Justin O'Neill

When you watch the Melbourne Storm, you have to wonder just one thing – who is going to defeat them?

The Storm blew the Penrith Panthers out of the water, to record a club record 9th straight win – winning 44-10, on the back of stellar performances from their big 3 in Billy Slater, Cameron Smith and Cooper Cronk.

Injuries to two key players compounded the loss for the Panthers – with centre Michael Jennings suffering a shoulder injury, and captain Luke Lewis hobbling off the field.

Although the Panthers put up a good fight, and led early – it was clear that the Storm are in another league at the moment, as they turned on the jets, and stormed away with the game.

With Jennings clearly struggling, Panthers coach Ivan Cleary said that he made the call to take the NSW centre off, and not the medical staff.

“Michael’s fine as far as I know… I took him off the field … the medical advice was that he was fine to play. I took him off so you take that how you want,” he said.

Cleary was also pleased with the way his side played in the first half, despite the score flattering the Storm at half-time.

“They really just took their chances. I thought we started really well. We competed much better than we have for a while and I thought the score at halftime didn’t really sum up the first half at all,” he said.

“We’ve just got to keep working hard and take the positives out of tonight’s game.”

With Jennings perhaps not 100% heading into the game, Storm coach Craig Bellamy was pressed on whether or not his side targeted Jennings in defence.

By ricky

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