I think last year's Mt Smart game was like this from memory. We were leading 14-0 after like 20 mins and absolutely blasting them through the middle. They then scored like 4 tries in an 10 minute spell and we were behind 20-14 at HT. We never really recovered from that blitz. Interestingly, if you look at the stats from that game, I think we won them all: we outran them (both total and pcms), had more possession and a higher completion rate. That's the most annoying thing about Melbourne: it takes 80 mins to beat these mofos but only 5-10 minutes to lose to them.
Team List Storm v Warriors - [Round 6, 2025]
- Thread starter mt.wellington
- Start date
NZWarriors.com
Bro complains about people telling him to run more, he's not a prop
Me watching the highlight reels in 2025 and wondering why dafuq didn't he run more
NZWarriors.com
I've been to Australia 8 times to watch them play and they've never won.
I was planning on going to the weekends game but chose not too. Maybe we do have this!
Oh man I remembered, Berry murdered his shoulder, then they put on 20 in no time, but Barney scored right after halftime and it was 20:18, then Dick Hughes ran straight into Monty and caused him to be sin binned, Dallin not long after, we were down to 11 and they scored twice to pull away.
We just didn't have the D last year, hopefully with Fish in the middle it will plug the leaks this time
NZWarriors.com
Yeah, don't think you can read into it any more than that - the 18th spot tends to get changed up in 24hr list as well - I don't see any jiggery-pokery happening with the first grade list this week other than perhaps Afoa being swapped out for Healey, or Laban ... and that's pretty unlikely to my thinking too... Looking forward to this game... like Bangbros I'm thinking we will get them, it feels like it should happen somehow... that's my mystic meg side... my match up side sees that we have significantly tightened our middle and ruck defence, so unless we start giving away opportunities like we did to Fainu in the tigers game we will be much harder to crack for Hughes and (less so) Munster when they go hunting in tha area... and a lot of their attack relies on expoliting that very weakness in sides ... that's got to be a good calculation for one of the rarest upsets in NRL history ... (was at the last one and I couldn't quite believe what I was seeing then, the hanged man Friend and SJ frustating the shit out of those arrogant mfs... was a good feeling)
Its a going to be an interesting game on a few fronts.
Our defense and attempt to suffocate teams in to errors and cracking versus The Storm's attacking threat and ability to break open just about any defense. They aren't a bad defensive side either, so can our so far less than fluid attack ask enough questions of them.
The Melbourne home game. Not many teams go to Melbourne and come away with their confidence intact let alone with competition points.
Are we playing close to our potential or is there still room for improvement? This game will be a very good indicator of where we are at against the Premiership favourites at their home ground.
Another really interesting area to look for, and one unfortunately I think we have a lot of improvement left in (in terms of defending it), is how Katoa has been used - his passing game has been hot, and the timing with Papenhuyzen has been good ... hoping our old fellas on the edge can carry it, cos that's what is going to be asked of them
NZWarriors.com
Katoa vs Capewell scares me a little bit.
Yes, the Storm ask many questions of your defense and in different areas. If you can hold out the Storm you can hold out anyone. The big question is can we? I think we will be able to limit the Storm somewhat but our issues with our attack means we wont be able to topple them. If they get a few early tries the pressure will be on the kick to the corner gameplan.
NZWarriors.com
Bit of talk about our head to head with the Storm and some of our wins over the years so I thought I'd look into it.
- Andrew Johns played till 2007 and at that point we were pretty even with the Storm and most of that time slightly had an edge by a win or two.
- Storm have been winning the head to head since 2007, but...
- It continued to be very even up until 2015 (just 2 more wins to Melbourne).
- Our last win was in 2015, and we have lost 16 in a row since then!
- Coming close to 10 years without a win now.
- Definitely a few memorable wins against em...
NZWarriors.com
Was it your predictions last few games that have been trustworthy, you had us over the Tigers too didn't ya?
There were two games where we had the edge but the game turned with a couple of howlers - one was the penalty on Papalii when it was more of a ball plant and the second one was the sin binning on Walker.
NZWarriors.com
Andrew Johns' relevance to this is what exactly?
I think we've won the most games with Tony(first name?) Archer reffing, so if he can come out of retirement, that'd be helpful.
Still recall that slightly hopeful feeling I had at half time in the April 25 2022 game: Thought process: "Down 10-16, but, hey, DWZ going off injured hasn't helped but we work around that, get first points/force enough pressure in the second half...We're not favourites, but we're Still. In. This!" Thought process 40-Odd Minutes later after a 0-54 Second Half: "I am NOT related to Nostradamus! Stupid-a Fucking Game!"
Absolutely not counting this as a W. Would be happy enough with a repeat of last year's 4Pt loss, but maybe not in the way it happened last year...
And still Definitely - piss poor record, "WAHHH! It's late for the Wahs to Kick-Off after the ANZAC Memorial part!" crying be damned to Hell - think this should be an ANZAC Day game, even if it's in Melbourne every year.
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