Yesterday afternoon both the Melbourne Storm and the Wests Tigers put in their best forty minutes of football all year.
Over the first half, the Storm didn’t concede a single point, confirming why they are the NRL’s best team when it comes to defence.
While Cooper Cronk and Cameron Smith might have been coming off a week of Origin, you would never have guessed it from the way they managed to rally and organise the team, especially in the absence of Cameron Munster and Blake Green.
It was during the second act, though, that the game really started to get entertaining.
From the moment they came back after half time, the Tigers seemed to have a renewed sense of purpose.
In the first couple of minutes alone, James Tedesco managed to score a try and save a try.
In both cases, he displayed his trademark ingenuity and imagination.
Realising that it was virtually impossible to break through or run around the Melbourne line, he scooped up the Steeden and ran from defender to defender, acting as if he were going to break through each time only to move on to the next Storm player, hesitating just long enough for defender to think he was a serious threat.
In effect, he forced the line to reconfigure itself bit by bit around his run until he managed to glimpse the gap he needed to get through.
Moments later his one-on-one steal prevented Marika Koroibete from planting his second four-pointer of the night.
It’s rare for anyone to stop Melbourne’s favourite flyer when he gets a bit of speed on, even when he’s boxed into a corner as he was here.
Still, Teddy managed to do it. If Laurie Daley doesn’t find a spot for him in Origin 3, then I may just stop watching Origin.
With a strike rate of eleven tries from twelve games, he’s now the premier fullback in the competition, especially with Billy Slater out for the forseeable future.
Like any great leader, too, he knows how to motivate his teammates. From his incredible performance in the opening minutes of the second half, the Tigers seemed to roar back into life.
It was only a matter of time before Luke Brooks brought in a second try.
After a series of repeat sets right at the Melbourne try line, Brooks then set Tim Simona up with a beautiful flick pass to bring the Tigers to three tries in the space of 17 minutes.
With another four-pointer from David Nofualuma at the 65-minute mark, it felt as if the boys in black and gold had managed to tap into the momentum that has been eluding them throughout the season.
More importantly, they broke the Storm’s momentum – and momentum, as Sterlo pointed out, is one of Melbourne’s biggest assets.
If the Tigers had set out to score a try at the most critical moments in the second half, they couldn’t have timed it better. Whenever it seemed as if the Storm were about to regain control, the Tiges managed to plant the Steeden over the line again.
All of a sudden, it didn’t feel as if we were watching the worst defensive team in the competition take on the best defensive team.
With 67 per cent of possession in the second half, the Tigers suddenly went from zero to hero, at least compared to the error-ridden first forty minutes of football, one of their worst efforts all season.
Inconsistency is nothing new for the Tigers, but I’m used to seeing them decline in the second act rather than return as emphatically as they did yesterday afternoon.
Instead, they just amped it up – and yet something was missing.
For all that he put in some great plays on the field – including straightening up the play and making room for Nofualuma’s try – Mitchell Moses’ game was woefully inadequate to the Tigers’ push.
With all the momentum they had built, they really needed a solid set of conversions to bring them closer to the Storm.
As it was, Moses only managed to convert two of the tries. Once Cronk made good on his second field goal attempt at the 75th minute and Smith followed it up with a penalty goal at the 79th minute, it was clear which way the game was going to go.
While the Storm may not have scored a single try after the 27th minute, it was their confidence with the boot that finally distinguished them from the Tigers.
Once Moses gets in line, though, it’s exciting to think of what the team could do if they manage to find that momentum again.
The question facing Jason Taylor and the boys over the next week, then, is going to be how.
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