Melbourne Storm coach Craig Bellamy overseeas a training session in Melbourne, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2009. Melbourne Storm will play the Parramatta Eels in this weekends NRL Grand Final. AAP Image/Julian Smith
The Melbourne Storm will enter the NRL season as world champions after out muscling the Leeds Rhinos 18-10 at Elland Rd on Sunday, but like nearly every other winning NRL club this weekend, they will be seeing it more as good result in their build up to the 2010 season.
Don’t get me wrong, NRL clubs take the match seriously and want to do well, but its position in the calendar and the importance of an NRL title mean that clubs also have an eye on the challenges ahead.
In fact, as a friend and I sat back and enjoyed the match over breakfast, we remarked how nice it was to not have the result have a bearing on the future of the concept.
The format looks here to stay, and while I’d personally like it tweaked, it was good to see it has matured to the point where a victory one way or another doesn’t bring world ending headlines.
The Storm have risen to their position in the game on the back of their ruthlessness, and Leeds will be ruing their lack of that in the wash up, with young winger Callum Watkins failing to convert two golden opportunities to score.
But the Storm looked sharp and Cameron Smith looked more comfortable at five-eighth than previous attempts. It will be interesting to see if he plays more of that this season.
The other notable match of the weekend was the Charity Shield.
The match always seems to be a bigger deal for Souths than it does the Dragons, in a big brother little brother sort of way.
Normally, it represents the Bunnies’ only real chance of winning anything for the season, but on Saturday night it was a chance to see how much the new look Bunnies (in their 1989 jerseys) had closed the gap on the minor premiers.
The answer? They have definitely improved, but by how much will be determined when the real business starts.
St George’s strength last year was their consistency, which is Souths’ traditional weakness. So the big ask is whether they can keep backing it up and how they deal with the hype as the Sydney press normally goes mad if Souths string two wins together.
They have bought well in Sam Burgess and Dave Taylor, but in truth, it will come down to Chris Sandow and John Sutton. Sutton looked good attacking down the left on Saturday, so can Sandow be his foil?
That is the million dollar question.
Souths got Sandow for a song after recruitment manager Mark Hughes was alerted to the fact he’d been cut loose by the Titans over his commitment in training.
If the Bunnies make a dent this year, you can forget talk of Crowe wooing Burgess during the making of Robin Hood. It will all go down to the bloke dubbed the “Aboriginal Alfie.”
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