NRL 2021: Melbourne Storm win 28-18 over Manly Sea Eagles | Match Report
Manly put up a good fight but Melbourne were just too good, as they close in on a piece of NRL history.
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Craig Bellamy didn’t need his shot gun to stop Tom Trbojevic in the end but he did need all 17 of his gun Storm players to fire up to get the better of hated rivals Manly 28-18 at Suncorp Stadium.
It was remarkably the Storm’s 28th straight win at all Queensland venues, with their last loss in the Sunshine State back in 2017 to the Titans.
A Harry Grant-inspired Storm had to come from behind to beat the Sea Eagles in a showdown that could easily be repeated on grand final day.
It took a Jahrome Hughes line break, kick and then a chase by Cameron Munster after a Reuben Garrick fumble in the 71st minute to wrap up Melbourne’s 17th consecutive club win, tying with Penrith for the NRL’s second best win streak.
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Down 8-nil in the 36th minute and getting strangled, Manly stunned Melbourne to go to the break at 8-all. The Storm had all the ball in the first half but the Sea Eagles scrambled and hung on for grim death. Manly had no field position but moved the ball around nicely when they had it, a tactic they will use again next time these two terrific combatants clash.
Storm fullback Nicho Hynes has been a star this year but when Jason Saab snaffled his cut-out pass on the cusp of halftime it was 90m of pure speed and shut the gate for his 19th try of the season. It was game on.
Garrick, who gave Manly the lead 14-8 just after the break, and a rampaging Justin Olam both scored doubles in the second half before Munster’s late try sealed it.
The Sea Eagles were rocked by an ankle injury to prop Taniela Paseka which may see him missing until at least the finals.
Bellamy said Manly “made it pretty hard” for his team
“It is the first time for a while we have been behind, and I was real happy with how they hung in there and then lifted their game,” he said.
“I am not the sort of guy to think about [records] but it has been one hell of an effort from this group to win 17 in a row in one competition.”
Manly coach Des Hasler said there were some “good signs” but also “some hard earned lessons around possession”.
“Twenty-six sets is not going to cut it,” he said.
“We were guilty of far too much negative play and unforced errors. You can’t afford to give that much possession away. The times that we did have the ball I thought we did OK. The defensive effort was pleasing.”
TOMMY TIP SHEET
Bellamy, when asked pre-game about stopping Tommy Turbo, joked that he had a shotgun in his room that may come in handy.
There were times in the game the Storm needed some extra firepower to nullify Trbojevic, who sent Garrick over twice with super passes.
Nullifying the impact of Manly’s magic man was always going to be a collective effort. There is no better ‘collective’ than the Melbourne Storm and they swarmed around their target, but he slipped through the net enough to give them plenty of grief.
“He got us a couple of times with tries down their left and we didn’t handle that as well as I would have liked but he is a hard guy to handle,” Bellamy said.
“I thought in most other aspects of the game we handled him pretty well. I thought our kickers did a pretty good job.”
Hasler said “Tom was great with try assists”
“We just need a bit more ball for him to do it,” he said.
BENCH POWER
When Bellamy brings Grant off the bench it is a luxury that no club in the NRL has. Then he brings on Ryan Papenhuyzen. It was Grant who turned the game in the middle of the field with his darting runs and a silky pass to put Olam over. The energy he provided was the difference.
LOATHING AND RESPECT
The clash marked the 10-year anniversary of the ‘Battle of Brookvale’, a rallying point for every granule of hatred between these two clubs going back at least to the 2007 grand final. This was the first ‘Battle of Suncorp’ between the two clubs and, given the history, the most anticipated clash since the NRL moved into the Covid bubble. It lived up to the hype and was a genuine finals preview.
This was played at modern rules pace but with the arm wrestle intensity of any battle between the two clubs from a decade ago. If these two powerhouses meet in the grand final again it will deserve a sellout crowd to watch it.
BELLAMY’S BIG CALL WHICH COULD DEFINE STORM SEASON
—Nick Campton
Craig Bellamy says it’s not easy, but every single coach in the NRL would kill to have a dilemma like the one the Melbourne coach is handling right now.
When the whips are cracking and the stakes are highest, who will the Storm mentor choose as his fullback — Ryan Papenhuyzen or Nicho Hynes?
Papenhuyzen tore the competition apart in the earlier parts of the year and Hynes has been just as effective during Papenhuyzen’s lengthy concussion absence but with the 23-year old getting his sea legs back after two matches back in the team as a supersub a reckoning approaches for Bellamy.
“It’s not easy, to be quiet honest, juggling who does what and when during the game but having said that it’s a nice problem to have with the calibre of player both of them are.
“They have a couple of similarities but a couple of big differences as well.
“Nicho has done one hell of a job since Paps has been out, probably above and beyond anything (we) thought he could do. We were very pleasantly surprised with what he could add to our team.
“At the moment we want to do well in our games and we’re just trying to get the right sort of minutes into both of them, especially Paps now he’s back, and hopefully we can get them cherry ripe for the end of the year.”
Bellamy said he won’t be rushed into making a decision and the Storm are fully capable of juggling two stars for a single position, as they’ve shown with their use of Harry Grant and Brandon Smith.
Papenhuyzen will come off the bench on Saturday against the Sea Eagles and Bellamy has been encouraged by the signs in his two matches since returning.
“He was out for a long time and when he came back we had to make sure it was the right time medically but also mentally for him.
“I thought he was quite hesitant for his first game back against the Cowboys but he had a lot more involvement (against Penrith) and put himself in better positions, like he did before the injury.
“We’re not too big on making plans too far down the track because sometimes things happen that make decisions for you.
“Sometimes injuries or whatever happens, the decisions are made for you.
“We don’t want to be spending too much energy on decisions that are five or six weeks away when there might not be a decision to make.”
BELLAMY’S PLAN TO PUT BRAKES ON TURBO
—Dean Ritchie
Just how will Storm supercoach Craig Bellamy stop the player he labels the best in the game in Saturday night’s blockbuster clash against Manly?
Bellamy has bypassed some of rugby league’s finest players – including his own – to nominate Tom Trbojevic as the “elite player in the game” as he plots to stop the superstar’s run.
“Some of the things he is doing are unbelievable,” Bellamy said. “Tom is certainly one hell of a player. He’s certainly the hardest guy in the game for any team to handle.”
But every supercoach has a plan against stellar opponents.
Asked how his team could limit Trbojevic’s impact, Bellamy said: “There are a couple of things around him that his teammates do so hopefully we can restrict that.
“We just have to be aware of where he is and when he gets into those positions, what he is likely to do and defend it from there. There will be no defending him as an individual, we’ll need to defend him as a team. Fingers crossed.”
Manly have won 12 of their past 15 games, Melbourne all 16 of their past 16 matches. That’s a combined 28 wins from 31 games entering the big match.
And flying out in front is inspiring Trbojevic, who was, yet again, stunning against Cronulla in the 40-22 demolition last Monday night.
He scored three tries, ran for 179 run metres, posted 11 tackle busts, five offloads, three line breaks, 52 post-contact metres, six line-break assists and three try assists.
“It’s hard to describe – he’s close to the quickest player in the game, he’s close to the biggest player in the game and he’s close to one of the most skilful players in the game,” Bellamy said.
“He reads the game really well, as well. He can pick out a chink in the opposition armoury as quickly as anyone. You often see guys who can pick that but when (Trbojevic) picks it, he can do something about it with his pace.
“All those things are rolled into one which makes him, with all due respect, the elite player in the game and certainly the hardest guy in the game for any team to handle. Some of the things he is doing are unbelievable.
“He is very well-conditioned as well because he can keep it up for 80 minutes. He is having one hell of a season. He came up with some outstanding stats (against Cronulla) but he has done that in all the games he has played. Tom is certainly one hell of a player.”
Trbojevic’s form is off the charts.
SLATER STANDARD
And Bellamy had no hesitation saying Trbojevic was moving into the same category as former Storm fullback great Billy Slater.
“He’s around that standard,” Bellamy said. “You can throw (James) Tedesco in there as well. He was the best player in the game there for a fair bit. If Billy wasn’t the best player, he was certainly the best fullback.
“For those guys, it was about how long they did it for. They did it for I don’t know how many years. Billy was the best player in the game for a whole heap of years. Tedesco is around that as well.
“For Tom, it’s about being able to continue what he’s doing. Then you can start to, I suppose, put him up there with the great fullbacks.
“The way he’s playing now, he’s up there but doing that over a long period of time, that’s the making of our really great players. Billy did that for so long.”
South Sydney’s injured winger Alex Johnston is the NRL’s leading tryscorer with 24, followed by Melbourne’s Josh Addo-Carr (21), then Trbojevic and Manly teammate Jason Saab (18).
Trbojevic, though, has only played 11 matches this season.
“I am running out of words to say about him, mate. I’m glad he’s on my team,” Manly skipper Daly Cherry-Evans said. “He has gone to a new level and I am really enjoying being along with him for the ride.
“I’m not surprised that he plays at this level because of the amount of work he is putting into himself this year, and the way he is working with his teammates. He is getting all the rewards for that on game day.
“In the last couple of years, Tom has played some pretty decent footy but this is the first year he has played this well consistently. It would be great to play consistently well for a long time and that’s why they (the greats) are remembered for so long.
“No doubt Tom is on the right track and this year, he has certainly stamped his mark on the club and the game. It has all come off the back of all the hard work he does. I’m really happy for him and I hope he can sustain that because that will definitely benefit as a club.”
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