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Melbourne got there in the end, and through the unlikeliest of methods. For an hour, this had been a slog of a game, with the Storm unable to prise open a committed, if understrength Manly.
In their moment of need, it was the twinkle toes of Nelson Asofa-Solomona – all two metres and 115kgs of him – that split the Sea Eagles open.
His try sparked a late flurry to drag the score up to 24-6, though for a long time, it had been 10-6 and the win in doubt. Haumole Olakau’atu had opened the scoring for Manly, who were game but little more.
There might be a feeling that both sides will take the result: Melbourne get the points, Manly didn’t get smashed.
Anthony Seibold would have hoped for a win, but in truth, that was always a long shot given the absentees in his side. Both Trbojevic brothers are now out for the foreseeable, and with them go any hopes of the Sea Eagles doing anything substantial this year.
Craig Bellamy, on the other hand, will look at the poor control in the first half and the lack of incision from his attack. They were missing Cameron Munster, who was rested after playing Origin with an illness, and without him, it was pedestrian for a long time.
“First half we didn’t complete well,” said Bellamy. “We did a good job defensively to stay in it, the only points they scored in the game was off a kick.
“We had to work a lot harder than what we should have because of the amount of error that we had. We fixed that up in the second half and I was happy with their effort.”
This was the sixth win on the trot at home for Melbourne, but with Penrith heading south next week, the Storm will have to be a lot better to stand a chance against the Premiers.
“I thought we were really good first half,” said Seibold. “Defensively we were strong and turned up for each other. Second half our accuracy and detail in attack put too much pressure on our defence.
“I thought we were brave defensively, but not good enough from an attacking point of view.”
There was a time when a trip to Melbourne was the toughest assignment in rugby league. Now, it’s still a tough trip, but it doesn’t hold anything like the fear factor it once did.
The Storm were workmanlike tonight, and got there in the end, but they should have torn strips off an overmatched Manly side. Parramatta, Penrith and Brisbane all racked up big scores over the Sea Eagles on home turf.
There’s two ways of looking at this performance, then: either the mark of champions is winning when you don’t play particularly well, and this is perfectly sufficient, or it was an underwhelming showing that will see the Storm found out against better sides.
Bellamy’s reactions in the coaches box suggested that he might favour the latter reading of events.
There were a few notable exceptions. Harry Grant struggled after backing up, but Jahrome Hughes picked up the slack creatively.
Nick Meaney remains one of the most underrated players in the NRL and was excellent again here. Will Warbrick on the wing gets better with every game he plays.
Across the piece, though, it was a slack showing, with lots of unforced errors and an inability to test a Manly side that have shown a very soft underbelly at times in 2023.
The late slew of points against a gassed Sea Eagles made this look a lot better than it actually was. Next week, at home to Penrith, they will have to be a lot better.
Manly have a third of their salary cap invested in just three blokes, and two of them are injured for the foreseeable future.
It’s lucky, then, that Daly Cherry-Evans is in perhaps the best form of his career.
Without him, the Sea Eagles would be totally bereft: he was, again, the source of everything good that they did. His kicking was exceptional and regularly made Melbourne have to start sets on their own goalline, with four in the first half alone that dropped within three metres of the line.
It was vital to keeping Manly in the fight. They had far less ball than the Storm but were able to manipulate the field position in their favour, limiting what Melbourne could throw back at them.
DCE’s connection with Olakau’atu on the right edge was back firing again, with a few near misses as well as a try assist off the boot.
He just needs more men to go with him, however. Reuben Garrick shifted into Turbo’s role at the back, and while he is exceptional in yardage and in defensive duties, his creativity at times looks like a winger playing fullback.
Josh Schuster, too, often plays with flash rather than effectiveness, and lay dormant for over an hour before sparking into life.
Manly generally live or die by their star players, and without two of them, they are in dire need of the other standing up.
Next week’s clash with the Roosters is make or break for their season, and Seibold would do well to ask the other 16 blokes to get close to the captain’s level of performance.