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Whether Melbourne are the best team in the competition remains open to debate. But there is no doubt the Storm are the smartest team.
Or the most cunning, depending on which way you want to look at it.
Likely both. And have been for years.
Personally, I’d still pick Cronulla to win the 2016 premiership ahead of them at this stage. But the Storm are proven over many seasons, and the weekend showed yet again how good they are. One area the Storm are far and away the best in the business should be highlighted.
Andrew Johns, on The Sunday Footy Show on Channel Nine, said of Melbourne in the wake of their 16-8 win over North Queensland on Saturday night: “I think their line defence, they defend inside the ten metre mark better than any club.”
They are terrific at holding teams out – they have clearly the best defensive record in the competition – but how much of it is sheer ability and desperation in defence as opposed to how often they get away with slowing down the play-the-ball beyond what should be the limit?
Melbourne have worked out how far they can push the envelope in that area without being punished with a penalty very often, which is clever of them.
They must practice it relentlessly at training, because the timing is so good. You can sense the seconds beginning to run off in the players’ heads as soon as they get an opponent to the ground.
But do other teams get the same latitude from referees? In a lot of cases, no, but that is often the fault of the teams at least as much as the referees.
The thing about the Storm is that they’re so consistent about what they do. Nothing looks much different from tackle to tackle.
But with many other teams there is an obvious gap between the shortest amount of time they will hold a player down to the longest. So the longest time stands out.
Other teams might get pinged with a penalty for delaying the play-the-ball for too long when they have done nothing much different to what the Storm do consistently, but there’s the difference – the Storm do it consistently.
They know what they can mostly get away with and they’re running with it. You can’t blame them for that. It’s up to other teams to match them in that area, because it’s not very likely the referees are going to change the way they look at it.
Johns also said the best way to combat Melbourne’s defence was to not wait until you can work your way down inside their 20-metre area before you try your best tricks.
“You have to roll the dice and have a gamble between the two 40s,” he said.
“So around that halfway line, that’s where you need to attack. Between the two 40s and roll the dice there, because their on-line defence is so organised and the fullback pushes into the line and you can’t play around it, especially in a night game, you can’t play those set plays and play around them, you’ve got to play through them.
“Offloads, short passing, play through them.”
Too many teams play into the Storm’s hands by paying them too much respect. They don’t want to make a mistake that is going to gift Melbourne great field position, so they’re prepared to wait until they can somehow force their way downfield before opening up.
They mostly get there either by starting from good field position themselves and putting together a couple of strong charges, or through a penalty, a Storm mistake, or a repeat set.
But, of course, the problem is that the Storm then know better than any other team how to repel that close-range challenge.
It makes sense to be prepared to sometimes try your luck from a lot further out, even at the risk of making a mistake.
When you’re playing the ball less than ten metres out from the line, with the defence set and able to get to you quickly, the Storm have usually got you covered.
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