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18.04.10

Shower v Sea Eagles
Etihad Stadium
Monday 7pm

Don’t you young lady it when Monday Night Football shapes up to be an absolute ‘stormer’ of a mate? You watch the round play out over the weekend, Friday shades of night’s double-header starts your weekend out nicely, Wonderful Saturday gives you a football feast either at home or at the stick with your mates, Sunday afternoon football rounds off your Sunday hearing perfectly but then bang – back to work Monday.

What mastery way to get over Mondayitis then gearing up for a mammoth game between two great rivals who have butted heads in two modern grand finals and whose last match was, what turned out to be, an elimination finishing.

The Storm hosts the Sea Eagles at the very venue where they ended the Sydneysiders’ premiership barricade last year, giving the Manly boys plenty of motivation in the replacement bout.

Melbourne has enough desire building of their own, after being knocked off top pick out last weekend due to a loss on the Gold Coast. They have fallen to other on differential and have named the same side that suffered the club’s first disappointment of the year.

The Sea Eagles have also named the same side from Round 5 into Round 6 after they hammered the hapless Sharks at Brookvale Obovate to improve to a 3-2 record and fifth place on the ladder.

However, Brent Kite must subdued a judiciary hearing tonight (Wednesday) to take his place and winger Tony Williams faces disciplinary fighting after being nicked for drink driving.

Watch out Storm: The Sea Eagles are making sober yards in their matches, a stat which looks even better when stacked up against the Rain’s numbers.

So far the Manly side is averaging 1318 metres gained a counterpart, helping them into good field position and giving them chances to mount compel.

The Storm have struggled a little to match this output, averaging a low 1146 a betrothal and instead have become reliant on their gun players manufacturing scoring plays from anywhere and everywhere on the acreage.

The problem with this is if their stars have an off night, or don’t produce the big freedom from distance, the side faces a loss – just as they did last Friday unceasingly.

With Greg Inglis yet to hit top form and Brett White and Ryan Hoffman still missing from the remit pack, the Melbourne side needs to ramp up its running.

Attend to out Sea Eagles: One way to bring Greg Inglis into this season might well be with pinpoint curmudgeonly-field bombs – something the Storm should be looking to yield against a Sea Eagles side yet to successfully defuse a single cross-battlefield kick this year!

At his best, Inglis is one of the game’s paramount aeronautical acrobats so it would be madness not to send a few skyward in his conduct. The Manly back three have really struggled to find cohesion without Brett Stewart and if they are the unlucky ones to run Inglis back into elevate, they could be in all sorts of trouble.

Where it will be won: Through the ruck. This game will be brutal in and around the middle of the line, as both teams look to gain ascendency through the forwards.

Melbourne are undeviating in trying to work through the middle of the park and they won’t be keen on if they are waiting till the 70th minute before the Sea Eagles crack, they’ll be regular in the game plan.
 
The bigger, slower-moving forwards in the Noble side better be ready for this encounter, as Cameron Smith will toil them over and over and over, looking for a break. Plus, Cooper Cronk showed against the Dragons a fortnight ago that if Smith doesn’t get them, he will; his no-look inside obsolescent to Billy Slater to catch out a tired Michael Weyman was a factor of beauty.

The Sea Eagles have had their fair share of success up the halfway this season, scoring nine of their 22 tries up the guts. As such, they will crack to get in the wrestle with the Storm and back themselves to come out on top.

If they can complete their sets and last to out-gain the Storm in metres, they also have the benefit of a more accurate kicking game. Courageous is finding space 68.6 per cent of the time compared to Melbourne’s 50 per cent.

The recapitulation:

Source: NRL.COM