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.”
Andrew Sutherland
Roar Guru
Slater and Cronk refer to their former teammates as Kenny and Jesse "BromWitch"
Duncan Smith
Roar Guru
I thought he was in danger of being tackled. I highly doubt he would be show boating with the scores 16-16 and ten minutes to go.
Cam
Roar Rookie
They will miss Welch and he will be hard to cover, but the possible return of Tui next month might offset the loss. I know Saints aren’t big on Sims, but Bellamy has a knack of squeezing the best from these out of favour forwards and to be fair, he was outstanding for NSW last year. Storm also have some really good options for Jennings, Meany could slot in there, so could Will Warbrick or Dean Ieremia. They could also potentially shift Reimis Smith to the wing and bring in Jack Howarth at centre. I’m think Meany will probably get the gig, but personally I’d rather a bigger body in either Warbrick or Ieremia. I just don’t know how effective Meany would be carting the ball off the line from kick returns.
Stormy
Roar Rookie
Same.
Dionysus
Guest
I understand that Stormy. Sorry if my response was miss interpreted. All good here.
Stormy
Roar Rookie
It's a figure of speech meaning putting forward positive thinking. Not a reflection on you.
Nat
Roar Guru
I think he learned his lesson against Easts last year (?) When he was flipping every try and caught his head against Tede.
Nat
Roar Guru
Yep, unfortunately but at least his defence is about the same.
The Barry
Roar Guru
Haha… yeah. I remember scoring my first try as an eight year old, being super pumped and copping a bake from my coach for putting the ball down one handed instead of diving over…
Mick Gold Coast QLD
Roar Guru
I saw precisely what you saw, I stopped and looked again when I spotted the same "looking over his shoulder" action seen by Nat. The young bloke planned it in advance because he anticipated a last second tackle which might put him out over the sideline - you could just about see his thinking process in the head on vision! Good on him for using his brain, there was no lairising in it. It's not the first time it has been sighted in the modern game - some of these young blokes are most creative - but it must be executed with precision. In days long gone the coach would give you plenty if you failed to hug the ball to your chest and fall on it to guarantee the placement! The only blokes you would see using just one hand were Fijian!
Dionysus
Guest
Don't get me wrong, they were awful last night but we were awful that first month last year as well. It is a disturbing trend but if we can right the ship then all is not lost. At to my "glass half full" attitude, I beg to differ. I never settle for half of anything.
no one in particular
Roar Guru
intense therapy in the off-season
The Barry
Roar Guru
That’s how I read it too… 20 years ago - even 10 - that would have been an absolute mug lair’s move, but wingers train to put the ball down like that now, not just slide in It did look a bit funny because the defenders weren’t as close as Coates clearly thought they were He’s gonna score a ton of tries this season…
souvalis
Roar Rookie
The Knights must be thanking their stars for missing out on Brooks.
souvalis
Roar Rookie
The bookies ought to be easing Qld out the door to win the shield with this bloke sitting down.
Stormy
Roar Rookie
I hope your "glass half full" attitude is warranted, but, that wasn't a great game, from us, last night. Our depth will be, seriously tested - don't see Tariq Sims as the answer. Imagine what the score would have been had we played the Panthers last night.
Nat
Roar Guru
Were the Tigers good in the first 40min or Melbourne just off? As Bellamy said, they should have been down by 20 heading into half time. I thought Gildart and Hastings were sharp. Tuilagi had a good first half but I have to rinse and repeat with Brooks. It's fine to 'take the line on' but running 5m into a tackle is not creating anything. Hughes 'takes the line on' in the manner a good half should - when it's right to do so, not for stats sake.
Red Rob
Roar Rookie
:laughing: Commentary-induced brain injury, perhaps?
Nat
Roar Guru
You could see by the way he was looking over his shoulder he thought Jimmy was closer than he thought or that it might even be that day where Jimmy makes a cover tackle.
Dionysus
Guest
" Looks like a challenging year for us." Perhaps, but remember that things were looking pretty bleak in the first month last year. At least we get a couple of players back next week. The debut boys stood up well in very difficult circumstances.