to wear him down and blunt his impact with the ball, the same will be very much be true of Toelau. Which means it might be another Melbourne Storm debut could be on the cards — Queensland U19s captain Hayden Watson has been named for what would be his NRL debut. Watson has been going well in NSW Cup since stepping up from the junior representative squads where he started the season. Seriously, he was playing SG Ball Cup, then made two Jersey Flegg Cup appearances before moving up to the NSW Cup team in May. That’s some fast-tracked development since joining the club from Burleigh. Watson is more suited as a playmaker, so it might be that he forms something of a troika with Wishart and Toelau around the hobbled Jahrome Hughes.
There’s also another new name in the reserves — Jai Bowden. It’s less likely that he’ll play this week, but he’s another name to watch for down the track from a NRL-squad perspective.
Elsewhere in the forwards, Jack Hetherington, Shawn Blore and Joe Chan have all been named on the bench. Maybe the rotations will see one or all of them take the field, but who knows anymore the way that’s been going in 2026. Chan is returning from injury, while Blore is back from the wilderness having played a couple of NSW Cup matches this month. His last NRL appearance was a month ago.
The Bulldogs have named the same starting 13 that took down the Warriors last Saturday evening. It’s odd seeing Stephen Crichton in the number six jersey and Matt Burton in the three jersey. Burton has been doing his best impression of Will Chambers since moving wider in attack — that is to suggest he no longer passes the ball — which is odd given that Canterbury have good wingers in Jacob Kiraz and Jethro Rinakama. Crichton seems to be filling an Aldi imitation of Latrell Mitchell, guess self-styled super coach Cameron Ciraldo thinks he knows what he’s doing with that.
Simple Jack Lachlan Galvin is still wearing the seven jersey for the Bulldogs, despite the fact he is not a halfback. Their halfback probably should be Sean O’Sullivan who is on the bench. Joining him there are former Storm utility Kurt Mann who returns from a facial injury. The other former Storm players in the Bulldogs squad is Max King and Jake Turpin, although Turpin never made a NRL appearance for the Storm after playing 44 matches for the club in the NRL Under-20s.
Since last Melbourne played the Bulldogs, the boys from Belmore have lost just twice — to the Wests Tigers back in May, and the Raiders a few weeks ago. The only teams that they have defeated above them on the ladder this season were the Panthers back in April and the Warriors last week. That sees them with the Storm on the outside of the top eight looking in — however they do have two less losses than Melbourne, which means that they’re still a chance to steal one of those finals positions should they go on a run over the next few weeks…
Which is where Melbourne comes into play. With 11 losses already, Melbourne won’t be making the finals. So it’s time to ruin it for everyone else. A loss for the Bulldogs might not be terminal for their finals chances, but it would put them on the precipice of missing out.5 Melbourne have the chance to heap some pressure on the Bulldogs and lean into being the late season villain.
To do that though, Melbourne will need to defend a lot better than they showed last week against the Bunnies. We heard in the post match that defence would be the focus. If Melbourne can restrict the Bulldogs to less than 20 points, well it might be cause for singing and dancing on Swan St. Whether this Melbourne team can score 20 or more points, that could be even less likely.
In other words — Melbourne might need to be prepared to grind this out and try and embrace the spoiler life by making this match as slow as possible and having as much flow as a glacier. They could be assisted by referee Gerard Sutton in this endeavour, given he has a long history with Canterbury — the Bulldogs have won just eight of 19 matches where he’s had the whistle since the start of the 2023 season.
I tried a prediction last week, so let’s do that again. Jack Hetherington will probably fight Josh Curran. Enari Tuala will catch frostbite instead of a well-placed kick, Connor Tracey will be stepped around by Sua Fa’alogo who will score a try. Hayden Watson will play and set up a try that has the Nine commentators having a conniption. Melbourne will probably lead at half time, see their lead disappear and lose by 10+ points. Someone will probably get injured too for the Storm.
What else is going on?
The Storm’s NSW Cup squad will be in action on Friday afternoon (kickoff 4pm), but not at AAMI Park as a curtain-raiser. Instead they’ve been shipped off to the ‘burbs and will play out at Seabrook Reserve. Melbourne are second last with five wins from their 18 starts, while the Bulldogs are currently ninth with eight wins and a draw from their 17 matches. Hard to say who will take the field for Melbourne, but we might get an early idea if any of the fringe first grade players take the field at 4pm.
On Saturday afternoon (kickoff 2pm) the Storm and Bulldogs Jersey Flegg teams will take to Seabrook Reserve. Melbourne will be without Eli Morris as they look to improve upon their 12th-place position on the ladder up against a Canterbury team that has won their last three matches and are second on the ladder behind the Dragons.
The Victoria Glasgow Commonwealth Games are on… the netball semi finals are Saturday night (6pm or 10pm AEST) and the gold medal match is Sunday night (10pm AEST). Go the Diamonds.
The internet in 1999 was a much wilder place.
Although it might have been that Skirt Man wasn’t Storm Man… if only there was video evidence available, but alas I believe my mobile phone at the time was an Ericsson GA 628.
Couldn’t help but notice the Olympic Park scoreboard used to carry the “around the ground” scores from AFL matches. There’s an absolute classic goal in that match from Simon Arnott, but I digress.
I’m confused Mr Boothey — were you there or were you not?
Going a long way to ensuring last season’s top four all miss out — Brisbane and Melbourne are already planning September holidays, Canberra will be the next team to have their season officially done and dusted…