Some Melbourne fans still get confused over rugby and league.
It looked like the Storm had union’s allotment of 15 players on the field at AAMI Park with the Warriors lining up with league’s mandatory 13 during their 36-0 first-half blitz.
They took Jahrome Hughes off for the second half with a sore shoulder and their foot off the throttle but they still cruised to a 42-14 triumph, their 17th in succession during their purple reign over the Warriors.
Warriors prop James Fisher-Harris suffered a pectoral injury early in the loss and could be out for an extended period.
In Sunday’s later game, Terrell May reinforced his claims for buy of the year as Wests Tigers toppled the Knights 20-6 in Newcastle with the home side slumping to its worst attacking output of 46 after five rounds in club history.
1. Terrell leaves a lasting impression
The Tigers hit the jackpot when the Roosters made the strange decision to cut Terrell May adrift even before his two-year contract upgrade had kicked in.
May monstered the Knights at McDonald Jones Stadium, owning the middle third throughout the match to give the Tigers the forward leader that they have been missing for the majority of their 14-year finals drought.
After splitting their opening six matches, it’s too early to say Wests are on track for the playoffs but they have something that has been absent by this time of the season for several years – a chance.
May did not need a break despite maintaining a ferocious intensity for 71 minutes before he was given an early shower by Benji Marshall with the result wrapped up.
He ended up with 156 running metres, five offloads, four tackle breaks and 31 tackles in an awe-inspiring display by the 25-year-old Samoan international.
The Roosters won on Friday night in Brisbane but after their 2-4 start to the year, they certainly could have used someone like May ruffling a few feathers.
2. Tigers’ touch of class proves decisive
With the likes of Fonua Pole and Alex Twal supporting May’s drive, the Tigers eventually got the upper hand after both teams were tradesmanlike in the opening 15 minutes.
But the Tigers have a touch of class these days and ex-Penrith winger Sunia Turuva bounced out of a couple of tackles to register his seventh try of 2025.
The Knights’ left edge stuffed up the simple act of counting numbers from a midfield scrum and Starford To’a broke through Bradman Best’s grab to make it 8-0.
“Poor, poor, poor, poor, poor,” was Knights Immortal Andrew Johns’ assessment of the defensive deficiency on Nine commentary.
The defence was of a similar standard when Wests fullback Jahream Bula grubbered through and regathered for a 14-0 half-time advantage.
After rival centres Dane Gagai and To’a were sin-binned for a scuffle, Adam Doueihi dotted down just before the hour mark for a 20-point lead.
A 2-0 lead was probably going to be enough against Newcastle’s misfiring attack which did not make a line break a week after being held to the same scoreline by Canterbury.
They notched a lucky try from a grubber in the final seconds to Fletcher Sharpe to at least avoid being held scoreless again but it was cold comfort to their loyal fans who deserve so much better.
3. Storm reigning on sunny day in Melbourne
It was rugby league alchemy for the first 40 minutes at AAMI Park on Sunday with the Storm having the Midas touch in running in six unanswered tries.
Harry Grant, Cameron Munster, Jahrome Hughes and Ryan Papenhuyzen ran rampant and although they may have been lucky with forward pass calls in the lead-up to a couple of tries, they narrowly missed out on 40 points in as many minutes when Grant was stripped over the line.
Hughes suffered a shoulder injury midway through the first half and with the contest over, Storm coach Craig Bellamy took the precaution of keeping him on the bench even though the Kiwi international claimed he could have gone back on.
“Hopefully there’s nothing too serious there,” he said after confirming Hughes would undergo scans.
“He was keen to play on, but we just thought with the way the game was, the best option was to take him off.
“He was in a fair bit of pain early, but it seemed to get a little bit better as it went on.”
The Storm were on the back foot for all over 70 seconds before Grant Anderson made a long-range break which led to the first of Xavier Coates’ two tries.
Josh King, Shawn Blore off a questionable Coates pass and Trent Loeiro crossed the stripe in a 10-minute burst before Grant and Anderson made it 36-0 within the first half-hour.
Warriors forward Jackson Ford was sin-binned for taking out Papenhuyzen as he supported a break upfield when his team was down by 18 – the deficit had doubled by the time he returned.
“We got off to a great start,” Bellamy said in the understatement of the year.
“I’m really happy with the way the first half went. The second half we had to switch a few blokes around with a couple of injuries. It’s hard to be critical – the second half wasn’t great watching.”
Leka Halasima, Rocco Berry and Luke Metcalf helped bridge the gap in the second half but there was only ever going to be one winner.
4. Why would Bellamy retire?
The annual soap opera around Craig Bellamy’s oft-delayed retirement should be a short one this time around.
Storm management: “Hey Craig, why the hell would you wanna quit with the team you’ve got?”
Bellamy, spittle flying even though he couldn’t be more content as a coach right now: “You’re f—in’ right, WTF would I walk away when we could not only win this year but be a pretty good chance of adding a few more in the next year or two.”
Dust off last year’s media release, change the dates and get it over and done with.
Jason Ryles may have made the wrong call by knocking back St George Illawarra to take his first head coaching job at Parramatta but he definitely would be waiting a lot longer if he stuck around as Storm assistant.
5. JFH injury makes a bad day worse
The Warriors were made to look well off the pace by Melbourne’s superiority but don’t tell coach Andrew Webster that they were gallant in defeat.
He was fuming over their lack of attention to detail
“We missed our jobs a lot at the start particularly. There were big momentum swings and we didn’t handle it well at all,” he said.
“We didn’t get to play our game as a result of all the defence. We’re trying so hard but we didn’t execute our tackles.
“We came here confident if we play our best footy, we could get a good outcome. I’m frustrated with the result and the way we played.”
Fisher-Harris will undergo scans on his injury on Monday after the Warriors return to Auckland but if they confirm a rupture, he could miss most of the season.
It goes without saying that the Warriors can ill afford to be without their forward leader despite their 3-2 record even after Sunday’s flogging.
The Kick: Knights’ attack flat as a tack
Newcastle’s inability to score points cannot just be attributed to the players on the field.
They have scored more than 10 points just once in five outings this season and have bothered the scoreboard attendants on a mere two occasions in their past three matches.
Their 46-point tally in their first five matches is their worst return in club history. Serious questions need to be asked of the front office and the coaching staff.
There has been a lack of imagination from coach Adam O’Brien and a sameness in the type of players they have recruited around star fullback Kalyn Ponga.
Newcastle is a blue-collar city built on hard work but in the NRL you can’t have a team of 16 workers with one guy being required to conjure up points.
They will shed Jackson Hastings’ large contract at the end of the season and have invested megabucks in Eels five-eighth Dylan Brown for the next decade.
It doesn’t need to be repeated that the Brown deal is a huge gamble but even if he shines as a Knight, there needs to be an overhaul of roster and tactics otherwise it will be more of the one-dimensional same in the Hunter.