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Message: [QUOTE="Big Pete, post: 2603304, member: 1899"] [B]Match #7 St. George Illawarra vs Melbourne Storm[/B] Final match of the round and something of a surprise result as the Dragons avenge their controversial loss in Melbourne with a fairly comfortable win against a flat Melbourne Storm outfit. Dragons have seemingly come out of nowhere to rocket right back into finals contention and as of now boast as many wins as the Broncos do. McGregor has just got them playing very basic football. A lot of one out footy for the most part and trying to win possession through their kicking game which is very good with Widdop + Marshall and then shifting it to their backs when they're inside the danger zone to score points. Simple but when things go your way like they did against Melbourne, very tough to stop and full credit to them, they deserved the points. Melbourne were just off. I actually find the Melbourne Storm team very interesting to watch this season. They've been brilliant for years now but this is the first time where they've really struggled this early into the year and it's interesting to see how they're going to deal with it. On this particular occasion I just thought some of their senior players like Jesse Bromwich & Waqa let the team down and a lot of the new faces basically followed suit. It was a real tough night in the office for them as they didn't have a whole lot go their way and the Dragons kicking game was so immaculate they didn't receive too many 20m freebies which for me are just as valuable as receiving a penalty in the modern game. That was the difference really, the kicking game. While Bromwich and Waqa can always bounce back and become better I just don't know if Roberts or Hampton are a good fit for the Storm side. Hampton in particular seems to be really struggling in the five eigth role and I'd dare say he was the worst player on the park. None of his kicks put much pressure on the Dragons and when the game was in the balance he threw a horrible pass which later gave the Dragons the opportunity to spread it to Dugan who is just too good a player to defend against and really when you're depending on Mann & Fonua to mark up on him, you're not going to be in for a good time. Moving forward, it's going to be interesting to see how the Dragons go. They have a fairly mixed run home, they take on the two grand finalists but outside of them they have games like the Tigers, Panthers, Raiders, Knights, Titans & Broncos which are all winnable games. I get the feeling that they will wilt but wouldn't be surprised if that Round 25 game is a sudden death match for both Brisbane and St. George. Melbourne can come back too and with Cooper Cronk all but confirmed for Origin III I'd assume they'd be able to take most of their games on the run home which would be a tremendous result for them given this is the first time they've really been tested and brought back into the fold. I just think it was one of those occasions where their depth was tested, it wasn't up to par and unfortunately their stars weren't good enough to hide it. Although to his credit, Billy didn't stop trying all night. [/QUOTE]

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