The Melbourne Storm defeated St George Illawarra 8-6 at AAMI Park on Friday night. It was Billy Slater’s 200th game and he was handed the Man of the Match by Channel Nine, but in reality it should have been the number nine, Cameron Smith.
Slater should have put the Storm ahead when he threw a short ball in the 59th minute instead of putting his three outside men against only Kyle Stanley.
Other than that, he was flawless, but Smith was just a touch better according to me.
The start of the first half was a good, old-fashioned arm-wrestle, with the Dragons doing the better of the two, getting good field position and a few shots at the try line.
The Storm had their chances, but it was Kyle Stanley who scored in the 18th minute, scoring a typical winger’s try, down the left hand side from a backline move.
Stanley was in for Bronx Goodwin, whose season could be over with a snapped ACL in the 12th minute.
The wrestle continued, but the Storm answered with a winger’s try of their own, to Anthony Quinn down the blind side in the 26th minute to make it 6-6.
The game took a dramatic shift in the 30th minute. The Dragons gained a penalty, but looked spent. By the last tackle from a bad set of six, nobody wanted the ball on the last, and Jamie Soward was tackled with the ball.
For the next 50 minutes, it was all Storm, as wave after wave of Melbourne attacking sets were held out by the Red V.
Two penalties in quick succession conceded by Jamie Soward for standing over the tackled player led to a Storm penalty-kick as the siren went for half time at 8-6.
That is where the score stayed, but the Storm really should have put on more.
Multiple sets on the St George line proved fruitless as they defended well there, but nowhere else.
Time and time again, the Storm made easy metres up the middle, off the back of sloppy inside man defence, and failure of the outside men to watch for a man coming through at the back of an offload.
With Cooper Cronk out injured, Melbourne were forced to switch between Smith, Widdop and Slater at first receiver, with the Englishman looking good outside of a Smith dummy-half role.
Dragons fans can come away with the game with at least one good point – the legendary goal line defence is still there, and that is what the club has built itself on.
Huge question marks remain over there defence up the middle.
Though the Daily Telegraph will probably have a field day blaming Jamie Soward, he was hot and cold, and showed some pretty nifty footwork at times, and was hardly the worst of the bunch.
Dean Young can hold his head high; he was vicious in defence and was more than willing to take the ball himself. Unlike the other Dragons, Young looked like he wanted to do some damage.
What the Storm can take away? The knowledge that on another night, they probably would have scored 20-30.
Cronk was out, but as usual, the Storms’ great system remained in place, even after the late exclusion of Maurice Blair.
All the usual suspects were outstanding, but a quick shout out to Rory Kostjasyn, who threw a couple of quality balls which showed great vision.
Crosscoder
Roar Guru
The Tv ratings are what they are,regardless of how they are interpreted by NRL or AFL fans. I trust you are not suggesting the figures for 2 cap cities are not good?
ac
Guest
CHANNEL NINE show a lot of roosters games
stabpass
Guest
What !, so correcting a misleading post is a "a nice play on figures" . Comical.
Crosscoder
Roar Guru
Nice play on figures Stabpass. It is the overall Tv rtaings for Brisbane and Sydney that matter,ie the figures in toto. The fact is two games are on friday night,one is not live in each state ,and does not start til 9-30m.The figures are based on 2 cap cities and not 5 cap cities for starters,which we get sick of reminding people about. If you believe the media does not take notice of these figures,you are having a lend of yourself. Two games on a friday night,with the latter shown at 9-30pm,hardly assists the NRL TV ratings nor is it a decent hour for youngsters to view. And just to remind you champ,I was watching Media week last week ,and the head honcho(not Gyngell) of ch9 noted,"we are not fussed that we missed out on the ÄFL' and Newcastle is very important to us ". You know Newcastle part of the regionals,that don't count sheesh!.Which we get sick of reminding the brick walls about.
stabpass
Guest
9 Nine’s Live Friday Night Football Nine 838,000 554,000 *** 285,000 *** *** 18 Nine’s Friday Night Football Nine 455,000 300,000 *** 155,000 *** *** Actually you are wrong, the live 7.30 game in QLD was Cowboys V Souths, which rated 285,000, the Melbourne St George game rated 155,000 in QLD. So therefore the Melbourne/St George NRL game rated 709,000 and was outrated by the AFL. I might also point out, that the AFL game is not live, and not targeted to either Adelaide or Perth which receives the game on a 3 hour delay. Do you ever get sick of people setting you straight ?.
Charles
Guest
It is a well known fact the Dragons have lost confidence and it showed in the first half against the Storm. However in the 2nd half they started to find their feet. They can take a lot out of this game and be back in the winning circle in their next game. Soward showed glimpses of his form and will gain more confidence once he gets over his injury. Morris was missed in their left hand attack and also Gasnier on the right side with his speed. They need to have Boyd, Cooper and Gasnier hitting both sides of the field, too much concentration on the left side. Dragons really have an awesome backline, but to me it is not being used in the way it should be.
db swannie
Guest
Agreed Nathan...watching on TV it was a sea of purple & dont they make some noise.
Nathan of Perth
Guest
Great match to watch, stayed up late for it. Even though it was low scoring it was very tense affair, kept me watching (help that I managed to avoid the score. Was definitely a game worth watching. That stretch late in the second when Melbourne forced three dropouts in a row but still couldn't convert was riveting. And you had to love the Melbourne crowd, they put up a tremendous noise the whole way through.
stormybill
Guest
This game was on in Melbourne at 11:30pm.Those figures would have been more impressive with a live feed to Melbourne !
Andrew Sutherland
Roar Guru
PaddyBoy, you're right about Kostjaysn; his passing was impressive. Poor Quinn paid dearly for a couple of dropped balls last week - receiving a first half bombardment..
PaddyBoy
Guest
Come on mate, they were looking the goods at the start of the season. Before this little charge, only Manly were close to them in goal line defence. You're right though, they're no Storm, but who has been really.
PaddyBoy
Guest
I tried to think of another word to be honest, but that's what I'd call it. The Dragons never really looked like the team to beat after about 25-30 minute mark. The stats made it look fairly even, but the Storm could have easily blown the score out.
Ginger Bread Man
Guest
Really?! That's awesome numbers! I read a few articles about the much anticipated NRL TV deals and why it will overshadow the AFL. Those numbers prove it, but the main reason was ground root footy, there are most kids taking up Rugby Australia wide than any other sport, well apart from Netball, but you get my drift>
db swannie
Guest
Great ratings for this game..smashed the opposition. Friday 9 Nine’s Live Friday Night Football Nine 838,000 554,000 *** 285,000 *** *** 11 Seven’s AFL: Rnd 22: Carlton Vs Hawthorn Seven 726,000 16,000 465,000 5,000 135,000 105,000
Ginger Bread Man
Guest
Quote: Dragons fans can come away with the game with at least one good point – the legendary goal line defence is still there, and that is what the club has built itself on. Legendary goal line defense? hahahaha! Yes, they won the Premiership last year, but, apart from that what have they done in recent years? Quote: "Other than that, he was flawless, but Smith was just a touch better according to me. According to me?!! I'm no Storm fan, but, I am sick of people talking up the Dragons, and worst talking up the "last years" Dragons as if they had been Melbourne or Broncos or even Manly of recent years. They won last year, yes, we know that. But, they're not that good!!!
oikee
Guest
The Storm played like headless chooks. They bombed 5 try opportunies by lack of vision. Good grinding game, i really got into the second half slog. The players were pretty spent. Knackered.
peeeko
Roar Guru
a decent enough article but i think the heading Melbourne "dominate" is a bit far fetched- the score was 8-6 and either side could have won