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Message: [QUOTE="Big Pete, post: 3224091, member: 1899"] As always with these Round 1 teams, my eyes are drawn to the surprise picks. They likely won't play a big role in the proceedings but players like Seb Kris, Brad Deitz and Tyson Smoothy are names I didn't expect to see come Round 1 but they're the type of bolters that make this round such a lottery. Melbourne-Souths should be a fantastic way to open the season. Usually, I'm not an advocate for having your two best teams face off in the opening round but with Bellamy's immaculate Round 1 record on the line I can see this living up to the billing. There's some extra intrigue as well because the home side goes into the game understrength. The loss of Dale Finucane, Harry Grant and Brenko Lee has knocked Melbourne down another peg and they look skinny on paper. The selection of both Lewis and Eisenhuth on the bench intrigues me. They're very similar players and I've only seen them as bench players. Either this is a smokescreen from Bellamy and there will be some adjustments later in the week or he may re-arrange his pack in the middle of the game. Or even Option C Bellamy views Isaah Yeo as the perfect mould for what a new lock should look like and is trying to get Eisenhuth ready to fit that role. Nice to see another old BHQ (or at least [USER=8318]@BroncosAlways[/USER]) favourite get a start in a big game. It felt like he was going to fall between the cracks at one stage Jennings, but he was a handy player for the Warriors when they desperately needed players and he could provide that workhorse role for the Storm. That leaves Reimis Smith who is one of my favourites for break-out player of the year. A couple of years back he was one of the form players in the competition as he helped the Bulldogs avoid the wooden spoon in 2018. He's had his moments since but has never had the opportunity to stand out at a fairly rudderless club. Now in the Storm system, I'm curious to see what Bellamy can do. However the biggest storyline for Melbourne will be the #9 position. How much of an impact will the loss of Cameron Smith have on the Storm and can Brandon Smith step up to the mark? Melbourne won't find a better replacement (except for Harry Grant, who they also have) but it's still such a tall order and the few times we've seen 'Cheese' in the role it's altered the Storm's attacking gameplans dramatically. It's Round 1 so Melbourne shouldn't have to rely too heavily on creativity, but in the big moments, can Brandon come up with the right play for his team mates? On the back of the Mitchell-Walker-Reynolds-Cook-Murray combination I have Souths figuring in very heavily come the finals, but can they be as classy as the Dragons were in 2009-10? To me that's the biggest question marks and I have my doubts on whether Bennett can get Souths to buy into that level of commitment, especially since he and a few other marquee talent have one foot out the door. They should still find themselves in the Top 4 when it's all said and done, but I can't help but think there's some complacency about this side. I don't think they'll have any problems scoring points, it's their defence that I'm worried about. If Melbourne can sucker them into the grind, I get the feeling they'll frustrate the South Sydney pack into submission and walk away with a fairly convincing victory. Players like Tom Burgess and Jaydn Su'A can be very effective with the football and in the case of Su'A can pull off the odd hit but they can also be very loose as well. Host is an unknown entity at this stage, he could mature into a solid edge backrow or he could be just another edge forward that gets thrown to the heap. The Marshall selection also seems very odd. He wasn't the worst player to have at the Broncos in 2017 when the halves were Milford/Nikorima but when it's Walker/Reynolds it seems entirely unnecessary. I don't think he'd be a bad player to have against a Newcastle Knights or Gold Coast Titans where the game can open up and you might need some extra options but against Melbourne it just seems to be asking for trouble. I just get the impression that Melbourne will race to a quick 10-0 lead off of the few usual suspects and then coast for the majority of the second half as Souths fail to mount a comeback. Fans will whinge about things Melbourne did over a decade ago, a few journalists will blame Latrell and really all it will amount to is a slog of a Round 1 game. [/QUOTE]

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