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Having already tasted defeat against the under strength Panthers earlier in the year, the Melbourne Storm have to turn up to play if they are to beat a Wests Tigers side coming off a solid win over Canberra. Join us for live scores and commentary from 5.30pm AEST.
Tonight’s contest against the Tigers represents a huge danger game for Melbourne given that they will be very strong favourites to secure another two competition points.
The last time that the Storm was backed to defeat understrength opposition however saw them succumb to Penrith in arguably the biggest upset of the season to date.
In that contest, Melbourne were very flat despite being at full strength and will make life difficult for themselves this afternoon if they come into the match against the Tigers expecting victory.
The Tigers will be full of confidence after defeating Canberra last week and should be expected to show up with good intensity in front of the Leichhardt faithful.
Prediction
The Tigers chances of causing the upset will largely hinge on whether or not they can stop Melbourne from posting first points.
The Storm are the best frontrunners in the NRL and if they are allowed to even snatch a 6-nil lead, the Tigers odds of securing victory will be remote at best.
Melbourne however can lose their way significantly if they concede first points, as evidenced in their defeats to the Panthers and Raiders earlier in the season.
Even in their victory over Newcastle a fortnight ago, the Storm barely hung on for victory after the Knights opened the scoring at AAMI Park.
If the Tigers can somehow score the first try, this contest has the potential to be a very tight encounter, particularly if Benji Marshall, Robbie Farah, Aaron Woods and Liam Fulton rise to the occasion for the home side.
The Tigers chances of causing the upset have also been helped by the absence of Storm captain Cameron Smith, who misses tonight’s contest with an eye injury.
Melbourne’s key stars Billy Slater and Cooper Cronk however are both coming off fine performances for Queensland and should be favoured to play with the quality required to guide the reigning premiers to victory tonight.
Storm by 6