Sea Eagles fall but show premiership is far from one-horse race

Of most concern for Melbourne, and every other team hoping to take the title from them, is that Manly pushed them to the brink on a night when Tom Trbojevic wasn’t a major factor.

This was one of those rare occasions when an event lived up to the hype. A decade on from the Battle of Brookvale, in front of an empty Suncorp Stadium, two heavyweights had to be content trading figurative blows.

It ended in another win for the Storm, their 17th in succession. It’s the same mark that Penrith set last year and they didn’t win the one that matters. The Sea Eagles will walk away from this knowing they are not too far behind the benchmark. Confidence can be gained from losses, too.

This was riveting stuff. Scintillating tries, wild swings in momentum and a couple of lead changes. They are not scheduled to meet again during the regular rounds, but there is every chance of another encounter this season when the stakes are higher. Watching on televisions somewhere, Glenn Stewart and Adam Blair would have been loving it.

In his previous four games, Trbojevic scored 10 tries, part of a purple patch the likes of which the game has rarely seen. The task of stopping him appeared near impossible, with coach Craig Bellamy threatening to bring a shotgun to do it.

The Storm defence did as good a job as anyone has all year. The superstar fullback still ran for 123 metres, produced two try assists and four line breaks. That is about half of the freakish output that has become his norm, and he also gifted the Storm a try through a rare mistake.

“I thought we did a pretty good job [on him],” said Melbourne coach Craig Bellamy.

“He got us a couple of times with a couple of [try assists] down our right; we probably didn’t handle that as well as we would have liked.

“I probably can’t be too critical of them, he’s hard to handle. I thought most other aspects of the game, we limited him pretty well.”

Kieran Foran battles to get to the ball first.Credit:NRL Photos

The greasy conditions didn’t lend themselves to open football, but both teams played it anyway. It is considered imperative to complete the set immediately after scoring, often resulting in five one-out runs before booting the ball on the last. When the Storm scored the opening try of the game, after Kenny Bromwich slid across a dewy Suncorp surface, they instead successfully shifted the ball from the kick-off.

It was all part of a greater chess game between Des Hasler and Bellamy. Hasler remains the only coach with a winning record over “Bellyache”, although that gap has closed.

Despite everything that occurred in the opening 40 minutes, the teams went into the sheds on even terms. The Storm enjoyed 60 per cent of possession, played the ball 16 times in the opposition quarter, but had only one try to show for it.

The frustration of constantly being turned away by desperate Sea Eagles defence led to a costly mistake. Totally against the run of play, Jason Saab intercepted an errant Nicho Hynes pass and ran the length of the field. An eight-point advantage was lost.

The Storm regained the ascendancy in the second stanza when Justin Olam scored two tries in seven minutes.

The Silvertails refused to go quietly and scored again to pull within two points, but Melbourne eventually prevailed. In the end, there was only a fingertip in it. Had Reuben Garrick been able to ground the Steeden in his in-goal, Cameron Munster’s match-winning try could have been prevented.

“It was always going to be a tight contest, that’s the way we wanted to approach it,” Hasler said.

“That’s what we wanted to get out of tonight’s game.”

Bellamy’s side remains the team to beat, but this is proof it can be beaten.

“It’s been one hell of an effort from this group,” Bellamy said. “To win 17 in a row in this competition is quite remarkable.”

In the match that preceded this one, the Panthers and Roosters fought gallantly without some of their finest troops, but still looked a level below what is required to upset the men in purple.

The Sea Eagles, and perhaps the Rabbitohs, will feel they have the style to match the favourites.

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Adrian Proszenko is the Chief Rugby League Reporter for the Sydney Morning Herald.

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