Melbourne storms home to crush Cronulla at AAMI Park

After a lukewarm start, Melbourne ran in seven second-half tries to spoil the Sharks debut of former Storm centre Will Chambers.

Addo-Carr has equalled Greg Inglis as the sixth top tryscorer in Storm history. (Photo by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)

It took Craig Bellamy less than a month to hand Harry Grant his first start for Melbourne.

Now the heir to Cameron Smith’s throne is likely to take his rightful place in the No. 9 jumper for as long as he wants after guiding Melbourne to a comfortable 40-14 rout of Cronulla.

Having come off the bench for the past three weeks as he was brought back slowly from a knee injury, Bellamy finally relented by starting Grant on Friday night.

The Queensland State of Origin hooker responded by assisting on three tries of a second-half onslaught, setting up the Storm’s fifth straight victory.

And he did it despite battling a sternum injury and finger he busted in a torrid first half.

“He’s a tough kid,” Bellamy said.

“His sternum was a little bit sore, but he had a guard on that. I’m not quite sure how much damage he’s done to his finger or if he’s done any at all, but obviously there’s something there.

“So we just need to look at that and see what happens next week.”

It now appears the only time Grant will ride the pine for the foreseeable future is when the 23-year-old is given an early rest, as was the case after 68 minutes at AAMI Park.

“We just wanted to see how him and Brandon (Smith) went starting together. We’ll mix it up a bit and do what we think is best for the team each week,” Bellamy said.

Grant wasn’t the only star of the rout, with centre Reimis Smith grabbing a hat trick, Christian Welch dominating the middle, and Nicho Hynes shining in the absence of Ryan Papenhuyzen.

The Storm fullback, as well as Nelson Asofa-Solomona, is hopeful of being back for next week’s tantalising top-four blockbuster with premiership challengers South Sydney at Stadium Australia.

Cronulla, meanwhile, will be left to rue a second-half capitulation that resulted in a fourth straight defeat – and the sixth of their past seven games.

The Sharks defence missed a whopping 31 of their 39 missed tackles after halftime, with only

some wayward goalkicking – Cameron Munster and Hynes left 10 points on the kicking tee – denying the reigning premiers from hitting the half-century.

Cronulla have yet to win in the three games since the dramatic sacking of John Morris, leaving interim coach Josh Hannay with an almighty job to find some life in their floundering campaign.

They remain in 13th spot, just two points ahead of last-placed Canterbury.

“It’s frustrating for everybody involved because first half there was a top-eight football team out there, the second half there was a bottom-eight football team out there,” Hannay said.

“The difference between our good and our bad is enormous. There’s a lot of work to be done by me as the coach and us as a staff, and the players, to bridge that gap.”

Both teams traded penalty goals early, but it was the Storm who crossed the line first against the run of play, with Josh Addo-Carr racing 80 metres after a Shaun Johnson drop-ball.

But the undeterred Sharks continued to take chances, and were rewarded for their adventurous play when Briton Nikora steamed onto a Johnson short-ball to give his team a two-point halftime lead.

From there it was all the home side, opening a Cronulla defence at will with seven tries in the second half, cracking the 40-point mark for the fourth time in their past five games.

Parts of the Melbourne crowd gave Will Chambers a standing ovation on his return to AAMI Park. (Photo by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)

RUSTY OLD WILLIE

Former Storm champion Will Chambers welcomed the warm reception at his old stomping ground but had an unhappy start, getting stood up by opposite centre Justin Olam early.

In his first outing as a Shark, the 32-year-old dropped two balls cold on routine carries and fumbled a set restart, but also produced some vintage rugged defence on the right edge.

He finished the night with 56 metres from seven runs.

His centre partner, makeshift three-quarter Teig Wilton, also failed to make an impact, raising questions as to why Hannay left the experienced but out-of-favour Josh Dugan out of the 17.

GRAHAM COPS KNOCK

Not again.

Making his first appearance since missing two games due to concussion, Sharks skipper Wade Graham was again pulled from the field after a nasty head clash with Storm forward Tui Kamikamica.

Graham stayed on the field for a few more minutes before being sent for what could be his third head knock of the season.

“We just erred on the side of caution there considering his history,” Hannay said.

“He felt up to staying out there. But again, the game the way it is and the protocol around the HIA, there was a decision made on the sideline that he needed to come despite the fact he felt fine.”

In further bad news, forward Braden Hamlin-Uele suffered a syndesmosis injury that is likely to sit him on the sidelines for a number of weeks.