Holmes- made a bad error running too close to the sideline, but it was good to see he had the confidence to try it. Was much better positionally than week 1, and much better error rate than weeks 1 and 2. Was much more involved than last week (albeit from fullback which is probably a bit easier). Much better, up to a pass level this week. 6
Feki- improving a bit, getting more involved. No errors. 6
Ramien- again, 1 bad error, but also improving, nice attack for the try, great defence. 7
Leutele- like Ramien, 1 bad error but otherwise a fine game. 7
Lee- 2 errors, 1 bad, the other a tough chance but would have given us a try. And a silly penalty when we would have had the ball. But excellent hit ups, was one of the most damaging runners in the game. 7
Townsend- good, controlled game. 1 bad kick out on the full, otherwise his general kicking and goal kicking were excellent. 7
Hodkinson- best spine player in the game, in a match against Munster, Smith and Slater, that is quite a feat. Threatened the line with his running game (did not expect that!), passing very crisp (hands down destroyed Munster in that regard), defense very solid, kicking superb. 8
Fifita- I'm loving this new, hard working, metre eating but sensible Fifita we have unearthed this past fortnight. In a game with a bazillion penalties and drop balls, was very disciplined. 8
Brailey- more awesome running from Brailey, and an attempted kick (didn't quite work, but like to see he is an option). Struggled in defense at times and gave away penalties as a result (his size counts against him taking on the giant Storm forwards, though the offside penalties are less forgivable). 7
Prior- also getting better again and was a chief enforcer in defence. 7
Lewis- unfortunate binning, but added immediate starch and professionalism to the team. Melbourne backs were at a loss about how to beat him in defense and were walloped and cramped all night, Melbourne forwards were funnelled in field to get smashed by Gallen and co. 8
Graham- his best game for us this year, much better. Not a game for free flowing attack, but he threatened with the ball, again kicked well when needed, and was superb in defense. Had Slater’s number all night. 8
Gallen- a typical Gal performance. Hard work, got a sloppy offload that lead to a try, was unbreakable in the middle. Games like this are made for Gallen. 8
Capewell- Is being picked as the 4th forward who can cover the backs as needed, so is not getting a chance to do much, and didn’t do much. But for that 4th forward role, Flanno will be happy that he didn’t make any errors or miss tackles. 6
Segeyaro- best game from our bench since the last time he killed the Storm. Not much game time but seemed to come on at exactly the right moment (the game was stalled and Melbourne were starting to hold our progress) and snatched back momentum so Storm never got back into the game. 7
Paulo- nothing fancy, but added energy and made good hit ups when he came on in the middle of the game. 7
Seumanufagai- Doing a Latimore style job. Not particularly good, but not bad and as a young benchie, I’m sure that is all Flanno is after. 6
Overall, that was very similar (except with the 2018 addition of 32 penalties) to our win over them last year. They looked disjointed, frustrated, and angry all game. They seem to hate playing us, which is just a perfect situation to be in.
Our much less fancied spine completely outplayed theirs (Croft was their best and Hodkinson was much better than him, Munster ran dangerously but clogged up their attack, Smith looked tired, Slater was manhandled all night). Our forwards were all over theirs.
It was a perfect, grinding style game for us, but our forwards were so much better you get the feeling the stop/start nature may have saved them from a bigger loss.
Ugly game, great win.
