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It was enough to bring on waves of nostalgia, a contest that was low-scoring, defence-dominant and immeasurably tense. When Lachlan Croker latched on a Taniela Paseka offload with five to play, it was as a wave of relief flooded over the Northern Beaches.
Manly got it 18-8 in the end, and had they not, it would have been devastating for them. They had all the ball, but got nowhere against the purple wall. Melbourne rarely cause their own downfall and didn’t tonight: the Sea Eagles fought for every yard and point they got.
This was the kind of footy we rarely see these days. The rain falling on a suburban ground, a partisan home crowd involved in every tackle and a constant stream of flashpoints.
There might have only been three tries, but there were just as many sin-bins. Rookie winger Ray Vaega, in game number 3 in the top grade, channelled Jorge Taufua with a monster hit on Cam Munster. Once it might have been rewarded, this time it got him ten minutes in the bin.
Tui Kamikamica and Justin Olam found themselves in the same boat later on. Trent Loeiro went on report twice, as did Vaega and Jake Trbojevic, for a tip tackle on Cam Munster.
“I don’t know what planet they’re on,” raged Craig Bellamy at his own player’s indiscipline. “You just can’t do that these days. You can’t hit ball-players and halves late with any sort of force at all. That’s what it is.
“Do that and you’ll play half the second half with 12 men. And when they had 12 men we couldn’t capitalise.”
Manly’s greater share of the five penalty goals looked like it would be the difference until the late Croker try settled the game in the host’s favour. They move to a 3-2-1 record, but the big win was the win itself: a proper triumph, against a strong opponent, based on defence rather than attack.
“We had better intent with what we did,” said Anthony Seibold. “All the little things that take effort and not talent or skill, that’s what we were good with. That’s attitude.
“The most pleasing thing was that we had a bit go against us with a guy in the sin bin and then had two (Bunker) decisions go against us that looked like tries. It would have been easy to let that disappointment stay with us, but we moved onto our next job.”
Melbourne will look at it as a victory for their culture if not their football. They proved time and again that the classic Bellamy backs-to-the-wall style is still at their core with prolonged periods of defence, but will worry about how little they were able to throw back.
“Looking at the stats in the second half, you’d think we’d have got beat by 30, so it was brave in some areas, but we played dumb at times,” said Bellamy.
“We got what we deserved tonight. To keep them to 18 points was a good effort but we never gave ourselves a chance to win the game. Our second half was really poor. We didn’t play too smart.”
This was rollicking old school stuff: not old school in the Battle of Brookvale 2011 sense, but it was about as close as you’ll get in 2023. The rain fell and the players ripped in.
Haumole Olakau’atu laid out Justin Olam – yes, you read that right, Justin Olam got laid out for possibly the first time of his career. Jake Trbojevic, as he does every week, sent a few flying. Tui Kamikamica ended Kelma Tuilagi’s night with a massive carry that resulted in a clash of heads.
Then, things got a bit more sinister. Ray Vaega didn’t miss Cameron Munster with the latest of late tackles and earned ten minutes in the bin just before the break. Tom Trbojevic left for a HIA after copping one high from Trent Loeiro moments later.
This was rollicking old school stuff: not old school in the Battle of Brookvale 2011 sense, but it was about as close as you’ll get in 2023. The rain fell and the players ripped it.
Haumole Olakau’atu laid out Justin Olam – yes, you read that right, Justin Olam got laid out for possibly the first time of his career. Jake Trbojevic, as he does every week, sent a few flying. Tui Kamikamica ended Kelma Tuilagi’s night with a massive carry that resulted in a clash of heads.
Then, things got a bit more sinister. Ray Vaega didn’t miss Cameron Munster with the latest of late tackles and earned ten minutes in the bin just before the break. Tom Trbojevic left for a HIA after copping one high from Trent Loeiro moments later.
Melbourne totally wasted the extra man period, with Manly having two tries took off them after the fact and slotting a penalty goal while the Storm couldn’t manage as much as a play the ball in opposing territory.
Then, in a shot to rival Vaega’s, Kamikamica went late on Cherry-Evans to earn himself a sit down as well. Loiero got himself put on report, again, for a suspected hip-drop. There was, of course, time for a big push and shove too.
It spoke to a wider point tactical point that was keeping the Sea Eagles on top for a long part.
In their good games this year, Manly have put on plenty of hard defence, hitting to hurt as well as stop. That intent was on show tonight.
When Melbourne have looked poor this year – and late 2022 as well – they had often lacked a little in the physicality department and allowed themselves to be bullied. Certainly they struggled to compete in that area and were losing collisions, which in turn pushed the game towards their end and result in errors.
Harry Grant and Munster were put off their stride and made unforced, uncharacteristic errors.
The Storm totally lost their last play at one point, paid chaos footy and it ended with Vaega flattening Will Warbrick in a manner of which Jorge Taufua would have been proud. Another round of handbags followed before, referee Adam Gee finally read the riot act.
Within a set, Cherry-Evans had been smashed late again – Olam this time – and sold the contact for all it was worth. Another ten minutes followed.
Every eye in Brookvale was on Tom Trbojevic given the constant discussion around the health of his hamstring, hips, back and just about everything else.
Any fears were assuaged on his first carry, which was as hard and direct as they come. Not only was Turbo in the game early, he was in it a lot, too: there were six runs in the first ten minutes, more than he managed in the whole first half last week.
It’s glib to say that Manly’s form comes down the health of Turbo and DCE, but when they have so much salary cap invested in so few blokes, it’s true. Lucky, then, that Cherry-Evans was in even more of a mood than his fullback.
DCE was a wily old fox before he was old, and now in his dotage, he’s just about the wiliest around.
Certainly, he had too much upstairs for Melbourne rookie Jonah Pezet, who was caught out several times in the first half by classic short side darts from the halfback. The young bloke switched off for a second and found Cherry-Evans running by him at speed.
It wasn’t just the 20-year-old, however. Munster, who should know better given the amount of Origin they’ve played together, was caught too close to the defensive line by DCE.
Spotting an out-of-position fullback is one thing, but having the skill to pull off the dink is something different altogether. Oh, and having your own fullback on your wavelength and with the speed to get to the footy helps plenty too.
Sometimes, needs must. Nick Meaney was out with concussion aftereffects and Ryan Papenhuyzen is long term out, leaving Bellamy with the choice of moving his star man to fullback or running a rookie in Sua Fa’alogo.
He opted for Munster, and it didn’t work. It wasn’t the best performance of his career, but a significant contributing factor was the ability of Manly to track his movements and marshal Munster out of the game.
This wasn’t a game for any of the creative players, but all the best moments belonged to Cherry-Evans, with Munster, Hughes and Pezet unable to put any attacking threat together at all.
All the simple stuff that Melbourne have excelled at of late was there, with exceptional defence in the face of prolonged pressure, but so often they win those low-scoring affairs thanks to something special from their magic man. He barely threw a shot tonight.