The Melbourne Storm have eased to victory in their first trial game of 2011, with an easy 34-10 win over Ipswich and Easts Tigers.
It was all one-way traffic in the first half, with the Storm putting the pedal to the metal, as they led 34-0 at the break, before a resurgent Easts Tigers outfit, outscored the Storm 10-0 in the second half.
The first half had penalties a-many blown, and it was second-rower Steven Thorpe who was a stand-out, as he scored two tries for the Storm, as did their next big thing, Elijah Niko.
After their cap scandal of 2010, the Storm have entered a new era, an era in which the players, administrators and fans are all looking forward to, and an era that has started on the right track.
Frank Ponissi, the Storm’s football manager was full of praise for the way his team carried out their business on the field, but he was critical at the amount of dropped ball from the Storm.
“I thought we were very clinical in the first half mainly because our error rate was so low, we hardly turned over a ball in the first half,” he said.
“We dominated possession and dictated the speed of the game and that really helped us.
“But the second half was a complete reverse, our ball possession was very poor which is disappointing.
“(Ball handling) always is (a bit poor) at this stage of the year, but even so it was a bit low.
“But I thought we defended really well in the second half given we had to do so much defending.”
He was also full of praise for prop Mitchell Johnson, and ex-Raider Joel Thompson, both of whom are fighting for a first-grade spot come Rd 1.
“They were the pick of our front-rowers to be honest,” he added.
Only downside to the win, was a hamstring injury to NYC player Kirisome Auva’a.