New Zealand Warriors have suffered the worst defeat in their history, conceding 70 points for the first time as the Melbourne Storm tore them to shreds in the second half.
The 70-10 final score might have been more, with Melbourne cycling through four goalkickers en route to their mammoth win.
Xavier Coates scored four tries, but just as impressive was Ryan Papenhuyzen, who scored two and laid on three to claim the ANZAC Medal for player of the match.
The stats were barely credible. The Storm topped 2000 running metres and forced the Warriors into making double the number of tackles that they put in. The 70 points they scored is their highest ever at AAMI Park and this equalled their biggest ever win.
Their opponents put in as dismal a showing as any seen this season, with the Warriors completing just two sets after the break and conceding five tries in 15 minutes to chuck away what had to that point been a relatively close contest.
“Some people looked for the easiest way out, and that’s sad,” said coach Nathan Brown. “It’s not a reflection of all the players, because some worked extremely hard and put it on the line, but when you’re against a team that good and you don’t have the ball, the best players can look not good.
“It’s disappointing. Take the score away: it’s ANZAC Day, and we’re supposed to be proud. It’s not going to go down as a great day for us.
“If it’s us at our best, hanging in there and playing tough, the scoreboard wouldn’t have got anywhere near where it did.
“If we don’t have the ball in the second half and the Storm have that much, we’d never win the game but the way that we fell apart is the disappointing thing. We can’t hide from that, I can’t sit here and bullshit you. It’s tough.”
A horror night for several Warriors was compounded by injuries. Dallin Watene-Zelezniak went off after a sickening concussion, Josh Curran departed with a medial ligament issue and coach Nathan Brown might well have hooked Edward Kosi had he had anyone else to bring on.
Kosi endured three handling errors and several terrible defensive reads that lead to Coates’ banner night. His was the standout poor performance, but the whole Warriors team contributed extensively to their own downfall.
Storm coach Craig Bellamy didn’t want to put the boot into the battered Warriors.
“The Warriors had a lot go wrong with injuries in that second half,” he said. “That put a sombre mood on them. Just looking at the stats, they only had 7 sets and completed two. I don’t think I’ve seen that in a game of rugby league before.
“Having said that, I can’t really fault much of what we did. It was a dominant performance and we’re happy with the outcome and the performance of our players.”
The Warriors had actually looked dangerous early on, but copped a harsh lesson in playing the Melbourne Storm. You have to be perfect.
Kosi had the line begging but dropped the ball. Papenhuyzen picked it up, dumped on to Jahrome Hughes and he travelled the 95m to the line.
The Kiwis weren’t deterred. Chanel Harris-Tevita spotted the short side play was on and executed to perfection to allow Watene-Zelezniak to dive in at the corner.
Kosi’s horror night continued. He spilled a simple kick from Hughes and popped the ball up for the easiest of Coates tries. The hari-kari tendency was spreading, with Shaun Johnson throwing an interception straight to Nick Meaney, who jogged under the sticks.
Johnson would redeem himself, with a little bit of luck. His kick in behind the Storm defence took a wicked bounce and fell kindly for Wayde Egan to strike back.
The Warriors were again their own worst enemy. Aaron Pene allowed the Storm out with a high shot penalty – getting himself put on report in the process – and then with the siren about to blow, Reece Walsh conceded another. Papenhuyzen kicked it from the sideline to push the lead out to 16-10.
The second half started as the first had ended, with Papenhuyzen kicking another penalty goal, before the rugby league gods intervened again in the Storm’s favour.
It will say Papenhuyzen try in the record books, but that is only a fraction of the story. Hulking forward Nelson Asofa-Solomona sent up a bomb that any halfback would be proud of, dropping within a yard of the goalline for the fullback to catch AFL-style above his head and score.
There was time for more. Hughes stepped through tired defence for his second, before Jesse Bromwich got the eleventh of the night. The Warriors wanted to be anywhere else.
Nick Maguire
Roar Rookie
:laughing: I think there were two 6 agains all night, both in the second half when Storm were up by about 40 points and Warriors were out on their feet
Dionysus
Guest
Haven't you learned by now, its that 6 again rule that is responsible for all these blow outs like the Storm getting all those 6 agains to score 70 ....... Oh wait there were hardly any 6 agains, shush don't tell anyone, Johns and Gus won't have anything to jump up and down about.
Sylvester
Guest
I thought last year was the worst NRL season since I started watching in the late 80s, but this year might rival it.
Sylvester
Guest
Are we going to blame Brown though when there hasn't been coach in Warriors history to have any semblance of sustained success.
Nick Maguire
Roar Rookie
At half time it was one of those games where Storm didn't look in trouble at all but it was still close. Even when Storm started the second half well Warriors weren't terrible. I'm going to be kind and say they were dead set gassed after they lost interchanges due to injury. That will hurt you against any team but against a Storm team given a tune up by Bellamy you are in for a world of hurt but I see Brown's point of view. There was frustration too, Lodge was losing the plot and if they had interchanges probably would have been lifted for his own protection.
Nick Maguire
Roar Rookie
BD, which rule changes affected this game?
Dionysus
Guest
Yeah its a shame but we struggle because of that other game in Melbourne. Will take a long time to break that if ever. Still, there is much more of a presence here now than there used to be.
jimmmy
Roar Rookie
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Brendon
Roar Rookie
Very fair call, so I've dug a little deeper. I've picked 2010, 2021 and 2022 as my test seasons, looking at the first 7 rounds for information. I've selected 2010 for 3 reasons: - Its close enough to the current time that teams play similarly (Storm football style) - Its far enough that any significant changes will be apparent - It was the first one that came to mind. The data stacks up as follows: 2010- Total winning margin Rds 1-7 84, 73, 196, 104, 113, 151, 112 2021- Total winning margin rds 1-7 143, 105, 119, 209, 136, 111, 156 2022- total winning margin rds 1-7 76, 71, 87, 169, 107, 96, 188 What this shows is that while 2021 did have greater margins (979 total), 2022 is actually lower than 2010 (794 and 833 respectively). Looking at the data for each individual game (it doesn't paste nicely sorry) in all 3 seasons, there are a few outliers in each round (the occasional blow-out, vs close game) but overall its pretty similar. In terms of blowouts (I took a score about 19 or 3 converted tried as a blowout) is was 18, 22 and 18 over the first 7 rounds for each year (2010, 2021 and 2022 respectively) or 32% vs 39%. Purely observational, but I will call out that in 2010 vs 2021,2022 the scores were lower overall. I didn't take overall score lines, kind of which I had to demonstrate what I saw. TL/DR: For the first 7 rounds of 2021, we did see a greater average margin and a higher number of blow outs when compared to 2010. 2022 was the lowest margin, however number of blowouts was equal, suggesting when they are a blow out, its a bigger score line. (60 points is the biggest...go the Storm!)
Concerned fan
Guest
I do find it curious that when you look at the coaching record of Nathan Brown he never receives criticism for his lack of success in Australia. As Brown has demonstrated, If your going to be a coach, then the best way to avoid criticism is be an ex player who is in good terms with the current media set. As a consequence, they will always argue you have a difficult job and it was the bloke before you who caused all the damage and you are just trying to sort things out.
Albo
Roar Rookie
Yep ! What we do know is that Papalii and CNK would not have rolled over so meekly as the Warriors did last night. There is little resilience and leadership in that Warriors side when things get tough. They desperately need Tohu Harris back !
jimmmy
Roar Rookie
Citing individual games from the past that have been blow-outs and concluding nothing has changed is non-sequiter. Now it's too early to judge 2022 but last year 45 % of games were won by 19 or more more points vs a 10 year average around 26 %. Close games ( between 1-6 points) were 22 percent vs a 10 year average around 34%. This year is not as bad but I have had the feeling it's changing up over the last two weeks. Time will tell. IMO the 2 reasons for uneven contests are the rule changes ( which we have partially addressed this year) and a HUGE discrepancy in talent between the top and bottom sides especially in the spine. We haven't begun to address this. I will get back to you after 15 rounds . I hope we are reverting to the mean by then and not mirroring the 21 season, which was the most boring nrl season I can remember. Saved a little only by Souths making the GF.
Albo
Roar Rookie
I don't like to be too critical of young players, but seriously, whoever thought that Edward Kosi was ready for NRL is kidding themselves. Not just on last night's dreadful error filled performance, but in other performances we have seen from him from last season ? I know they are probably short of wingers at present with injury & suspension of Montoya, but you can't play a weak link like that against a team like the Storm. They sniff out blood better than any other team, and of course Coates had a field day .
Brendon
Roar Rookie
The Tigers beat the Eels last week (13th vs 3rd) the Bunnies this week (13th vs 8th) and the Dragons beat the Roosters (10th v 6th). Blowouts have always happened in league, particularly when its a big gun vs a lower team (in 2010 the Storm beat the Warrios 40-6, the Cowboys 58-12 and the knights 34-4, all while playing for zero points), its just the way the game goes (ask the Bunnies in 2006 again the warriors , 66-0).
Tom
Guest
At least the kiwi storm players honoured our service people. Hughes made johnson look his age. Easy to see why they turn their backs on the warriors bigger offers. Lot more passion for league in Auckland than Melbourne. A win next week will help but nothing's worked for a lot of years now.
Big Daddy
Roar Rookie
It will be very interesting to hear the spin from the NRL from both V'landys and Annesely. The game is getting to a point where fans are being turned off . All these rule changes are finally kicking in and there's only a handful of matches worth watching .
jimmmy
Roar Rookie
The disparity between the top few and the rest is really , really good for the game . Yeah right. The floggings are coming back , you could feel it coming.
no one in particular
Roar Guru
was that the game with the 20m tap and Lance Thompson fell over as Brown passed it to him?
andrew
Roar Rookie
The year after Melbourne's GF victory over Saints ,after Mundine shot his mouth off,the Storm put 70 points on Saints. Never thought I'd see 70 scored by one team in a game again.
As a Kiwi, and having played the game since I was 7 years old here in Auckland, here is the problem with the Warriors: Management, especially talent acquisition and retention. Here is one name that says everything wrong with the clowns that have stuffed up the Warriors player pool over the last decade and beyond: Isaiah Papali’i — you would have to have rocks in your head to see that bloke had an X factor about him — but, what do the Warriors do? They cut him. Another name that quickly comes to mind: Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad. They let him go too. I could go on and on. I could go through the current NRL roster and go back years and years and find the same issue — the Warriors are absolutely terrible at recognising talent in the making. Yes, there are other issues – but as even Wayne Bennett has found out at various times in his coaching career, if you don’t have the cattle…. And to actually have the cattle, but then let that cattle go…absolutely unforgivable.