Reply to thread

Message: [QUOTE="Big Pete, post: 2571920, member: 1899"] [B]Round 1 2014 Manly Sea Eagles v Melbourne Storm[/B] Been meaning to check this game out since it happened but took longer than expected to get round to it. Game of two halves sums it up nicely. Manly were amazing in the first half, they have perfected the sweep play and were honestly unlucky not to have lead by more. Highlights actually don't do their play justice believe it or not but they do show how fantastic Stewart was. His performance would rank right up there as one of the best in Round 1 despite only playing 40 minutes. Yet, Melbourne did very well given the conditions to fight back. I think they were aided somewhat by the referees who seemingly gave them a lot of cheap penalties to 'even the ledger' so to speak but to come back from 20-0, sans Cronk, in the wet at Brookvale is still a marvelous achievement. The credit really needs to be shared around. Slater + Smith played to their abilities, the forwards really muscled up and I thought their halves did a very good job of leading the team around. You'd only hear it from Melbourne, but Ben Roberts had a very good game I thought. Kicked well and while he wasn't Cronk, he kept the same structures that have served the Storm well for so long. At 22-20, I believe the old Storm would have won the game right then and there but felt the effects of the salary cap as the burden of carrying a player like Fonua hurt them on two key occasions. In the end, it set up a nail-biting finish which was ultimately won by their captain who would within a week's time sign a deal that would see him stick with the club for the rest of his career. A famous win for the club despite the controversy. Random points - DCE by his standards, had a shocker. Bombed a certain try by blasting his cross-field kick over the dead-ball line, gave the Storm cheap possession by kicking a 40/20 attempt over the sideline on the full and of course threw a forward pass to Dunamis Lui. Still ran to the line well in the first half, but he would have been filthy with himself after the game. - Hiku had a shocker at fullback, turning the ball over on a couple of key occasions which would later hurt Manly in the worst way. - Storm bench in particular was good. Kenny Bromwich & Jordan McLean have really stepped up, Tohu Harris is still a player of plenty of promise and Georgey Rose was at his enigmatic best. - Waqa continues to impress me on the wing. Couple of technical errors here and there but he can finish a try and has been one of the Storm's best. Definitely underrated by the media & one of the players Bellamy has turned from trash into treasure. - Hampton is a player worth keeping an eye on. Not blessed with a lot of talent, but really backs himself. Couple of rookie mistakes, but came up with some big plays too, I'm excited to see how he performs in 2014. [/QUOTE]

Verification

Active Now

No members online now.

Total: 101 (members: 0, guests: 101)

Reply to thread

Log in

Active Now