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The Melbourne Storm secured a commanding victory at Suncorp Stadium against the Brisbane Broncos on Friday night.
Holding just an eight point lead at half time, the Storm were able to lift in front of a hostile Suncorp crowd to secure the 22-point win.
FINAL SCORE:
Storm 30
Broncos 8
The Brisbane Broncos and Melbourne Storm will clash on Friday night with both sides looking to cement a place in the top eight. Join The Roar for live scores and commentary from 7.30pm (AEST).
Brisbane enter the clash in sixth position with Melbourne in eighth.
The Origin period has been cruel to Melbourne, with Cooper Cronk out for an extended period. His return following Origin 3 boosted the Storm and they were last-start winners over the Canberra Raiders, 28-14.
Brisbane are also coming off a last-start win, defeating the New Zealand Warriors 28-22. Of course the big story during the week was the return of supercoach Wayne Bennett, who announced he would return to the club in 2015.
In team news, the Storm see Ryan Hinchcliffe move to lock, with Jordan McLean dropping back to the bench. Dayne Weston and Young Tonumaipea have been added to an extended bench.
The dumped trio of Jack Reed, Daniel Vidot and Corey Oates have all been added to an extended Brisbane bench, with Matt Gillett returning to the starting back row.
Melbourne have had the wood on Brisbane in recent years, with the Broncos last triumphing in 2009.
Obviously Melbourne have the Big Three. Cronk, Cameron Smith and Billy Slater will once again take the pitch and run the side. Cronk’s combination with Slater is one of the best in the history of rugby league and Brisbane’s defence will be asked plenty of questions by the skilful halfback.
Brisbane will be hoping that their off-season recruit, Ben Barba begins repaying some of his price-tag this week. The diminutive speedster has been out of form recently, with fans baying for blood. The shining light though for Brisbane, has been Ben Hunt. The halfback has been in superb form, which saw him named in the Queensland squad.
It’s hard to go past Melbourne. Their Big Three have so much experience and their forwards merely need to hold their own against Brisbane for Cronk to do his thing. Brisbane do have the playing style to upset Melbourne’s structures but I don’t believe they have enough firepower to get across the line.
Melbourne by 8.
Join The Roar at 7.40pm (AEST) for score updates and debate in our live blog.
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