How to beat the Melbourne Storm

The Melbourne Storm are one of the most consistent sides the game has seen. Nine finals series in 10 years this decade, four grand finals and two premierships. All whilst dealing with a generational change amongst their playing group.

But they aren’t the invincible juggernaut they once were. For the first time since 2014 when they lost to the Bulldogs at AAMI Park, they’ve been beaten in the first week of the finals. That year they were eliminated immediately, having finished sixth. In 2013 they also lost in the first week of the finals, bowing out the following week to Newcastle in Melbourne.

However in 2015-2018 they were undefeated in the first week of the finals, making the grand final on three of those occasions.

The Canberra Raiders have, in the space of a few weeks, defeated the Storm in Melbourne twice and provided a blueprint that the Eels can exploit in this weekend’s sudden-death semi-final.

Their first try in the qualifying final, illustrates perfectly how to upset the normally robotic Storm defensive line.

They begin by punching down the middle with their two biggest players in Sia Soliola and Dunamis Lui, sucking in three Melbourne defenders on both occasions and forcing their defensive line to compress.

Then they go through the hands, down their right edge with a set play, allowing Joe Tapine to make easy metres and again sucking in three defenders including Cameron Smith who is usually in the middle.

Melbourne defend their line with their fullback in the defensive line to try and prevent overlaps, what happens here though, is Tapine’s run has messed with the Storm’s defensive numbers. They line-up with four men defending their left edge against only three Raiders. 

They do realise this but the pass from Charnze Nicholl-Klokstad means Melbourne’s attempt to shift defenders to the right is playing catch up.

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What the Raiders do incredibly well and it’s a tactic also used by the Eels, is they avoid the settling tackle on the following play. Instead of finding a middle forward to have a dig at the line, they immediately throw passes to their left edge.

Good hole running by Elliott Whitehead holds up the Melbourne defence in the form of Jahrome Hughes and as already mentioned, they’re effectively one man short on their right edge because of Tapine’s run. 

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The Storm’s default setting is to come up and in on their line to try and cut the play off. But the amount of time afforded to Jack Wighton because Melbourne’s inside defenders are too busy pushing across rather than coming up means that Vunivalu is left stranded between Cotric and Simonsson. In the end the Fijian makes effectively no decision and Simonsson crashes over.

Here’s the play at full pace:

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Now the Eels like this left edge sweeping play as well. It’s usually anchored by Dylan Brown who has the option of hitting Clint Gutherson out the back or Shaun Lane at the line. Brown has also got a nice grubber in his arsenal.

Looking at Maika Sivo’s first try against Manly, the Eels go to the line with a three man short side, up against a three man defensive line. Sivo’s presence means winger Brendan Elliott can’t drop back otherwise he risks retreating against an oncoming opponent that he won’t be able to stop. Brown notices this, notices the lack of a fullback and puts the ball on the deck for Sivo to score.

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For Sivo’s second, the Eels flood the short side using a number of moving bodies and the addition of Brad Takairangi whose size, footwork and unpredictability virtually freezes the Manly defenders on the inside. This time Elliott squeezes on Michael Jennings, Gutherson picks out Sivo who bulldozes the fullback, Reuben Garrick to score.

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All of this space, however, relies on the Eels middle forwards at the very least holding their own. If they lose the middle, they lose the ability to shift the ball quickly and isolate defenders on the edge.

The Storm clearly aren’t unbeatable, but the Eels will have to play with the enthusiasm and energy they showed throughout the 80 minutes against Brisbane.

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  • AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Lost me meds and had a dream of Eels v Sea Eagles Grand Final.

    AH, fuk the meds - WE WON!

  • Thanks for the analysis. One of the key tactics that the Eels employed during the demolition of Broncos last week was ensuring the player maker who would have the most impact on the game not to make a move. He was Milford who I thought Waqah Blake made sure that happened. For the Storms it is Cameron Munster and Smith. If our guys can shut this 2 guys up... the game is ours to win.

    Go the mighty EELS!

    1. Good thread. I love these tactical discussions. 
  • The rain forecast tomorrow down there is very bad for our style of footy, surely the footy gods could’ve been a bit more kind to us 

    • To win a GF mate you MUST be able to handle ALL conditions.

      Rain, hail sleet or snow - just sit back, relax, and watch us GO!

      Bugger me if I am not getting just a touch excited.

      MEDIC................................MEDIC!!!!!!!!!

  • Bloody damn fine blog Super! You smashed this out of the ground. A lot of great insightful points.

    If you look at all the Storm's 5 losses: to Raiders, Roosters, Sharks and Manly they have had similar blueprints.  Really agressive in defence and they have exploited Storms right-hand defence. Raiders two-from behind wins were built on their agression with and without the ball.

    Last week we showed we have the game to beat beat the Storm. I really loved the variety and switch plays, passes and cross kicks. But most importantly, we were hungry and attacked with our defence.

    But, it's going to be a huge challenge against the Storm. They are still the benchmark. We'll need to up the ante.

    Don't forget we haven't won an away game against top-8 opposition all year.

    We can, but will we?

  • I think we need to pass the ball often. 

    If we do that well, we will score. 

    And if we score more points than them, we will win. 

     

    Im sure it’s been put more eloquently than this before. 

  • Cracker blog !!!

    agree with all you, I just wonder how Melbourne are going to react to losing twice with the same game plan.

    i think they will have a surprise or two for us ...

  • Melbourne will be miles offside all game lead by Smith shooting out of the line. They won’t be penalised and they know if you shut down our backline we lack points through the middle third where they’ll want to play the game.We need to stand deeper.

    Short passing between forwards with the second receiver turning his back before the line offloading to our halves who can switch the point of attack or go out the back or hit the ball runner back on the inside like last week engaging both sides of the ruck continuously will win us the game.

    The chip bomb to the edge of ruck should be our go to attacking kick isolating the plethora of short asses  in the Storm squad Hughes,Olam, Munster, Smith , Smith and Papenhuyzen. Our tall timber should be able to pinch a couple of tries if executed reasonably well.

    Early on in a set at the start of the match do our regulation block play to our left side attack and hit our out the back runner Vanivalu will jam in ,head back to the middle then run the same play with a cutout face ball to Sivo and he’ll stroll over untouched .Vanivalu can’t help himself.Addo -Carr does the same thing but reads the defence a little better.

    In defence Munster isn’t a traditional ball player he gives early ball rarely plays late at the line , if he hasn’t let the ball go he plans on taking on the lazy inside defender.

    Smith will take two steps out of dummyhalf to engage the marker but rarely splits them these days he’s lost even more pace but he looks to drag the marker across to hit his big man back through the channel of the play the ball the key is don’t overshoot Smith push him over but stay alive defensively.

    Big Nelson’s the key to stopping the Storm linespeed and not allowing him to build momentum and their set of six goes sideways.

    If we were kicking off I’d kick short it would throw the Storm immediately of tilt whether you retrieve the ball or not . What it does though is doesn’t allow them to get comfortably into their structures.Upset their rhythm and they get agitated and make mistakes. 

    Theyll want a stop start affair without possession but up the tempo with the ball. Spoil them at every opportunity and be verbally and physically violent with them. They’re expecting a certain Eels side to turn up we want to give them one of harnessed aggression.

    • Simples;)

      thanks for the post. Screwing with Vunivalus head sounds a go

       

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