Melbourne Storm blitz understrength Penrith Panthers

The Melbourne Storm have all but locked up the 2021 Minor Premiership by running rings around a depleted Panthers side on Sunday.

The Storm have not conceded defeat since round three of this season. Image: Grant Trouville/NRL Photos

The Melbourne Storm’s relentless and unstoppable surge towards back-to-back titles continued with a steamrolling of a Panthers outfit that can’t welcome Nathan Cleary back from injury quick enough.

Melbourne lost half Jahrome Hughes to a calf injury and he could miss next week’s clash with Manly.

The Storm blitzed the Panthers with the ball and pulverised them without it in their 37-10 win at Suncorp Stadium. Another minor premiership looks a mere formality.

Craig Bellamy’s superstar team is in the midst of one of the great purple patches in premiership history. After a club record 16 consecutive wins the Storm now have the 19-game sequence of the 1975 Roosters, one of rugby league’s best ever teams, in their sights.

This was always going to be a test of character for the Panthers without Nathan Cleary, Isaah Yeo, Brian To’o, James Fisher-Harris, Tyrone May and Api Koroisau. The Storm went bang, bang, bang early and knocked the stuffing out of them inside 20 minutes.

The 13th try of the season for Reimis Smith, a cracker to rookie Dean Ieremia after a speculative Josh Addo-Carr bomb and Ieremia’s second on the end of a training drill took the Storm to a 16-0 lead as Jahrome Hughes and Cameron Munster picked the Panthers apart on the edges. The Panthers had the ball for multiple sets but they looked slow as wet weeks. The pattern continued in the second half with Ieremia notching a hat-trick.

Panthers coach Ivan Cleary said the display was “not good enough”.

“They scored too easily and too often. Throughout the night our defensive resolve wasn’t good enough,” Cleary said.

“We have certainly got a few gears left in us and when we get everyone back I would expect better.”

Ominously, Storm coach Bellamy said his side also had another gear.

“Especially with our attack,” he said.

“Our defence was great, and that wins a lot of the big games.”

On Hughes’s injury, Bellamy said it was “not great”.

“I don’t think he will miss six weeks but he might miss a game,” Bellamy said.

The Panthers lacked cohesion without co-captains Isaah Yeo and Nathan Cleary. Image: Grant Trouville/NRL Photos

Purple reign

The stars are aligning for the Storm to go back-to-back for the first time in their history. Melbourne’s juggernaut rolls on relentlessly on the back of Craig Bellamy re-signing for five years, Ryan Papenhuyzen committing his long-term future to the club and fit and firing Harry Grant now back on deck.

Lethargic Luai

Penrith playmaker Jarome Luai has struggled since returning from a knee injury and had just three runs for 15m against the Storm. He needs to regain his spark when Cleary returns as the Panthers attack has been clunky and ineffective in the past fortnight since Luai’s return.

Ivan Cleary said his son was not going to be rushed back to action.

“It is only five weeks (since the injury) today and it was a six-week injury at least,” he said.

“If we were playing semi-finals now he would probably be playing but we want him to be able to play at his best. He is coming along really nicely but we aren’t going to be taking any risks.”

Deadly duo

There is no more dangerous one-two punch on an NRL bench than Papenhuyzen and Grant and both are regaining their groove. Papenhuyzen ran with more confidence and zip than he did on his return from a lengthy concussion the previous week. Grant scored a second half try and was a constant threat with two line breaks and seven crafty runs.

“I thought Harry was really good for a guy who has had six weeks off and I thought Paps looked a lot more confident, and in the next couple of weeks he will improve even more,” Bellamy said.

“He looked pretty hesitant last week I thought, and he thought that himself.

“He is slowly but surely building himself up and we will give him the right amount of minutes and hopefully he will be flying at the end.”

Panthers perplex

The Panthers were understrength but there is one big difference between these two sides. When Melbourne is down on troops – and this year that has included the likes of Papenhuyzen, Grant and Munster all out at once – the side still dominates its opposition. Penrith looks vulnerable and struggles without its stars.

After winning their opening 12 games this season the Panthers have lost three of their last seven and have been unimpressive in several narrow wins. Cleary and the rest of the cavalry will be back and Tevita Pangai Jnr looms on the horizon, but the Panthers have plenty of work ahead to bridge the ever-widening gap between them and the defending premiers.

Originally published as Melbourne Storm blitz understrength Penrith Panthers