The Melbourne Storm have comfortably beaten the Canberra Raiders in Wagga Wagga, but insist there’s still a lot of growth in the team – despite moving to the top of the table.
The most frustrating thing for a neutral fan isn’t even how good the Storm are, or that their key men can seemingly creates tries out of thin air, like we saw today – it’s that they’re never satisfied.
It’s win number four from five to start the year, with that insane final play against Parramatta their only blemish so far – most teams would kill for that. Not Melbourne.
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“It’s a really positive start,” Harry Grant said.
“But I think we’ve got a lot of improvement in us which is really exciting.”
The Storm had a healthy lead at half time but you wouldn’t have known it as Craig Bellamy tore strips off his players – presumably for the late Semi Valemei try that cut the deficit to 10, and it may have been reduced even further if not for the Raiders blowing a couple of chances.
But once Justin Olam crashed over it was all-but-over, and despite Nick Cotric’s late score creating somewhat of a lifeline, a 30 metre solo effort from Jahrome Hughes put an exclamation mark on a performance where he, Grant, Brandon Smith, Ryan Papenhuyzen and Cameron Munster had been instrumental.
Munster praised the work of their forward pack, who were outstanding throughout and allowed him and Jahrome Hughes to shine.
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“Myself and Hughesy’s best strengths are running the ball, and if we have shape inside us and outside us it dictates against the defence and gives us open spaces,” Cameron Munster said afterwards.
“If our forwards don’t go forward it doesn’t let me and Hughesy run our plays.”
The Storm go to the top of the table, at least until the Panthers play the Bulldogs tomorrow.
For Canberra, it’s a third loss of the year ahead of a tricky couple of weeks. First, they play the Cowboys just four weeks after being thumped by them in Townsville, before taking on the premiers in Penrith.
“I feel for the boys, because I see how close we are,” coach Ricky Stuart said afterwards.
“As I just said to them in there – you’re allowed to enjoy your football, because they’re not enjoying their football at the moment because they’re not putting teams under pressure.
“There’s ways to build pressure, but we’re not doing it.”
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