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In a week when players from all clubs thumbed their nose at the NRL by covering the competition logo on their jerseys, Melbourne delivered their own up-yours to head office.
The Storm were celebrating their 25th anniversary on Friday night at Marvel Stadium, nothing wrong with that.
Wearing 1998 replica jerseys they put Parramatta away 46-16 with Harry Grant and Jahrome Hughes running amok to reinforce their top-four hopes and show they are a legitimate chance of making it all the way to this year’s premiership decider.
But they continued their running battle with the NRL hierarchy by celebrating their 2007 and ‘09 premierships “wins” which were stripped from the club in 2010 after their widespread rotting of the salary cap was uncovered.
And of course the Eels were the team they beat with their non-salary cap compliant squad in the second of those tainted Grand Final triumphs, which made the Storm’s decision to commemorate their ill-gotten gains even tackier.
The half and hooker combo of Hughes and Grant ran the Parramatta defence ragged to set up the Round 22 romp.
Grant scored the first two tries for the home side and after setting up the hooker’s second four-pointer, Hughes grabbed one of his own as the Storm put a dampener on a hot Parramatta start.
Eels winger Sean Russell opened the scoring with an Inspector Gadget arm extension to put the ball down inside the corner post and nearly did it again a short time later but the cover defence just did enough to deny him.
After trailing by 14 following the Harry and Hughes double act’s dominance, the Eels cut the deficit to eight when lock J’maine Hopgood touched down but opposing forward Eliesa Katoa cancelled that out for the hosts to lead 24-10 at the break.
When Josh King barged over for a rare try eight minutes into the second stanza, the Storm’s lead was out to 20.
Grant and Hughes combined again on the hour mark to put centre Marion Seve across the stripe for a 36-10 buffer.
A Luca Moretti try brought Parra back within 20 but Cameron Munster snuffed out any faint hope of an unlikely comeback when he crossed from close range with a trademark fend.
Wily winger Will Warbrick whizzed over for a late try to strengthen his claims for NRL rookie of the year honours, if indeed they’re given out at season’s end amid the ongoing RLPA dispute.
With the Warriors having the bye, the Storm don’t rise up the ladder with their 12th win of the year but they are locked into fourth spot heading into next Friday’s blockbuster at Penrith against the premiers.
Storm coach Craig Bellamy said there were about 50 former players in the sheds, as well as ’99 premiership-winning coach Craig Anderson, celebrating the win as part of the club’s 25-year celebrations.
“Just to win tonight was what we were after, we didn’t want to all be moping around on an occasion like this,” he said. “I thought we controlled the pace of the game well and got back to doing what we know works for us.”
Bellamy admitted he’s “probably a bit of a doomsdayer at times” but this team is definitely one of the few contenders capable of upsetting Penrith’s plans for a threepeat.
“We’ve got to show in the next couple of weeks that we can do that consistently. We haven’t been good at that this year. We’ve given up three or four 12- and 14-point leads this year and ended up losing the game. That’s something this club hasn’t done a whole heap of in the past,” he said.
“We need to make sure we don’t lose our way and get too happy after tonight but we know we can do it, we know what works and we need to work hard to make sure that we bring something close to that every week.”
Storm veteran Young Tonumaipea suffered a hamstring injury so PNG centre Justin Olam will likely earn a recall after his surprise demotion to the Queensland Cup.
Luckless fullback Ryan Papenhuyzen will get a couple of games in the Q-Cup when he makes his comeback from a fractured kneecap in the coming weeks which has sidelined him for more than a year.
The Eels raised hopes of ending their three-decade plus premiership drought last year by going all the way to the Grand Final before they were outclassed by Penrith.
They won’t be going anywhere near the first Sunday night in October this time around and will lucky to make the finals after slipping to ninth at Marvel Stadium.
Parra have four matches left and a bye in the final round but rather than a week off before the playoffs, they could be the first team drowning their sorrows.
Eels coach Brad Arthur thought they started alright but “missed a few opportunities” and the Storm made them pay.
“I don’t think we handled the speed they played at, and the physicality,” he said. “We’re standing still on their tryline and they were just carrying us over the line.
“It’s hurt us but we’ve got enough games there and we’ve just got to focus on turning it around for next week and then worry about the weeks after that. It’s still in our hands – we only have to win those games.”
Harry Grant celebrates scoring. (Photo by Daniel Pockett/Getty Images)
While they’ve had a few injuries with veteran hooker Josh Hodgson possibly being forced into retirement due to a neck problem and Shaun Lane nursing a dislocated elbow, a lack of discipline on and off the field has been the main contributor to their late-season slump with Dylan Brown, Maika Sivo and Reagan Campbell-Gillard sorely missed at the wrong time of year.
Brown will make his return from his NRL-imposed suspension after pleading guilty to a “sexual touching” offence at a Sydney pub midway through the year and Arthur said the Kiwi international would make an impact in attack and defence when they host St George Illawarra on Saturday night.
“He knows he needs to repay his teammates,” Arthur added.
If they do sneak into the finals, the Eels lack the X-factor to make a late playoff surge.
The bad news for Eels fans is they will largely go into next year with the same squad and after a few years in the hunt for a title, they could be on a downward swing in the coming seasons.