Penrith have cruised by a depleted Melbourne side, deposing the Storm from the top of the table with a dominant 32-6 win in the Magic Round main event.
Craig Bellamy could do nothing afterwards but admit his team was asphyxiated by the Panthers, who slowly took the life out of the Storm with a methodical second-half performance played almost entirely at one end of Suncorp Stadium.
“The second half, we were under pressure the entire time, they just strangled us,” said Bellamy.
“If there was a positive for us, it was our second half. With the amount of field position and ball they had within our 20m zone, the score was just 12-0. We’ve got to take a positive and that was it.”
In truth, the chances of a contest worthy of the billing might have disappeared into the ether once Jahrome Hughes was scratched with a calf injury at lunchtime, and then confirmed by a near-constant drizzle that flowed throughout the day in Brisbane.
Bellamy refused to use his missing superstars as an excuse.
“I expected better,” he said.
“We had a couple of guys out, but at the end of the day, other teams have that and it’s going to happen to us again this year as well.
“The guys that come in we expect to do a job and play to their strengths.
“It’s probably a game we needed after three or four weeks where we’ve won well.
“With all due respect, that was a good comedown for us tonight. We got what we deserved and perhaps we haven’t been going as well as other people thought.
“We’ll learn from that and be a bit of a better team.”
BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA – MAY 14: Izack Tago of the Panthers scores a try during the round 10 NRL match between the Melbourne Storm and the Penrith Panthers at Suncorp Stadium, on May 14, 2022, in Brisbane, Australia. (Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)
Penrith were not without their outs, too. Ivan Cleary remained at home after a second knee surgery in as many weeks with Cameron Ciraldo, who missed last week’s loss to Parramatta in Covid isolation, pushed into the top gig.
“It wasn’t a normal week with Ivan missing,” said Ciraldo.
“He really wanted to come up this morning but made a decision not to come.
“There could easily have been plenty of distractions there but our guys handled it really well.
“Even the game before us went to golden point and we had to stop our warm-up, send them away and come back.
“They just handled everything we threw at them in the last couple of days.”
With Nathan Cleary, Isaah Yeo and Jarome Luai in this form, however, the coach doesn’t really matter on gameday. The machine keeps running and running.
“Nathan controlled the game well throughout but especially in the second half,” added Ciraldo.
“We know both teams will be better the next time we play each other, but we could only control what we can control. Nathan did a great job of that in the second half.”
The Panthers were occasionally able to show flashes of their attacking brilliance, but Melbourne simply never got going to challenge them.
They were always likely to miss Ryan Papenhuyzen – his replacement, Tyran Wishart, has played as a bench utility and hooker in previous NRL appearances – but losing Hughes on gameday was insurmountable.
That said, no Craig Bellamy team will be happy with a sub-70 per cent completion rate, even taking into account the horrendous rain. The Storm managed no tackles inside the Penrith red zone in the second half, and only 11 within the opposing half at all.
Perhaps the flow of the game could have been predicted from the absentee list and the conditions, both of which negatively affected the main event of Magic Round.
The first half featured thirteen errors and nine penalties – partly a reflection of the willingness of both sides to promote the ball despite the rain – and often failed to find a rhythm or grind.
It’s hard to remember a time when Melbourne completed at 65 per cent, as they did in the first half, or when they failed to make a single line break.
The Panthers’ significant advantage of fielding their first choice backline was clear: their first try was as perfect an execution of what the Penrith club is about in 2022 as possible.
Isaah Yeo was there, digging deep into the line, while Jarome Luai performed his regular bolero to induce contact and drop Izack Tago on a crash line for the opening score. It had men in motion, deception and a deadly finish.
The second followed soon after in more prosaic fashion: a Nathan Cleary kick to Viliame Kikau, with the Fijian flying highest to claim and score.
Melbourne were shorn of two of their superstar spine, but Cameron Munster was still on hand to produce his own magic. The five-eighth found Nick Meaney with a dinked Crossfield kick to get the Storm on the board.
The fightback was short-lived. Stephen Crichton thought he had got over, but failed to ground. Ashley Klein pulled the play back for a high shot and Cleary took the two.
He needn’t have worried. With the bell imminent, Tyran Wishart, foisted in at fullback, dropped a kick under little pressure and presented Tago with his second.
It took a while in the second half for the Panthers machine to kick back into action. When it did, it did so in style: Cleary isolated Kikau against Cooper Johns in the defensive line, and while he didn’t score himself, it was an easy offload for Jarome Luai to cross.
Penrith hit right next. Again, it was Yeo and Cleary in the heart of it, with Dylan Edwards appearing on the sweep to deliver Stephen Crichton to the line.
Melbourne had no answers. They had none all night.
steveng
Roar Rookie
Ok that's no reason to be so nasty, I admitted to you that I was wrong and called you a genius, it was my mistake but, I don't have to bow down to you for that, grow up and be nice as we are here to have fun and be light hearted mate. Cheer up
EastOfDivide
Guest
You said, ‘ IMO as the Storm don’t play the Panthers in any future rounds and until the playoffs will not allow a repeat of last night’. Cleary, you don’t know what you’re talking about. The lowest form of intelligence is arguing with derogatory slurs and belittling things, ‘Trolls, Smartest tool in the shed’. Clearly you can’t even try & make a point , without contradicting yourself. Lots of Question marks , capital letters & laughing faces. Contradicting yourself again, with the ‘ getting the frustration out ‘ comment. Genius!
steveng
Roar Rookie
:laughing: :laughing: :laughing: “How about , ‘sorry , yes I’m wrong”??? WHAT are you talking about ??? you have to be kidding me and you do? Don’t just have a go explain yourself, the lowest form of intelligence is arguing with derogatory slurs and belittling things, as only trolls do that, you’re not the smartest tool in the shed me thinks! Calm down and take a deep breath and get your frustrations out somewhere else!
Panthers
Guest
A lot of teams wouldn’t be able to force those statistics through their own good play. Especially against the Storm. It was pouring down rain & they had an 81% completion rate. The Storm were winning games last season with a heap of players out. Not getting beaten 32-6.
Justin
Guest
Especially if they were playing South’s!
EastOfDivide
Guest
How about , ‘sorry , yes I’m wrong’? When it’s shown that you don’t know what you’re talking about. :thumbup:
no one in particular
Roar Guru
If people want to read into that Storm performance then they have no idea
steveng
Roar Rookie
Thanks genius good onyah genius!
EastOfDivide
Guest
Penrith play Melbourne in round 22 , at Penrith genius.
Glory Bound
Roar Rookie
Yeah, the Panthers played like premiers and the Storm played like kitty cats wearing pink! But when a team has 62% possession and a 79% completion rate compared to their opponents 69% completion rate that is hardly surprising. Even more so when your opponents miss 50 tackles! Bellamy will be fuming about that last stat. Most teams would look like premiers with that weight of possession against a paper thin defence. Except perhaps for the Trent Barrett coached Bulldogs. :silly:
Glory Bound
Roar Rookie
Classic! :laughing: :thumbup:
steveng
Roar Rookie
Munster’s hidden mathematical 10% :laughing: was towards the usual that happens every game by the officials :thumbup: which is a big factor when it comes to these big game. All in all the Pennies were far too superior under the conditions and who the Storm had out and their rookie mistakes and were not in this game right from and when it was 12-0 after 10min, which was a sign of what’s to come as with the Panthers you can’t give them a lead like that as Parra proved the week before, as you have to be in the Panthers face for 80min and you can’t let off. As I said in the game blog, this is in no way what’s to come from the Storm as to be realistic, not having Hughes and Papenhuyzen is a huge out for the Storm irrespective what Bellamy said, as it was clearly shown with Wishart’s rookie under pressure dropped ball that resulted in an easy try and even Meaney who’s not the sharpest tool in the box didn’t control things well. IMO as the Storm don’t play the Panthers in any future rounds and until the playoffs will not allow a repeat of last night, so lets see how both of these teams pan out?
Albo
Roar Rookie
Panthers are going well and showed the loss to the Eels last week was not going to become a habit. With the Storm missing Papenhauyen and Hughes, the Panthers job became a lot easier with defensive concentration condensed to stopping Grant & Smith out of dummy half around the guts and Munster creating elsewhere. And Api & Yeo took care of the guts , and Cleary generally looked after Munster on the left. Munster still had his moments roaming , stripping, try saving, and kicking , but the Panthers dominated from the kick off. Their pack controlled the middle , the back five kept the territory dominance and the halves created the opportunities for tries. There were no poor performers in the Panthers team with 11 of the 17 running for over 100 metres compared to the Storm's 2 . Special mentions to the form of Api Koroisau in the middle, Billy Kikau having his best season yet, and Tago who gets better with every match and has covered the loss of Burton this year.
Larry1950
Guest
10% out of play?
Larry1950
Guest
With a depleted side, I thought the Storm scrambled reasonably to prevent a landslide result & proved they don’t have that level of depth they had in past seasons. Penrith were great & exploited the lack of experience & ability of those fill ins. One ominous sign from that game for the Dolphins next season is that while Kaufusi was good, the Bromwich boys seemed off the pace & next year they’ll be a year older and apparently without a marquee player on the books. Looks to be a SQ Crushers moment reborn to me.
Dwanye
Roar Rookie
He was counting the 10% of the time the ball is in the air maybe, on the ground after being dropped, on the kicking tee. Lol
jimmmy
Roar Rookie
Or we got pinged three times for holding down in the ruck. That never happens. !!!
Tony
Roar Guru
The big question is Eric, what happened to the other 8%?
kk
Roar Pro
Bellyache better call AAMI.
eagleJack
Roar Guru
I did enjoy this from Bellamy: "We threw three forward passes from dummy half and I can't remember the last time we did that," Bellamy said. Ummmmmm….. oh never mind :laughing: