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Sunday afternoon football kicks off with a blockbuster as the New Zealand Warriors host reigning premiers Melbourne Storm in what should be a cracking contest. Join us for live scores and commentary from 12.00pm AEST.
The Warriors have won six of their past seven matches and should be favoured to play close to their best in front of a big home crowd.
Matches between the Warriors and Storm have always been entertaining affairs and today’s contest should be no different.
The Storm are fresh off a bye and that break will serve them well given the taxing Origin period that has seen the club lose two matches without their Origin stars.
New Zealand meanwhile are coming off a solid victory over the Tigers and need to keep their winning momentum going if they are to keep their finals destiny in their own hands.
Prediction
The last time these two teams met, Melbourne prevailed in a tough Anzac Day encounter and will need to showcase every bit of their premiership winning credentials to get away with a win today.
The Warriors have played terrific football at home over the past several weeks and will take a power of stopping upfront.
Forwards Sam Rapira, Ben Matulino, Jacob Lillyman and Simon Mannering have all been in solid form and will severely test Melbourne’s defence up the middle.
The Storm will also have to keep tabs on halfback Shaun Johnson, who produced a match winning performance against the Tigers last week.
After a tough start to the season, Johnson is starting to play with the form responsible for guiding the Warriors to the 2011 grand final.
Johnson also always seems to fire against Melbourne and will be the danger man again if New Zealand get on top up the middle.
With the finals fast approaching however, this is usually the time of year where Melbourne begin to hit their stride.
Billy Slater, Cooper Cronk and Cameron Smith are all coming off another successful Origin campaign for Queensland and will certainly be playing with confidence.
In a tight and high quality contest, the Storm may just dig deep here and get away with a vital victory.
Storm by four.