Storm 42 defeat Rabbitohs 4
07 Sep 2008
The Melbourne Storm won their third consecutive minor premiership with a powerful 42 points to 4 win over the South Sydney Rabbitohs at Olympic Park in front of 13,875 fans.
The Melbourne Storm needed to win tonight’s clash by 26 points or more to secure the minor premiership, and they started their mission in style with retiring centre Matt Geyer crossing in the fourth minute. Cameron Smith converted to give the home side an early six-nil lead.
The video referee dismissed a Brett Anderson try in the eighth minute, and one minute later Storm fullback Billy Slater was sin-binned for a professional foul when the Rabbitohs were deep in Storm territory.
Melbourne winger Anthony Quinn was the next to cross in the 12th minute, holding off two defenders to score in the left hand corner.
Ten minutes later, Storm captain Cameron Smith scored a try from dummy half, giving the home side a 14-nil advantage after 22 minutes.
The Rabbitohs then organised themselves, spending some time in their opponents half and mounting some pressure. The pressure paid off when fullback Nathan Merritt scored a marvellous team try in the 33rd minute. Halfback Chris Sandow shaped to take on the line before putting in a deft grubber kick behind the line. The ball was collected by Luke Capewell who grubbered again, with Merritt grounding the ball in the in goal area.
In the final minute of the first half, Ryan Hoffman scored an easy try for the Storm, giving Melbourne a 20-4 lead at the break.
The Storm were targeting the Rabbitohs’ smaller men and finding gaps. The Rabbitohs had some succes early when they attacked out wide, but were finding some holes up the middle and on the edges of the ruck later in the half.
It was a tight tussle in the opening stage of the second half, before Billy Slater blew the game open with two tries. His first, in the 52nd minute, was a 100 metre sprint to the line. This was followed five minutes later with a try set up by an Israel Folau break up the right hand side of the field.
The Storm went on to score tries through Brett Anderson and Jeremy Smith to wrap up the game 42 points to 4, along with their third consecutive minor premiership.
The Storm were too strong for the Rabbitohs, with South Sydney often on the back foot after constant raids by Melbourne. The Rabbitohs didn’t do enough with the few opportunities that were presented to them.
Melbourne Storm 42 (Billy Slater 2, Matt Geyer, Anthony Quinn, Cameron Smith, Ryan Hoffman, Brett Anderson, Jeremy Smith tries; Cameron Smith 4, Matt Geyer goals)
defeated
South Sydney Rabbitohs 4 (Nathan Merritt try)
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In the Toyota Cup, the South Sydney Rabbitohs finished of their season in fine form, defeating the Melbourne Storm 26-20 at Olympic Park. The Rabbitohs led 18-nil at the break at held on to take the final two competition points of the season.
South Sydney Rabbitohs 26 (Malcolm Webster, Abby El-Zbaidieh, Andrew Smith, Jake Leary tries; Dylan Farrell 5 goals)
defeated
Melbourne Storm 20 (Sam Joe, Gareth Widdop, Pulou Vaituutuu, Zeb Tawha tries; Liam Foran 2 goals)