Melbourne too sharp for Warriors in 12-6 win to go top of the ladder
MELBOURNE are once again on the top of the NRL ladder after grinding out a 12-6 win over New Zealand and claiming their seventh straight win.
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SO much for the NRL’s latest refereeing crackdown.
It obviously doesn’t apply to the Melbourne Storm and Cameron Smith.
Just days the NRL referees’ boss Bernie Sutton fired off a warning for all clubs to stop slowing down the play the ball or risk getting pinged, Stephen Kearney questioned if the NRL bothered to send the email to themselves.
Kearney also claimed the game’s under fire match officials were being “poorly led” after watching his team strangled out of the game in the 12-6 loss to the new NRL ladder leaders.
Oh wait, it's Cam Smith https://t.co/lWgbo7dpjB
— Vodafone Warriors (@NZWarriors) July 22, 2018
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Melbourne’s victory was their seventh on the trot and sees them join St George Illawarra and South Sydney on 28 competition points, while the Storm claim top spot with a better points differential.
While Craig Bellamy had every right to be happy, Kearney was less than impressed, with the Storm also winning the penalty count 10-7.
There was one incident involving Smith in the second half when he appeared to hit Ken Maumalo with two high shots in quick succession.
But even after Maumalo lost possession, the Warriors still didn’t get a penalty. In fact, the scrum feed went to the Storm.
Kearney did not want to blame the Storm or excuse his team for the loss, but conceded “there were some moments that the officials didn’t get quite right either.
“Ken’s was a pretty obvious one.
“And when we get penalised for leaving our line early a couple of minutes before the end of the game. And we are up on their tryline and by the time we catch the ball they are in our face.”
Kearney agreed with Ricky Stuart’s assessment that the real issue was bigger than simply blaming the refs.
“Like I said to you, we got an email at the start of the week that they were going to look at the crowding of the play the ball and it is taking too long for guys to get off tackles,” Kearney said.
“And I’m watching tonight and I’m thinking I don’t know if they sent themselves that email.
“They probably needed to read the email them sent out to everyone else.
“I thought they were slow peeling off, Melbourne.
“And that is what we get confused about as footy clubs. I think there is an issue.
“Unfortunately they have been poorly led and I don’t mean that by the referees’ boss.
“I think when they get a directive at the start of the year to blow the pea out of the whistle and then 13 rounds into the completion it changes again, it is just about that consistency.
“I do feel for them at the moment.
“There is enough smart people in our game to get it sorted. We need to make sure we do something about it. I want to make it clear we weren’t quite good enough in a couple of moments tonight.
“But I think it is a bit of a blight on our game at the minute and hopefully we can resolve it.”
The win was hardly the Storm’s most convincing but they were clinical and appear to be warming to the challenge of defending their title.
As usual Smith orchestrated everything from dummy half while Jahrome Hughes put his hand up to wear the No 7 jumper, setting up the Storm’s only two tries after Brodie Croft was relegated to Queensland Cup.
The Warriors will be sweating on the fitness of Issac Luke who failed the finish the game because of a calf injury.
MELBOURNE 12 (W Chambers S Vunivalu tries C Smith 2 goals) bt NZ WARRIORS 6 (G Beale try S Johnson goal) at Mt Smart Stadium. Referee: Ben Cummins, Jon Stone. Crowd: 17,695