The Melbourne Storm will have the Victorian capital to themselves when they face the Sydney Roosters in another pre-finals showdown at AAMI Park this Friday night.
Last weekend saw the highest scoring round in NRL history, with 466 points scored across the eight matches, as the Storm and Roosters racked up 60 and 72 points in their respective wins over the Broncos and Wests Tigers.
A week after blanking the Panthers at the foot of the mountains, Craig Bellamy’s side ran riot in Brisbane as they recorded their 12th straight win against the men from Red Hill on their home turf, scoring ten tries as they win 60-12.
The win was masterminded by Queensland hooker Harry Grant, who set up two tries and made 32 tackles in a clear best-on-ground performance.
(Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)
It was the Storm’s 18th victory from 21 meetings against the Broncos at Suncorp Stadium and their dominant record at the ground has led them to unofficially be called Queensland’s fourth team.
As dominant as the Storm were, the Sydney Roosters were even better on Saturday night as they put the hapless Wests Tigers to the sword with a record 72-6 humiliation in their final regular season match at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
The Chooks led 30-0 at halftime and piled on another 42 after the break, easily surpassing the 56-0 thrashing they handed to the Tigers at Campbelltown Stadium back in 2004.
Nat Butcher scored four tries, while mid-season recruit Matthew Lodge scored at the death after Tigers captain James Tamou was sent off for verbally abusing referee Ben Cummins seconds earlier.
Sam Walker was deadly with the boot, kicking 12 conversions from as many attempts for a personal haul of 24 points.
The only low point for the Chooks was that they conceded their only try on an error when Brent Naden plucked out a pass and ran over 50 metres to score.
The Roosters outscored six AFL clubs over the weekend: the Brisbane Lions (57), GWS Giants (69), North Melbourne (47), West Coast Eagles (46), Adelaide Crows (55) and Hawthorn (64).
If it wasn’t for two disallowed tries in the first ten minutes, nor two errors while on the attack in the second half, they could so easily have threatened the greatest scoreline in Australian rugby league history, which remains the Dragons’ 91-6 win over the Bulldogs in 1935.
But if you converted that scoreline to today’s scoring, they wouldn’t have got close to 110 points.
As a side note, the Roosters’ wasn’t the biggest scoreline over the weekend, with Leigh Centurions living up to their name in the RFL Championship in England with a 100-4 thrashing of York City Knights.
Whether we’ll see an attacking flair of that nature remains to be seen when the Storm host the Roosters, the home side looking to make it a double over the Chooks, having claimed a 26-18 win at the SCG in Round 14, during which Trent Robinson’s men were in the midst of a four-match losing streak which put their finals hopes into jeopardy.
But since the Round 17 bye, by which point they hadn’t won a match for over a month, the Roosters have won six on the trot, racking up big scores against the Dragons, Knights and Tigers to move up to sixth place on the ladder.
Now they face a huge test of their premiership credentials in the Storm before they return home to the brand new Allianz Stadium to host the South Sydney Rabbitohs in the final round.
A win for Easts could see them move up to fifth on the ladder, if the Parramatta Eels are beaten by the Brisbane Broncos the previous day, due to a superior percentage, while a loss could see them drop to seventh if the Rabbitohs beat the Cowboys on Saturday night.
On the flipside, a win for the Storm (plus an Eels loss to the Broncos) will see them lock up a top-four spot, but if they are beaten on Friday night and the Eels beat the Broncos, both Parra and Melbourne would face off for the double chance in the final round.
There are so many permutations that will play out in the final round, most of which will be detailed next week.
purusoth
Guest
Match Tags : Melbourne Storm vs Sydney Roosters When : August 26th 2022 kick-off : 15:25 Predictions : Both teams need this victory for seeding purposes and the Storm being at home and having a five-game win streak in the head-to-head series gives them the edge in this spot. Take Melbourne -4.5. The -4.5 spread doesn’t seem like enough this week for the red hot Storm, but then again, it’s also hard to overlook Sydney’s six-game winning streak as well. Instead of suffering a letdown, Melbourne instead has momentum – but they could also be looking ahead to the regular season finale against Parramatta, which looks like it will determine who is in and who is out for a top four spot.
DP Schaefer
Roar Rookie
This might be the game of the year and almost a fitting GF. Both teams showed they belong in the finals with huge wins. They also showed Eels and Dragoons why they won't feature much in end of year games, both lack that ruthless nature to go on with a score and rack up a big one. Both were guilty recently of starting strong then clocking off at half time in recent games. Both Storm and Roosters went on with it, put the foot to the throat and pressed. That's what winning teams do. Both Cows and Brisbane have shown that during the season they can win, but can't bring out that big game when needed. Both will fold quickly leaving these two to fight out the finals with Sharks and Panthers. Souths faltered at a hurdle recently so their future is unknown. We'll see how they tackle last round against Roosters. Raider a slight chance to get in then out.
PeterCtheThird
Guest
Wow! I see that the Storm didn’t just NIL the Panthers, they BLANKED them! What next? Will they zip/zilch/nada some hapless opponent?
PeterCtheThird
Guest
Nah, the real problems are not left of centre, they’re out there on the right wing… :-)
mushi
Roar Guru
Jsut need to dust you up by 35 :silly: ...and then you lose to the eels after they lose to the broncos
Joe
Roar Rookie
Yeah, that for and against is going to be tough with the remaining games being Storm and Bunnies. This week is going to be the game that decides as every point ahead they get is doubled in the for/against race.
mushi
Roar Guru
It's nigh on impossible now isn't it? Need 2 results outside of our control and a 70 pt F/A swing (we don't get the tigers every week...)
Joe
Roar Rookie
Normally I would agree but I think the quality of top this year isn't quite the same as years past. Roosters just pumped the number 2 team recently and Storm were getting wacked for 4 weeks straight. I mean the Broncos were firmly lodged in the top 4 until recently. I also haven't quite given up on the Roosters making the top 4.
Muzz
Guest
Great test for the Chooks. I reckon they'll be chomping at the bit for this game. They should be close to full strength. I'm not sure who will be playing left centre which potentially is our weakest link. Perhaps Momo or Hutch. Forward battle should be epic! Try and contain NAS. Protect our small halves from that beast. Kenny Bromwich is in great form. His offloads are a major attacking threat. Must wrap that ball up. Minimise Munster as best you can.Kick to the corners and away from that freak. Be patient.Complete our sets. Do not push passes. Less is more, looking at you Teddy. Jesus I'm excited. You live for these games.
mushi
Roar Guru
Nah too hard to win outside the top 4. Needs to be lightning in a bottle stuff. We could play spoiler for the Panthers though. Though it is sad to see that "are the roosters actually any good" articles that seemed to be the go to column inches from mid season aren't available anymore:)
Joe
Roar Rookie
I've been backing the Roosters run for the last several weeks and I think they are the biggest threat to Penriths premiership win. This weeks game should be a clear indicator on where they stand. Unfortunately for the Storm might be more injuries ruling out players for this week.
DigdugBobcat
Guest
As a once avid watcher of the NRL im hoping this will be a great game , lets hope its in no way effected by dodgy refereeing or some other left of centre NRL contrived debacle.