The Storm recorded their biggest win of the season on Sunday as they hammered the Sharks 54-10 at AAMI Park.
Seven days on from being humbled by the Cowboys in a 45-20 loss, Melbourne bounced back in emphatic fashion, with six first-half tries giving them a 34-6 lead at the break before they piled on a further 20 points in the second 40 minutes.
Harry Grant was at his scheming best from hooker, scoring a personal double breaking seven tackles and clocking up 171 metres in yardage, while halves Cameron Munster and Jahrome Hughes showed their class behind a dominant forward effort which saw five pack members run for over 100 metres.
Harry Grant and Kamikamica combine again
As good as the Storm were, the Sharks were at times extremely poor, and aside from their defensive issues they failed to generate anything in attack and constantly gave away possession through cheap errors, of which they made 14 in total.
In his final opportunity to stake a claim for the vacant NSW No.7 jersey Nicho Hynes struggled, with two first-half errors leading to Storm tries and some poor options in the kicking game.
Both Grant and Xavier Coates had doubles in the opening period, which came after Tui Kamikamica opened the scoring just three minutes into the contest.
Supreme athleticism from Coates
Will Warbrick was Melbourne's other try-scorer in the first half, while Nick Meaney converted all but one of the four-pointers.
Josh King, Reimis Smith and Hughes all joined the party with tries in the second half, before the Sharks scored late through Ronaldo Mulitalo.
The only real negative was the loss of Eliesa Katoa (eye cut) and Reimis Smith (suspected hamstring) to game-ending injuries, while Christian Welch was placed on report for a Dangerous Tackle and sent to the bin.
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Match Snapshot
- The victory was Melbourne's biggest win since Round 23 last year when they beat the Broncos 60-12.
- Storm prop Christian Welch was sent to the sin bin and placed on report for a Dangerous Tackle which forced Royce Hunt from the field injured inside the final five minutes.
Welch sent to the sin bin
- Briton Nikora went to the bin in the dying minutes for an escort.
- After a near perfect first half with ball in hand, the Storm finished with a 77 percent completion rate, while the Sharks made 14 errors and completed at just 63 percent.
- The Storm have now won six of their past seven games against the Sharks and Cronulla have not won at AAMI Park since 2018.
- With a double on Sunday, Xavier Coates has scored 18 tries in 15 games at AAMI Park.
- In his 100th NRL appearance Storm fullback Nick Meaney scored 18 points.
Meaney makes a magnificent try saver
- The Storm suffered game ending injuries to Eliesa Katoa (eye cut) and Reimis Smith (suspected hamstring). Marion Seve also left the field for a HIA late in the contest.
Play of the Game
A beautiful piece of playmaking from Cameron Munster after he dug into the line and beat the first defender before popping the ball out to his winger. It was Xavier Coates' second try in the space of two minutes.
Sublime Storm
What They Said
“We will take a lesson in how we turned up and our attitude there. It’s also an opportunity to do something about it now. We definitely lacked energy… something looked a bit off there, but I didn’t sense it during the week.” – Sharks coach Craig Fitzgibbon.
Sharks: Round 15
"I think there are a couple of things we can improve in, but we did a whole heap of better things this week, especially with our defence. They (the Sharks) are a really good attacking side... that's a thing that we really wanted to improve this week after last week, our defence, which we did." – Storm coach Craig Bellamy.
Storm: Round 15
What's Next
With their Origin contingent out, the Storm will hope Katoa and Smith are fit to take part in Saturday's trip to face the Wests Tigers at Campbelltown Sports Stadium. The Sharks meanwhile have some soul searching to do ahead of playing the Bulldogs back home at PointsBet Stadium in Round 16.