- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
Melbourne Storm fought their way back from 14-4 down to overcome the Wests Tigers 26-16 and continue their two decade streak of opening round victories.
The win was marred by injuries to three key players, with George Jennings and Christian Welch going off with serious injuries and Brandon Smith departing with a suspected broken hand.
It will be Jennings who causes the most concern for the Melbourne medical team, as he went over on his knee under no pressure or contact from the Tigers defence midway through the first half. It was later confirmed that the winger had suffered an ACL tear that could end his season.
Christian Welch also went down untouched, with what was later confirmed to be a ruptured achilles. Coach Craig Bellamy later said that Welch would be out for “basically the season”.
Brandon Smith had already departed with a suspected broken hand, sustained just two minutes into the contest. He was replaced by Tyran Wishart and later reappeared on the sideline with his arm in a sling.
Melbourne showed bags of heart and skill to win out in the end, with tries from Jahrome Hughes and Xavier Coates proving the difference late in the second half.
Coates’ effort in particular will excite Storm fans, as he delivered a trademark acrobatic dive at the corner to put the Storm in front with 15 minutes to play. Reimis Smith later put the game beyond doubt with a scrappy late try.
“To be quite honest, I can’t remember an effort as brave as that” said Storm coach Craig Bellamy. “If you look at the stats in the first half, we should have been 20 behind.”
“It was a really brave effort from our team tonight and I’m really proud of them. We had five debutants for the Storm and two guys playing their first NRL game.
“Wishy (Tyran Wishart) went on when Brandon went off within two or three minutes and played out the game. I didn’t expect him to do that when he first went on.
“Josh (King) got 65 (minutes) and Alec (MacDonald) got 55. He’s never played a Queensland Cup game, let alone an NRL game.
“To have what happened to us in the first half – other things went against us to if you look at the penalty count. That’s something we’ll have to have a look at.
“It was a really brave effort. We’re really disappointed for George and Christian. He (Welch) has had a few tough times in our game and you don’t deserve that. We’ll back him all the way to get back.
“We should be jumping out of our skins but we feel so down for the two guys with serious injuries. It kills us. Our ruck has been decimated.”
The Tigers will leave wondering what might have been. They were superb in the first half and looked like causing another opening round shock.
Wingers Ken Maumolo and David Nofoaluma were the scorers, but the Tigers will rue their three missed conversions that could have piled more scoreboard pressure on Melbourne.
“We found the way we wanted to play in the first half and in the second half, we made it hard for ourselves,” said Tigers coach Michael Maguire.
“Dropped balls and completion rates compound pressure and unfortunately we had a couple of tries that we will have to have a look at.
“I really liked the first half. We’ve gone away and looked at the style we want to play and I thought to play at this level all the time you’ve got to do what we did in the first half.
“We played some football, some good passages of play, and then kicked to the corners. It’s just doing that for 80 minutes and if the boys get that right then we’ll be pretty strong.”
“There’s no excuse for the second half, I’ll wear that one. We have to make sure that we continue on with what we did in the first half because if you do that, you’re going to be a strong team.
“It’s a pretty simple formula what we’ve got. We address that now and we have to ensure that we carry it into the next game.”