Panthers Frank Pritchard Injury
[25 AUGUST, 2008]
Monday night NRL saw the Storm crush Panthers with Inglis at it again and Frank Pritchard possibly feigning injury?
The melbourne storm crushed the Penrith Panthers at Penny Park and look set to grab another minor premiership with continued late NRL Results that have been very impressive.
The Storm did their for-and-against tally no harm tonight with a commanding 40-6 win against the Penrith Panthers at CUA Stadium, with man-of-the-moment Greg Inglis helping himself to a hat-trick and closing to within two tries of Manly’s Brett Stewart and Brisbane’s Denan Kemp at the top of the league’s try-scorers list.
The performance was particular pleasing to Storm coach Craig Bellamy, but he was quick to point out there are still areas they need to work on.
“I was really happy with our first-half,” said Bellamy.
“We started the second-half a bit slow, but it’s hard to be too critical. I just thought our first-half was really good.
“We expected a tough game out there, obviously the Panthers probably needed to win tonight to stay alive and I thought our guys handled that really well in the first-half.
“If someone had of told me at the beginning of the game that would be the score I would have been really happy with that. I’m really surprised actually.”
Given Manly’s 32-point win over Wests Tigers on the weekend, the big win and subsequent points differential boost was important in Melbourne’s quest for a third straight minor premiership.
“The minor premiership, it’s a really good scalp to have on your belt, it’s a little bit under-rated in our game and we’d be proud to hold that again,” said Bellamy.
“But we’ve still got two games to go and we can still finish second or third I think so we’re just going to concern ourselves with Newcastle now. We’ll do our revue of this game tomorrow and we’ll go from there.”
After feeling each other out for the first 10 minutes, Melbourne opened the scoring when halfback Cooper Cronk sent a superb pass across the face of Israel Folau and into the arms of winger Steve Turner who out-sprinted the Panthers defence to the try-line.
Four minutes later Cronk was at it again. A perfectly placed kick from the Storm number seven saw Billy Slater challenge Penrith halfback Luke Lewis on the try-line, the clever fullback knocking the ball back into the waiting arms of Inglis who had the simple task of falling over the try-line.
A couple of minutes later Cronk was at the centre of the action again.
Kicking from his own 30 metre line, Cronk was taken out late by Luke Priddis, gifting the Storm possession from a penalty on the Panthers 20-metre line. From there the ball was spread out to Melbourne’s left with first Inglis then Matt Geyer flicking passes in the tackle, with Anthony Quinn crossing in the corner to make the score 14-nil.
Another Storm kick towards the try-line, this time from Cam Smith, saw Quinn challenge Penrith winger Michael Gordon. Both missed with their hands, but the ball ricocheted off Gordon’s head into the in-goal area, and Inglis was on the spot once again. With Cam Smith’s conversion the score had blown out to 20-nil.
The second-half started much better for the Panthers. Nathan Smith scored Penrith’s first try for the game when first Gordon made a break down the line, and then the Storm gave away an offside penalty to give the Panthers great field position and momentum.
However, their joy was short-lived when a neat set-play from Melbourne saw Slater gather at his toes brilliantly, before passing to Folau. Folau committed a couple of Penrith defenders to the tackle, but the giant centre got his right arm free to offload to Turner who scored his second for the night.
A penalty against Rhys Wesser for incorrectly playing the ball saw Melbourne get possession 10 metres from the try-line. Cam Smith tapped and instead of passing to a runner, went himself, catching the Panthers defenders unawares as he surged across the try-line for the Storm’s sixth try of the night.
Only minutes later front-rower Brett White crossed under the posts, but was deemed to have been held up by Wesser. However, only two plays later and White’s front-row partner Jeff Lima wasn’t to be denied, crossing to extend Melbourne’s lead out to 30-points.
With four minutes remaining, Inglis put the icing on the cake, scoring his third of the night after more terrific lead-up work from Slater.
The Storm will now turn its attention to Newcastle, the penultimate home-and-away game at EnergyAustralia Stadium next Saturday night. Knights coach Brian Smith was in the crowd tonight, and it would be interesting to know what he thought of Melbourne’s performance.
STORM 40 (Tries: Inglis 3, Turner 2, Quinn, Smith, Lima; Goals: C Smith 4) def. PANTHERS 6 (Try: N Smith; Goal: Gordon) at CUA Stadium, Penrith
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Chris Couch
Media Manager
Melbourne Storm Rugby League Club
