Forgotten Storm set to thunder home
Roar Rookie
By mushi, 23 Sep 2009 mushi is a Roar Rookie
- Tagged:
- Brisbane Broncos, Israel Folau, Melbourne Storm, NRL, Rugby League
With all the talk of experience, consistency, and attacking weapons that are possessed by the Broncos and the Eels, it seems that in the short attention span of the league media, one week out of sight truly does put a side out of mind.
Toiling away in the forgotten southern State is a side who, as minor premiers and grand finalists over the past three years, have been a more constant fixture at Homebush than the Stadium’s name.
Yes, this is a side which has lost the likes of the mercurial Israel Folau and timeless hard man Mick Crocker.
But Melbourne are the grizzled cage fighter. They don’t need to beat you from start to finish, they just need an opening to land that one vicious blow that changes the momentum of the match.
As brilliant as Hayne has proven to be this year when provided with space, Greg Inglis, for me, is still the number one player in the league at creating his own space with his footwork and fend.
As such, he gives Melbourne the rare ability to still land scoring punches against a quality opponent that is on the front foot.
Combine Inglis with the playmaking flexibility offered up by the forgotten Billy Slater, who two weeks ago surgically dissected the Manly defence playing in his preferred roll as a third half, and Melbourne retains the attacking flexibility which has given it the ability to stay in matches.
In the other corner we have Brisbane.
For all of that has been made of their performance last week, it was merely sufficient, but not inspiring. It took the men from up north almost three quarters of the match to subdue an opponent who gifted them field position and possession time and time again with unforced errors.
On the front foot with the momentum on their side, they’ve proven to be good enough to win. But you look back at the teams which have held aloft the trophy aloft the last two years.
Those two sides put faltering opponents to the sword ruthlessly and efficiently, providing no room for a comeback whereas, Brisbane left the door ajar last week.
It is because of Melbourne’s ability to not play well, but still have the means to score points, combined with Brisbane’s apparent inability to brutalise a stunned opponent on the scoreboard, that I think we’ll be seeing the boys in Purple make their familiar trip back north for the October long weekend.
Maybe then people will remember they are still in the competition.
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Greg Russell said | September 23rd 2009 @ 2:19pm | Report comment
Huh? The Storm are Premiership favorites at the NZ TAB, currently paying $2.75, with Parra the next best at $3.35. I can’t imagine it’s any different in Australia. So who’s forgetting about the Storm?
Here are some simple truths, as I see it:
* The key positions in league are 1, 6, 7 and 9. While other teams have some brilliant individuals in these positions (e.g. Hayne, Lockyer), the Storm are easily the strongest across all 4 of these positions of the remaining teams (not to mention that they too have some brilliance in these positions).
* The Storm are at home this weekend against a young team that must travel a long way.
* The Broncos are without their usual 7 (a crucial position), and have no obvious replacement.
* If (when) the Storm make the grand final, they will have 3 years of grand final experience to draw upon, whereas their opponents will have very little.
Putting all this together, I am surprised that the Storm are paying as much as $2.75!
mushi said | September 23rd 2009 @ 2:32pm | Report comment
Greg reading the sports pages here in Sydney and even on the roar much has been made of parra being unstoppable, the dogs being the consistent performers with kimmorley and the suddenly resurgent bronco’s whilst three time finalists the Storm have played little more than a Jermey Piven esque supporting role in the coverage up to this point.
On the surprised at 2.75 that still puts them at a short price of 1.65 to win each game.
Tom Alexander. said | September 23rd 2009 @ 5:57pm | Report comment
I just have a feeling that with freaks like Inglis and Slater alongside Finch, Cronk and Smith, the storm have more big game players and playmakers who will get them over the line. Folau who needs to contribute in order for the Broncos to take this one out, has not really had a successful first season at the Broncos, especially with that ankle injury etc. With the inclusion of Anderson back into the team along with the form of Tolsen and Tandy, the Storm forward pack looks more solid now than it did a couple of months ago.
mushi said | September 23rd 2009 @ 6:44pm | Report comment
Interestingly I broke down the storms season today game by game statistically. In games where they had less combined metres, fewer forward runs, made more tackles and errors I considered them statistically “beaten” over the 80 minutes – ie weight of possession and field position was against them.
Their break down was 13 games – statistically “won” and 12 statistically “lost”
Their record in the games won on the stat sheet – 11 and 2 by an average margin of 19 points, in games they “lost” on the stat sheet 4 and 7 with 1 draw by an average margin of -5 points.
Meaning that when they are outplayed over the 80 minutes they, on average, where still within a converted try at the end of the game. But when they outplayed someone they, on average, won by more than 3 converted tries.
Mick from Giralang said | September 25th 2009 @ 6:05pm | Report comment
I think your last sentence is evidence of how good the Storm’s defence has been.
AndyRoo said | September 25th 2009 @ 6:33pm | Report comment
Pretty interesting stats Mushi.
Thats the sign of a team that always shows up, there supporters should be proud.
Richard Brockhurst said | September 24th 2009 @ 11:36am | Report comment
This is the finals – sudden death. The rest of the season doesn’t matter it is history and the team that makes the least mistakes will win. Having mental toughness will be the key – there is no next week.
mushi said | September 24th 2009 @ 12:32pm | Report comment
Those that ignore history are doomed to repeat its failures over and over again.
Mick from Giralang said | September 25th 2009 @ 6:03pm | Report comment
Has anyone else been disappointed with Falou’s performances this year (injures aside)?
mushi said | September 28th 2009 @ 8:29am | Report comment
It is always the problem when you poach a third or fourth option as to wether they are that good or if the reason they were so effective is that the opponents had to game plan around other players first and thus leave them with more opportunities.
If I’m an opposing coach don’t I try and structure my defence to blunt inglis and slater before folau?
I thought it would be interesting to see what happened with Israel being forced to play like Inglis. Perhaps he can develop a little more to his game now that he realsies how far behind the pace he realy is.
You see similar things with props that play with another great prop, they typically get a bit of an advantage in their numbers and how effective they look because the other guy is taking the sting out of the defence and starting the ball rolling forward.
AndyRoo said | September 25th 2009 @ 6:44pm | Report comment
Dissapointed that he hasn’t really shown mutch aptitude for playing centre. He seems quite comfortable as a winger where he is the worlds best but I really would like to see him embrace being a centre where he could really influence every match and be more of an influence.
I missed the Dragons vs Broncos but he was awesome against the Titans. If he plays his normal game if being a dangerous winger and capable finisher but nothing more while the Broncos bow out against the storm then you would have to question his worth.
I think it was Gould who said with the salary cap you don’t pay that kind of money for a winger.
Not Falou’s fault he is being paid big money of course and it’s his first year at the Broncos.