NRL round 3 match review: Melbourne v. Brisbane at Melbourne

The third round of the nineteenth season of the National Rugby League kicked off with a 2-0 Melbourne Storm side facing the Brisbane Broncos, who had so far notched a win and a golden-point loss. Overshadowing the clash between these two supernovas of modern rugby à treize was the return of the king, Billy Slater, and the addition of Benji Marshall to the Broncos.

In the end, the appearance of neither was the decisive factor in a game which had it all. Slater’s entry into the fray came in the twenty-ninth minute, coterminous with a penalty which put his side 8-6 ahead. The preceding half-hour had seen one try and one disallowed try apiece, with the most spectacular being James Roberts’ interception and length-of-the-field run with Josh Addo-Carr hot on his tail.

Somehow, a Storm outfit which was tackled eighteen times in its opponent’s quarter and which completed fourteen of its twenty-two sets went into the sheds only slightly scathed. The Purple Curtain looked like it was about to burst open soon after the break, when Ben Hunt sold it the dummy and left a diving Slater in the dust to put the men from Bananaland 12-8 ahead.

La viola had an opportunity to regain control a few minutes later, when Suliasi Vunivalu and Darius Boyd had a to-do, but the selfsame Fijian winger fumbled out of bounds to blow what should have been an easily convertible penalty set. And it continued to feel as if the footballing gods had been angered by the hosts: Addo-Carr was denied a try by a Ben Hunt tackle, Cameron Munster clashed heads with Corey Oates and retired to the bench, Will Chambers lost the ball centimetres short of the line to flash up the big red ‘NO TRY’, and Jesse Bromwich knocked-on just shy of the paint.

The final flourish came with less than three minutes on the clock. It’s still a blur to me. Melbourne gained some territory thanks to consecutive penalties. Ryley Jacks with the ball…a Bronco knocks it back…another Bronco fumbles…and Addo-Carr levels it. Cameron Smith, as is his wont, doesn’t miss the conversion.

This was the Melbourne Storm at their best: dominant, professional, and born to inspire much fear and loathing in opposition supporters.

Melbourne 14 (Jacks, Addo-Carr tries; Smith 2/2 convs.; Smith 1/1 pen.) – Brisbane 12 (Roberts, Hunt tries; Kahu 2/2 convs.)

AFL Women’s round 5 match review: Adelaide v. Brisbane at Norwood

The fifth round of the AFL-W competition served up an unexpected top-of-the-table clash and our first free-to-air look at both the Crows’ superstar Erin Phillips and the Lions’ key forward combo of Tayla Harris and Sabrina Frederick-Traub. The match itself didn’t disappoint, Brisbane winning a thriller by three points.

The first quarter was a tight one, Emily Bates opening the visitors’ account and vice-captain Sally Riley hitting back for the Crows as the two sides headed into the first change with six points and seven inside 50s apiece. Big full-forward Sarah Perkins was the only goalscorer in the second term, Adelaide leading by eight points at the main break.

Kate McCarthy blasted the Lions back into the game in the first minute of the second half with a glorious running goal, and teammate Kate Lutkins’ snap dribbled through shortly afterwards to put them into the lead. The momentum see-sawed as Perkins won a free and goaled, then Harris soccered the ball in mid-air from outside fifty for a behind. A pair of goals from set shots, one for each side, saw the hosts head into lemon time with a two-point lead.

Brisbane snatched the lead early in the last with a seven-point play, McCarthy kicking her second major. Two more behinds to Adelaide was all she wrote, and i marroniblu had asserted their favouritism for the flag with a hard-fought win.

Adelaide 4.6.30 (Perkins 2, Holmes, Riley) – Brisbane 5.3.33 (McCarthy 2, Bates, Lutkins, Zielke)

NRL round 1 match review: Cronulla-Sutherland v. Brisbane at Cronulla

In a not entirely unexpected development, given the defection of Ben Barba and the retirement of Michael Ennis, Cronulla lost the opening match of their NRL title defence, going down 26-18 to a spirited Brisbane Broncos side.

The Sharks had Adam Blair pinned in his own in-goal area thirteen seconds in, but they never really controlled the match. Broncos’ winger Jordan Kahu was the star of the show, converting all four of his team’s tries, scoring the first himself against the run of play, and slotting a penalty goal in the eighteenth minute after which i giallomarroni never trailed.

The hosts had only themselves to blame: much of the Brisbanites’ first-half yardage came courtesy of penalties, promising advances to the goal line being snuffed out only by ball-handling errors. Cronulla equalised through Gerard Beale in the eleventh minute, but Kahu’s penalty goal and James Roberts’ grounding off a superb Anthony Milford kick put the Broncos up 14-6 at the break, having secured three-fifths of possession and completed six more sets.

When Corey Oates went over in the corner six minutes into the second stanza, it felt over, and the Harold Holt metaphors started flowing thick and fast. But there were some late flourishes: Chad Townsend broke the line and chipped for James Maloney to chase and score Cronulla’s second try. Ten minutes later, CSFC’s momentum induced a Ben Hunt dropped ball leading to a Ricky Leutele try.

With the margin at two points, it was a nervous period for the visitors. They endured Korbin Sims being held up before Milford capitalised on a Paul Gallen ‘falcon’ to put some space between the sides.

Cronulla without Barba and Ennis failed to impress in their first run, while Wayne Bennett surely has the makings of another great Broncos side under his charge.

Cronulla-Sutherland 18 (Beale, Maloney, Leutele tries; Maloney 3/3 convs.) – Brisbane 26 (Kahu, Roberts, Oates, Milford tries; Kahu 4/4 convs.; Kahu 1/1 pens.)