Melbourne storm to victory in NRL season opener

Buzz Rothfield another so called sports writer expert wrote the Storm won’t make finals this year , just like every year for the last 6 years Peter Sterling claims we are too old and won’t make finals , sorry guys you may deep down subconsciously hate my club but we will keep making finals untill Bellamy decides to retire and continue to shake our heads at these so called jokes of expert opinions .

Still around the same as last year

that figure is only syd and bris. its 524k metro, 849k with regionals. 334k on fox which is massive

Without making excuses for last night, I have never seen a team get away with the 'creep' off their defensive line so very often. Smithy gives it the Jedi Knight hand gesture and the refs don't seem to care.

"What is in the water in Melbourne?" Nothing special, they ship theirs in from Qld and NZ!

It did come behind Googlebox, The Chase and Home and Away on FTA nationally. 458k compared to 452k same time last year, so slightly up.

Spot on Albo. The smart Bronco supporters would realise their team is full of potential but very raw between the ears. Boyd is well past his prime, McCullough is aging, Milford is a ball runner trying to be a game manager, Gillett and Bird haven’t played much football for a long time. It’s the first game and a long season. I hope Cory Oats stays fit and healthy for SOO.

Big ratings last night apparently... looks like scandals isn't keeping audiences away, yet anyway

Cry me a river. The Donkeys were out played by a better football team. The speed of pass, bodies in motion and kicking game were far superior. The only thing the Donkeys were effective in was hitting kickers late and conceding handling errors. The score flattered the Broncos. Cory Oats was outstanding and that’s about it.

Pre games tips should have been an indication. Lockyer never tips against bronco's and last night went for Storm.

First game of the season, and at the Storm's home ground. And have never lost an opening game under Bellyache, the odds were alsways stacked against Brisbane. Other than missing the retirement of Slater, it was business as usual for Melbourne. The Broncs on the other hand have a new coach, lost rep player McGuire, and had two gun players coming back from long term injury (Gillett & Bird). The good thing was that the refs let the game flow. Great to see compared this time last year. All the stats wold suggest that the Broncs put a fair effort in. I believe there were 5x players who ran for 100m plus, and plenty of tackles and tackle busts. Two things that probably made the difference. One was losing Roberts so early in the game, limiting Brisbane to 16x players for the majority of the match. Hard work so early in the season. The 2nd and most obvious thing was the kicking game by both teams. Melbourne killed it here, continuously pinning Boyd down in the corners. Brisbane were woeful in this department. They just haven't got a decent tactical kicker in their side. At least Milford pulled off a few decent tackles :) The Storm nearly blew it also. They should have put the Broncs to bed in that first half, but instead let them back into the game. I'm not sure Bellamy will be that happy, even though they had a win. Not a bad game to start the season and I especially liked the Bromwich dummy on Boyd :) Cheers.

There was a simple difference between the two sides last night. The Storm were mentally ready to play round 10 footy in round 1, especially with this combinations, whereas the Broncos were playing round 1 footy and would need 2 or 3 more rounds to really get into the season. I don't think there was a lot between the teams in terms of physical preparation, but Bellamy has his guys set to go now, whereas Seibold will take a tad longer with the Broncos.

They always want to write off the Storm but they keep bouncing back like the Broncos who got the lions share of decisions when behind 16-0 (of course). The Storms kids will fill the holes left by the big 3

Tough game for the Broncos halves .... they didn't have the ball for most of the first half . Storm are so well coached . They ran their drills very smoothly and dominated good field possession as a result .Their forwards were only forced to bring the ball back off their own line a couple of times in the entire game . When the Broncos did get in attacking positions they kicked it away with no result . I think Boyd will do well to keep the fullback spot for the season ..... Issako looked really dangerous . He needs more ball .Maybe the injury to Roberts gives Siebold a chance to move Boyd to centre without causing any issues ( for the good of the team etc) . Once Issako has played a few games there he will be hard to force out . The final score flattered the Broncos a little . It could easily have been 20 nil at halftime . I think a final score of 36 - 6 would have been a truer indication of the difference on the night .

"Milford’s best position is still fullback" I agree with Don. I have been arguing for Milford to shift to FB for at least the last 2 years. "Milford has been a half his whole life" You may well be right about that Nat and that may have been true many years ago but he shows very little evidence of being a natural half or 5/8 as far as I can see and he has had long enough to show what he can do in that position. His best season for the Broncos was way back in 2015 and even then he was running the ball and not an organisational half or playmaker. IMO Boyd would do well at 5/8 and Milford would look like Ben Barba circa 2012 if Seibold made the change. But have it your way Nat and let's see how things end up by the end of the season sticking to the status quo.

I commented earlier about the Referees throwing out the rule book last night& I am not disputing the result in any way. Melbourne were allowed to wrestle & hold down the attacking player tackled all night. Melbourne players moved off the mark when they were playing the ball by a metre all the game. Just the way Bellamy & Smith would like the game to be called. To those who have been super critical of the Broncos halves, I would like to remind them that Rugby League is a very simple game & it always has been since it became 13 a side. The "forward pack" sometimes called "Pigs" had one thing to do & that was get on top of their opposition pack so their backline could score tries. Very simple, last night Melbourne forwards out played the Broncos & the Broncos only had one decent ball movement & Oates scored. Last years Grand Final the Roosters played over the top of the Melbourne forwards & shut down Munster & their back line. I rest my case.

Scott P mentioned in his match preview the clash of the hookers. Well Smith won it easily and if I were a QLD Origin fan, when you consider that when QLD were on their triumphant run over the last decade or so, many of the wins were by small margins. Just the drop from Smith to Mcullough, forgetting Slater, Cronk, Thurston etc... is enough to change those results. So in that regard it is hard to see QLD getting close - not that I want to start talking Origin already!! Point being Smith is just a brilliant footballer. He could get to 450 games if he wanted. When he goes, that is when the Storm will come back to the pack. Because the drop between him and other hookers compared to say Slater and the other fullbacks is far greater.

I think (hope) they review that game and realise the ruck area was sloppy in general. Messy play the balls, players lying the ruck, markers not square etc. And there appeared a few times when players were getting off the line a bit quick - particularly on the last tackle. So sure, a bit rusty from the refs but all in all they let the players play, the team that was clearly the better team who controlled the game better won, so I was happy enough.

I am not saying you carry a player for an injury. But I think Craig Bellamy is prepared and skilled to adapt to an injury on the run without totally ruining his rotations or having a player sit out or play just 10 minutes. While I obviously don't know how the individual players were feeling throughout the game, there appeared to be some easy alternatives he could have made to better manage his bench. I think if Roberts had not got injured, he may not have played Flegler or Staggs at all. I get Seibold has still only coached about 30 games, so he may get better. I think he was given a little too much credit for last year given the way Souths faded - just my opinion. His inability to adapt his attack and his inability manage his bench being his biggest and most obvious downfalls.. He now has arguably the best coaching job in rugby league, just the fourth person in 32 years to have it, and he has it for the next five years. He is going to learn a bit about pressure, something he didn't seem to handle well last year, so he better learn quickly.

There was one pass, Broncos? Nikorima?? That was close to quarterbacking..