Claims that Melbourne’s premiership window has passed may have proven premature after the Storm clinically dismantled the Brisbane Broncos to win 30-8 at Suncorp Stadium on Friday night.
Written off as an NRL title threat after an indifferent start to the season, the Storm were in ominous touch against the Broncos, halfback Cooper Cronk and dummy-half Cameron Smith producing masterful performances in the victory.
Brisbane had a night to forget. After a tumultuous week that saw coach Anthony Griffin sacked and the club announce the return of Wayne Bennett in 2015, the Broncos were off the pace from the opening whistle.
The Storm crossed first in the fourth minute through winger Markika Koirobete before Ryan Hoffman touched down after Broncos halfback Ben Hunt knocked on a cross-field kick. Down 12-0, Brisbane was lucky not to fall further behind when Cronk dived over, replays showing Broncos fullback Josh Hoffman doing enough to prevent his rival grounding the ball.
With 20 minutes gone, the Storm had enjoyed more than 80 per cent of possession – most of it at the Broncos end. The home team needed a spark and it was Dale Copley who delivered, the in-form centre wrong footing the Storm defence to reduce the margin to eight.
The Broncos finished the half strongly and threatened to go over again after a Justin Hodges bust but were denied by Melbourne’s desperate scrambling defence.
The second half followed the same pattern as the first, with Melbourne on top early and finding the line through second-rower Ryan Hoffman. Smith nailed the conversion to make it 18-4 before Brisbane forward Alex Glenn scored one of the most remarkable tries of the season.
After picking up a loose ball, Hodges launched a high kick that looked certain to go out on the full. But winger Jordan Kahu showed great athleticism to knock the ball back to Copley, who defied the attention of two tacklers to offload a pass to Glenn.
The try gave Broncos fans hope of a comeback, but the Storm weren’t in a charitable mood. Within three minutes of Glenn’s effort, Ryan Hinchcliffe went over for the Storm before the visitors finished off the match with a try to Cronk.
