Melbourne Storm beat Brisbane Broncos 34-10 in NRL round 12 clash

BRISBANE paid a heavy price for resting State of Origin stars as Billy Slater led Melbourne to a 34-10 win at AAMI Park last night.

BRISBANE paid a heavy price for resting State of Origin stars as Billy Slater led Melbourne to a 34-10 win at AAMI Park last night.

Broncos coach Anthony Griffin rated the loss the club's worst performance of the year.

While Griffin rested Justin Hodges, Sam Thaiday and Petero Civoniceva, Melbourne coach Craig Bellamy threw their Queensland teammates Slater, Cameron Smith and Cooper Cronk into the action, with Slater scoring two tries.

Brisbane's best were the two Origin stars who did play - Matt Gillett and Ben Hannant. Gillett made several try-saving tackles while Hannant careered into the opposition as if he was playing his first match in a month.

GALLERY: Storm v Broncos

The night also had its share of heartbreak for Broncos forward David Hala who suffered a season- ending knee injury in his first NRL match of the year after he badly injured his foot in the trials.

"I thought we were very poor," Griffin said. "That was easily our worst performance for the year. We were just very disappointing.

"We just didn't have any real ethic about anything we were doing, attack or defence. The opposition were very good and they made us pay."

Brisbane played the last seven minutes with 12 men, having used their interchange options.

Griffin said the resting of the Broncos' Queensland stars had nothing to do with last night's six-tries-to-two result.

See how we covered the game at our match centre

"At the moment we've just got ourselves in a bit of a hole," he said. "For whatever reason there is stuff we all have to look at. We just came up with a terrible performance."It is what it is and we will have to be a lot better than that going forward if we want to win a football game.

"I thought Matt Gillett and Ben Hannant were close to our best. They did a great job."

Bellamy said he was hard pressed persuading skipper Cameron Smith to start the game on the bench, never mind trying to get him to have a rest.

"We have a different philosophy to the Broncos in that our blokes want to back up and play, especially in a home game against the Broncos," Bellamy said.

Bellamy said it was the best his team had played in a month and credited a three-day mini-camp at a coastal town this week, and the performance of senior players, as crucial in the win.

"The last two or three weeks we haven't been what we were earlier in the season. Tonight we were," Bellamy said.

"I was proud of the guys who backed up (from Origin) but while they were in camp our other guys stepped up. Our preparartion was tremendous ... the best it's been for a month and we played the best we have for a month.

"Most guys enjoyed (Torquay). It was a chance to re-focus, focus on what's important through this Origin period. That's what we did, we prepared well, and it came through in the game."

Broncos second-rower Ben Te'o also suffered a recurrence of an ankle injury.

Melbourne are now six points clear from Brisbane on the NRL ladder with the Broncos facing the prospect of dropping down the ladder this weekend.

MELBOURNE 34 (T Lowrie 2 B Slater 2 W Chambers J O'Neill tries G Widdop 5 goals) bt BRISBANE 10 (J Reed B Te'o tries C Parker goal) at AAMI Park. Referee: Tony Archer, Gerard Sutton. Crowd: 13,200.

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