It was billed as the grand final rematch and it lived up to the expectation as the Melbourne Storm defeated the North Queensland Cowboys.
With the two teams forming a rivalry in recent years, after a defensive slog-out early, the Storm were far too good in the end.
Despite a swashbuckling performance by Coen Hess who scored two tries, the Cowboys could not keep up in the end.
Coach Paul Green criticised his team for believing their own hype following the loss.
“[They need to] stop reading some headlines for starters and just have a more consistent effort in the little areas, the tough areas of the game,” he said.
“Defence is the first area for that. We’re just conceding too many easy tries and easy points at the moment.”
Although the loss was not as brutal as their grand final clash, the win puts the Storm back in the winners circle.
In the end, the win came about because the Storm managed to shut down the halves combination of Michael Morgan and Johnathan Thurston.
The two sides traded penalty goals to start the game before back-rower Joe Stimson made a hit-and-spin to score to give the Storm an 8-2 lead.
The scoreline could have been higher had it not been for uncharacteristic errors for the Storm, as Smith slotted another penalty goal for 10-2 lead.
They started the slower in the second half as Cowboys back-rower bullocked his way over for their first try of the evening.
With the Cowboys needing inspiration, it came from Hess yet again, as he produced an even better run to bustle over for his second.
Despite their best efforts, the Cowboys could not score again.
Instead, the Storm scored two late tries to Will Chambers and Nelson Asofa-Solomona to seal the victory.
In the end, Storm coach Craig Bellamy was pleased with his side’s performance.
“I was really happy with our effort tonight,” Bellamy said.
“It was quite frustrating again at times, because we started off really well and completions starting falling away.
“At the start of the second half, we completed two out of five, and then all of a sudden we didn’t touch a ball for 12 or 14 minutes.”
Despite their completion rate of 78 percent, their high missed tackle count concerned Green.
“It disappoints me, because I know we are better than that. Until we are prepared to work hard for it, it’s not going to happen for us,” he said.
“Two weeks in a row. We didn’t really learn our lesson from last week [loss to Brisbane] on how to play good consistent footy in the NRL.”
One thought on “Storm defeat Cowboys in grand final rematch”
It was very nearly 0-4, down by 7 points with not long to go, the Cowboys scored a converted try, JT kicked the field goal to level up and then kicked another one in golden point to get the first win on the board and start an 11 game winning streak.. The Cowboys last win of the season would be very much like their first.
It was very nearly 0-4, down by 7 points with not long to go, the Cowboys scored a converted try, JT kicked the field goal to level up and then kicked another one in golden point to get the first win on the board and start an 11 game winning streak.. The Cowboys last win of the season would be very much like their first.