R20 - Brisbane vs Melbourne
Heard about that....yourhero wrote:I loved that earlier this year Hadley's ex started a relationship with NSW assistant coach Matt Parish, Hadley was furious and tried to use his influence over NSW RL to have Parish fired. Tosser.
Didn't Vossy have something to do with that ?
Melborune Storm send warning with timely title statement on the weekend
MELBOURNE skipper Cameron Smith has issued an ominous warning to NRL rivals, saying the Storm of old are back after their 30-8 caning of Brisbane on Friday night.
Patchy for the first half of the season, the Storm are building momentum at the right time, making a title statement with their ruthless disposal of the Broncos at Suncorp Stadium.
The Storm are now equal fourth with Souths and the Roosters, and can move into the top two with away wins over the Tigers and Newcastle in the next fortnight.
Many declared the Storm a club in decline after they went out the back door in last year’s playoffs, but Smith can see signs of the team that powered to the 2012 premiership.
“They (critics) were right, we weren’t ourselves at the start of the year — we knew we weren’t playing to our capabilities,” said Smith, who became the greatest pointscoring forward with 1607, eclipsing Craig Fitzgibbon (1604).
“We know we have a great footy side, it’s frustrating we won our first three games (of the season) and then it’s been up-and-down.
“But we have turned that around with our preparation.
“It’s that time of year where we need to lift, it’s more we need to build our consistency, which we have over the past three weeks.
“You can see our energy is a lot better around the field, particularly in defence.
“It’s where we struggled early in the first half of the season, we were conceding a lot of points which is a lot unlike us.
“But in the last three weeks, we’ve conceded (six) tries so that’s back to where we want it to be.
“We’re aware of how congested the table is and it’s important we build now.”
Storm coach Craig Bellamy said the vitality of his Big Three — Smith, Cooper Cronk and Billy Slater — is a promising sign with the trio’s Origin commitments behind them.
Slater was relentless against the Broncos, doing a mountain of running off the ball, while Cronk looks fresh after a month-long lay-off with a broken arm.
“It was a bit of a godsend,” Bellamy said of Cronk’s injury-enforced rest.
“Cooper is a bit fresher and he helps drive our standards. There’s probably been a bit of a void there over the last 18 months because we have lost a lot of middle-tier players but they (Smith, Cronk and Slater) set a great example.
“We’re not too concerned about the table at the moment, we are just concerned about our performance and how we prepare and play.”
Smith said he felt for axed Broncos coach Anthony Griffin, who spotted the hooker during his time as Melbourne’s Brisbane-based development manager.
“I spent a fair bit of time with ‘Hook’,” he said.
“He was the guy that gave me an opportunity to play first grade, or at least get me to the Storm and put me in the Storm system.
“He’s done a wonderful job here at the Broncos, it’s a pretty tough gig being the coach of the Broncos, they expect a lot of success and wins.
“He’s done a pretty good job given the pressure of being a Broncos coach. That’s something the Broncos need to deal with and this was a tough loss but they will bounce back, they are a quality side.”
http://www.news.com.au/sport/nrl/melbor ... 7002547264
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We have been building nicely over the past three weeks with a hard fought loss to the Dogs, a patchy win over the Raiders and a solid away win over the Broncos...
The challenge will be to continue to build. Each time we have strung a couple of wins together this year, something happens that throws us off course (lose Cam in the warm up and get spanked by the Dogs in Rd 4, Origin 1, then Origin 2).
The Broncos had a big distraction last week and it looks like the Tigers will have one this week with the Farah/Tallis/Potter saga unfolding. Great opportunity.
MELBOURNE skipper Cameron Smith has issued an ominous warning to NRL rivals, saying the Storm of old are back after their 30-8 caning of Brisbane on Friday night.
Patchy for the first half of the season, the Storm are building momentum at the right time, making a title statement with their ruthless disposal of the Broncos at Suncorp Stadium.
The Storm are now equal fourth with Souths and the Roosters, and can move into the top two with away wins over the Tigers and Newcastle in the next fortnight.
Many declared the Storm a club in decline after they went out the back door in last year’s playoffs, but Smith can see signs of the team that powered to the 2012 premiership.
“They (critics) were right, we weren’t ourselves at the start of the year — we knew we weren’t playing to our capabilities,” said Smith, who became the greatest pointscoring forward with 1607, eclipsing Craig Fitzgibbon (1604).
“We know we have a great footy side, it’s frustrating we won our first three games (of the season) and then it’s been up-and-down.
“But we have turned that around with our preparation.
“It’s that time of year where we need to lift, it’s more we need to build our consistency, which we have over the past three weeks.
“You can see our energy is a lot better around the field, particularly in defence.
“It’s where we struggled early in the first half of the season, we were conceding a lot of points which is a lot unlike us.
“But in the last three weeks, we’ve conceded (six) tries so that’s back to where we want it to be.
“We’re aware of how congested the table is and it’s important we build now.”
Storm coach Craig Bellamy said the vitality of his Big Three — Smith, Cooper Cronk and Billy Slater — is a promising sign with the trio’s Origin commitments behind them.
Slater was relentless against the Broncos, doing a mountain of running off the ball, while Cronk looks fresh after a month-long lay-off with a broken arm.
“It was a bit of a godsend,” Bellamy said of Cronk’s injury-enforced rest.
“Cooper is a bit fresher and he helps drive our standards. There’s probably been a bit of a void there over the last 18 months because we have lost a lot of middle-tier players but they (Smith, Cronk and Slater) set a great example.
“We’re not too concerned about the table at the moment, we are just concerned about our performance and how we prepare and play.”
Smith said he felt for axed Broncos coach Anthony Griffin, who spotted the hooker during his time as Melbourne’s Brisbane-based development manager.
“I spent a fair bit of time with ‘Hook’,” he said.
“He was the guy that gave me an opportunity to play first grade, or at least get me to the Storm and put me in the Storm system.
“He’s done a wonderful job here at the Broncos, it’s a pretty tough gig being the coach of the Broncos, they expect a lot of success and wins.
“He’s done a pretty good job given the pressure of being a Broncos coach. That’s something the Broncos need to deal with and this was a tough loss but they will bounce back, they are a quality side.”
http://www.news.com.au/sport/nrl/melbor ... 7002547264
----------
We have been building nicely over the past three weeks with a hard fought loss to the Dogs, a patchy win over the Raiders and a solid away win over the Broncos...
The challenge will be to continue to build. Each time we have strung a couple of wins together this year, something happens that throws us off course (lose Cam in the warm up and get spanked by the Dogs in Rd 4, Origin 1, then Origin 2).
The Broncos had a big distraction last week and it looks like the Tigers will have one this week with the Farah/Tallis/Potter saga unfolding. Great opportunity.