The Melbourne Storm came back from the dead to defeat Parramatta 22-18 tonight, adding weight to their claims for a fairy tale minor premiership 12 months after the club’s name was dragged through the mud by the salary cap scandal.
Melbourne looked dead-and-buried when trailing 18-0 after 52 minutes at Parramatta Stadium, but their big three of Cameron Smith, Cooper Cronk and Billy Slater took over to take the competition leaders four points clear at the top of the table.
The Storm looked anything but premiership favourites in the first 50 minutes of the final match of a round where fellow heavyweights St George Illawarra and Manly lost as a determined Eels outfit dominated.
However, four tries in the last 30 minutes delivered what Storm skipper Smith declared was their most difficult win of the season to date.
“That was probably our toughest win of the year, we had a few words at half-time,” Smith said.
“They were making too many yards up the middle in the first half.”
Smith believed their come-from-behind win – Melbourne’s ninth on the trot – would fill his camp with confidence as the finals neared.
“I think so, especially coming here and winning, we’ve got to take a lot of confidence out of this win.”
The result doomed the hosts to their third heartbreaking defeat in as many weeks – tonight’s reverse came after back-to-back golden point defeats to archrivals Penrith and Canterbury.
“Up 18-0 with 28 minutes left – don’t ask me what happened,” Parramatta talisman Nathan Hindmarsh said.
“We had it in hand, but they are a good team and that’s why they’re leading the comp.
“We haven’t given up, we’re not going anywhere.”
Parramatta looked determined to end their sorry losing streak early on, despite losing halfback Jeff Robson with a depressed fracture of the cheekbone in the fifth minute after a collision with Melbourne winger Sisa Waqa. Chris Keating came off the bench to take over the halfback duties.
Luke Burt then gave the Eels at 2-0 lead in the 14th minute through a penalty goal.
However, the Eels’ advantage would have been much bigger except for a monstrous blunder by Jarryd Hayne in the 20th minute.
The transplanted five-eighth intercepted the ball on his on 20m line and raced downfield pursued by Cronk and Maurice Blair, only to drop the ball while attempting to force it from outside the field of play.
Had Hayne had his time again, he would have realised he would have the strength and pace to get the line.
Reni Matua scored in the same corner three minutes after good lead up work by Justin Horo and the recalled Chris Hicks for 8-0 to complete the scoring in a first stanza that belonged to the Eels.
Taniela Lasalo scored four minutes after the restart before Burt hit two more penalty goals to give the hosts what looked to be an unbeatable lead.
However, Melbourne’s comeback started in the 53rd minute when Waqa took capitalised on a clever tip-back from Slater to touch down for 18-6.
Slater crossed the stripe himself six minutes later off a flawless Smith grubber – Parramatta complained that referee Tony De Las Heras impeded Burt’s pursuit but the four-pointer was allowed to stand for 18-12.
Justin O’Neill scored the try of the match in the 64th minute when he raced 80m after being released by Slater from a scrum. Smith’s conversion just missed, preserving Parramatta’s slender 18-16 lead.
Dane Neilsen charged over with four minutes remaining to give the Storm the lead for the first time in the match and send the Melbourne club (36 points) four points clear of second-placed Manly.
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