Melbourne faded late in the season last year to cost themselves a top-four spot and for large portions of Saturday night’s stoush with St George Illawarra in Wollongong, it looked like the Storm would be fizzling out again.
Cronulla leapfrogged them into fourth with their third straight win on Thursday night when they thumped the Cowboys and the Sharks were cheering on their bitter rivals at WIN Stadium as the Dragons appeared on the verge of upsetting the Storm.
But when it came to the crunch, the Storm played with poise and the Dragons lived up to their familiar trend of shooting themselves in the foot as Melbourne sealed a 38-28 triumph to put their noses back in front of the Sharks in the race for fourth spot and an all-important second chance in the finals.
The Storm are at home to the Titans next round before finishing with a trip to Brisbane while the Sharks are away to Newcastle before hosting Canberra while the Raiders and Knights are also a chance of swamping them both if they finish the regular season with a wet sail.
Xavier Coates breaks out of a tackle. (Photo by Tim Allsop/Getty Images)
Bellamy not Bellyaching much
“There’s some things that we’re not happy about but there’s more things we’re happy about,” was his post-match summation.
“Our completions in the second half won us the game.
“They put a bit of fatigue in us. A couple of their tries, I was disappointed we went away from our defensive systems. We’re stoked that we fought back from that far down and managed to hang on at the end.”
Bellamy said the disappointing aspect was the fact they had 28 points put on them after only conceding two the previous week when they caned Canberra.
“It’s a bit of a mixed bag for us. They really turned up tonight to play, the Dragons.”
Scoring back and forth as defence goes missing
The Storm skipped out to a 4-0 lead inside the first 10 minutes when Will Warbrick capitalised on twin defensive lapses from Max and Mat Feagai.
But the Dragons hit back when off-contract second-rower Billy Burns did his hopes of a new deal a boost by dummying his way over the line.
They went 12-4 ahead midway through the first half when Tyrell Sloan evaded three defenders in a confined space to make the most of a Ben Hunt pass.
“He’s pretty to watch,” said Fox League analyst Greg Alexander, a fair natural athlete himself back in his playing days.
“He just glides and changes direction seamlessly. Doesn’t lose speed and it’s a beautiful running action.”
The bunker gave the green light to a third St George Illawarra try in the 25th minute when five-eighth Junior Amone skidded to the stripe via momentum, not a double movement.
But that is where the Dragons’ momentum halted.
Warbrick finished an overlap and then completed a first-half hat-trick when he brushed off Amone and Sloan on his own in the attacking zone.
Xavier Coates ran through some feeble defence in the middle to run past Sloan to make it 18-18 at the break.
After praising his attack earlier on, Alexander was critical of Sloan for not putting his body on the line in defence to prevent the last two tries.
Warbrick coughed up a bomb and Burns pounced for the Dragons to regain the lead by six early in the second stanza but Eliesa Katoa overpowered three defenders for his first try and then collected a Jahrome Hughes kick for his second as the Storm went ahead 30-24.
Mikaele Ravalawa sliced over in the corner with five minutes remaining but Hunt’s sideline attempt swung wide and the Storm sealed one of their ugliest but most important wins of the season when Katoa crunched Hunt and Hughes scooted away.
It was a fourth straight narrow loss for the Dragons and interim coach Ryan Carr said their “effort has been unbelievable” at a time when they could have turned up their toes.
“I thought our attitude was bang on tonight,” he said. “We were still attacking the game right to the death, which is really pleasing, because there’s been times previously that we probably would have just gone away.
“They didn’t drop one ball … That’s a good game of footy by them but that’s a really good game of footy by us too.
“We’re building a real good attitude and culture around what we’re doing. When you start chopping and changing things you don’t stand for anything.”
Dragons the kings of rocks and diamonds
When you look across the St George Illawarra line-up, you can see why they’re running second last but also why their fans are frustrated they’re not higher on the ladder.
Put simply, they are the kings of rocks and diamonds.
They have several players who can be spectacular on their day but put in too many dud performances in between.
There’s a high variability between their best and their worst.
Zac Lomax, who sat out this match with a shoulder injury, epitomises this unpredictable mantra. His wingman, Ravalawa is just as adept at sensational tries on the right edge as he is at bone-headed tackles which earn the ire of the judiciary.
He kicked off this match with a basic handling error which stifled the team’s early momentum and finished with his 20th try of the season.
Burns is another player who shows glimpses of being a regular first-grader, as he showed in this match with two tries, but his defence can be suspect, Katoa crashed through a tackle from his opposing second-rower to score one of Melbourne’s four-pointers.
The Feagai twins are still young but their form varies wildly while Sloan is still learning his trade as a fullback and as potent as he is in attack, he needs to bulk up and brush up on his tackling technique in the off-season to live up to his potential under Shane Flanagan in 2024..
