Melbourne Storm vs Penrith Panthers - Round 18 - Friday 30/6/23 - Marvel Stadium - 8pm

[Lucas]

Time to put Eisenhuth, olam and garlick in the rubbish bin. Tui one last chance.

[Papenhuyzen23]

Paps can’t come back soon enough.

[SunshineCoastStormer]

Has a ref ever had a more one sided game than Adam Gee? Guy may as well have a hat trick tonight

Please don’t blame the ref. He ain’t been great (the bunker no obstruction for Hosking try was atrocious) but we’ve been way off since minute 30 tonight xxx

Deserve nothing.

[Kettles]

For them to get the last 6 trys (as I type) is an appalling sh!tshow from Storm. I’ve never seen so many missed tackles from a Storm team.

Time to play some kids like Faalogo, Howarth and others to see how they go.
WHERE is Moeroa? Is he injured?

Olam is cooked for the season. Tui started the rot and can play in Qld. Too many more duds to mention.

[riders of the storm]

That was atrocious. Forty-nine missed tackles.

Really annoyed with some of the efforts cleaning up kicks too.

[blazza18]

Feel like Penrith toyed with us by the end of this one. Effort completely dropped off and there was no second efforts from anyone. Lot of arm grabbing in the end. This was my concern leading into the game despite the improved showings recently.

[Papenhuyzen23]

Very upsetting defeat, but shows how far off the pace we are to beat the very best, Meaney was trash and I know he has been solid but we need some X-Factor back there, Reimis tried hard but made some really poor decisions which led directly to tries, Olam needs to be dropped I don’t care what anyone says he is done, wingers were ineffectual, Munster had his worst game all year and looked sick, Hughes had no impact, I loved the forwards that’s started the game, Welch Sims Grant Trent and King were all fantastic for 30 minutes, Nelson was gassed and can’t play 80, need Katoa back, our bench gave us absolutely nothing but errors, missed tackles and penalties, we need to tinker and get more from them, carrying 2 back up hookers what was CB thinking dropping Macca to 18th man this was the exact type of game he excels in. Penrith are a great side it’s no shame losing to them it’s the way we just rolled over, very concerning, we have a couple of troops to come back but we essentially need to do with with this squad and I’m just not sure we are at Penriths level.

[Bullucked]

Lot of arm grabbing in the end.

Absolutely. Any danger of going a bit lower instead of being fended away. Oh well, the cricket's on the other channel

[blazza18]

Have been down on Olam for awhile now but it was mostly because of his decision making. He still works hard when he plays but it looks like he’s gotten everything out of what his body can give him. He’s not doing much out there anymore these days.

[TC]

Beyond embarrassing.

And it's not like Penrith suddenly had an extra man on the field; Storm just suddenly seemed to shut up shop.
All the effort from the first 30 minutes just went away.

Not a single forward with 100m, only 2 over 70.
More missed tackles than you could poke a stick at - and that doesn't include all those tries with 3 and 4 players who never got close enough to count.
Munster obviously still not 100%, but no excuses for the others. Our forwards were dismal. 7 runs from Christian and 9 from Nelson. 6 from Loiero and 3 from Sims! Really?

Bellamy needs to send Hughes and Welsh to the press conference and let them tell us what went wrong, because that wasn't Craig's fault - it's ALL on the players.

[Shuttlesworth99]

Amazing first 30 minutes. Best I’ve seen of any team all year.

Last 50 minutes absolute garbage.

Utter garbage.

[Papenhuyzen23]

Their centres showed ours what elite looks like, those individual battles and mistakes was the difference at the end of the day, Tago had a field day, Critta was superb, Reimis and Olam just looked busted and out of their depth at times, not to mention the metres their back 3 make for them which is how their pack stays fresh and just grinds teams into the ground, if we are to beat Penrith we need to play like the opening 30 for 80 no ifs buts or maybes.

[Storm_M_36]

Would be good if the NSW referee could send their tries to the bunker for a second look!!! The first try should have been disallowed due to sfa downward pressure!! Second half we simply forgot we had to tackle the opposition. Also, I'll be calling the club on Monday since I'm not even seated close to what I paid for at the start of the season. I'll stay home and watch the game against the Eels on TV. Very disappointing that we are seated so far from the field! Marvel is a shocking ground to watch rugby at!!

[Papenhuyzen23]

Jeez the bench needs to be used better too, we carry a useless player every week like Anderson, Bradley or Garlick and typically leave a useful rucky at 18th man, I think with Katoa back in a few weeks we need to run with:

8. Asofa-Solomona
9. Grant
10. Welch
11. Loiero
12. Katoa
13. King

14. Kamikamika
15. MacDonald
16. Sims
17. Howarth

Need to use all the interchange ls as well, sometimes Bellamy uses 5 or 6 all game, I know he likes to drive fitness and hanging tough but sometimes you just need to be smart and get fresh legs on, guys like King and NAS as great as they are are not 80 minute players, needs some tinkering for sure.

I also think when Paps is back, he goes to 1, Meaney to the wing and I would push Warbrick into 4 for Olam, see how that balance is, we just look so brittle in defence and a bit toothless in attack, in CB we trust I hope he can find a solution before the finals!

[blazza18]

As much as it wasn’t Bellamy’s fault I really would like to know how he thought things would go after the initial burst? Penrith are the fittest and well drilled footy sides possibly ever and we started Tariq Sims and had two backup utility hookers on the bench.

We’re not really a team who can get into an 80 minute grind anymore and we don’t have the outside backs to break open a game either.