Roar Guru
The Brisbane Broncos suffered a tight loss to New Zealand last week but their tough performance suggests that they are more than capable of causing the upset tonight against an out of sorts Melbourne Storm away from home. Join us for live scores and commentary from 7.30pm AEST.
A penalty goal attempt that was missed by Corey Parker right on full-time condemned Brisbane to a two point defeat against the Warriors last Sunday.
In a high quality contest, the Broncos arguably produced their most intense performance of the season against an in-form Warriors side now on a five match winning streak.
Queensland Origin stars Corey Parker and Sam Thaiday were superb as they led from the front against a New Zealand pack that has been dominating opposition in recent weeks.
Halves Peter Wallace and Scott Prince were also on song with their kicking games while backline stars Josh Hoffman and Corey Norman were also very solid.
If Brisbane are able to replicate the strong effort they showed against New Zealand, then they should fancy their chances of upsetting Melbourne tonight.
The Storm succumbed to their heaviest defeat of the season against the Tigers last week, losing 22-4 at Leichhardt Oval.
Without captain Cameron Smith, Melbourne were completely out muscled and outplayed by a Tigers side languishing near the bottom of the ladder.
Prediction
The Broncos chances of causing the upset will either increase or decrease depending on the performances of star forwards Thaiday, Parker, Matt Gillett, Josh McGuire and Alex Glenn.
If the preceding forwards play as strongly as they did last week, Brisbane will give themselves a big chance of beating a Storm side that can lose its composure when losing the arm-wrestle.
Halves Wallace and Prince will also have to be on song with their kicking games tonight in a bid to keep Storm fullback Billy Slater quite.
While Brisbane should push Melbourne tonight, the Storm are a vastly different proposition at AAMI Park and have also won their past five matches against the Broncos.
In saying that, the Storm will certainly have to roll up their sleeves in the forwards if Melbourne are to keep their strong home record intact, particularly if Smith remains sidelined with injury.
Storm by 6