Melbourne Storm's star players finally delivered, snapping a seven-game losing streak with a commanding 44-16 victory over the Wests Tigers at AAMI Park on Sunday. Captain Harry Grant, along with playmakers Cameron Munster and Jahrome Hughes, produced their finest performances of the season to steer the Storm to a much-needed triumph.
The win came as a relief for coach Craig Bellamy, who revealed last week that he is battling an unspecified neurodegenerative disorder amid his team's worst-ever form slump.
"Harry's game was just inspirational ... Hughesy and Mun (Munster), they just had a bit of a look in their eye where, 'OK, we're going to take control of this and we'll see the 80 minutes out'," Bellamy said.
"It feels better than the last seven weeks or whatever it's been. The Tigers were a bit down in strength, so that probably helped us too, to be quite honest, but what we basically planned to do and how we planned to do it, we stuck at it for most of the 80 minutes and it was a good win for us in the end."
The Tigers had been one of the stories of the season, climbing back up the ladder, but their past two results have brought them back to reality.
"It just creates a bit of a negative smell around what we're doing with those two scorelines, especially given defensively before the last two weeks we were pretty high up in the competition," coach Benji Marshall told reporters after the game. "Our standards are better than that."
However, there was a significant blow for the Storm (3-7) as livewire fullback Sua Faalogo suffered a suspected facial fracture in a collision with teammate Hughes. Scans are scheduled for Monday. Faalogo has been their sharpest attacking weapon, scoring 11 tries this season, including the opening try of this match.
Melbourne raced to a 20-0 lead, looking much more like the Storm of old rather than the second-last-placed stragglers. Will Warbrick, Munster, and Hughes all crossed by the 12th minute, with Grant making easy metres out of dummy half. Munster's try was his first in 24 matches, and the Queensland five-eighth's return to form is especially timely with State of Origin selection looming.
With his brother Terrell May returning to Sydney before the match as his wife went into labour, Taylan May dragged four defenders over the line to open the Tigers' account in the 25th minute. Faalogo's injury occurred during the scramble to stop the powerhouse centre.
Grant swung momentum back Melbourne's way when he burrowed across the line for a 26-4 halftime lead. The Storm have recently developed a pattern of second-half collapses, but winger Warbrick's second try off a kick ensured the hosts got off to the best possible resumption.
The undermanned Tigers showed why they've been one of the form teams of the season, with May following Luke Laulilii across the tryline to close the gap to 32-16. But superstar Munster sealed the win when he combined with Grant and Hughes to cut through the defence and bag his second try of the day, handing Wests Tigers successive losses for the first time this season.
Marshall lamented his Tigers' poor start as they slipped to 5-4 for the season. "It was tough. It just seemed no matter what we did, we couldn't find a way out of turning the momentum that they had," he said. "You can't give anyone that sort of start, and what it creates is scoreboard pressure and you start playing a different type of footy to try and catch up and win the game. I was proud of the fight in the second half, but ultimately we just weren't good enough. Credit to them. They've been in a hole, they fought their way out today."
