Round 1
Melbourne Storm 17 d. St George Illawarra Dragons 16

2009 NRL Telstra Premiership Index [Table] [Draw] [Player Stats] [Club Headlines]

Location: Aus_NZ > National > First Grade Competition: NRL Telstra Premiership

Analysis: Storm 17 v Dragons 16
Tue March 17, 2009
Source: NRL Stats: Storm 17 v Dragons 16

The first game of the season produced an absolute cracker with the Storm coming out narrow victors in the 4th minute of Golden Point.

St George Illawarra led 8-4 at the break despite Melbourne's Greg Inglis scoring the opening try of the season.

Melbourne appeared to be home leading 16-10 in the final stages, but a late try to Matt Cooper and a conversion from Jamie Soward sent the match into Golden Point.

Inglis slotted the one pointer in the 84th minute to give the Storm an extra point on the competition table and the Dragons walked away from Melbourne with nothing to show for their 80 minutes of effort.

The Dragons contributed four of the top five meter eaters with the overall match figure being the Dragons 1509 compared to the Storm 1223 from an extra 25 play the balls. For the possession and metres the Dragons lacked options in attack. Only two players recorded multiple offloads and both from the Storm.

Wingers Wendell Sailor and Jason Nightingale from the Dragons came 2nd and 3rd in the hit ups after team-mate Michael Weyman with 33 between them.

MELBOURNE STORM
Positive: They found another way to win a football match by digging deep and playing ugly. The Storm were out played statistically, but still scored more tries and ultimately more points.

Negative: The two referee system may hurt their game more than others. The loss of Folau loses a lot of strike power.

Verdict: Not the same force as last year, but will still be hard to beat. Inglis standing tall so early in the season is a huge bonus for them.

ST GEORGE ILLAWARRA DRAGONS
Positive: They showed commitment and effort for the entire duration of the game and never allowed the Storm to get away from them. Dragons teams in the past couldn't handle a tough game of Rugby League.

Negative. For all the extra possession they had and better yardage being made should have done much more than the two tries they could muster. Relied too much on Sailor and Nightingale to get them out of trouble.

Verdict: Going to take more than Wayne Bennett to win them a premiership.

TALKING POINT
Should there be Golden Point and is a Drawn Result bad for the game? Perhaps maybe a Golden Try rather than drop goal shootout should be the way to go and the Golden Point is just that. An extra ten minutes to see which side can gain the maximum two points with the losing side retaining the one point they earned in the 80 minutes of play.

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LEADING STATS
All Runs Metres
Michael Weyman 171
Wendell Sailor 171
Greg Inglis 141
Ben Creagh 125
Justin Poore 118

All Runs
Michael Weyman 19
Jason Nightingale 17
Wendell Sailor 16
Jeff Lima 16
Ben Creagh 14

Offloads
Greg Inglis 3
Adam Blair 2
Ben Hornby 1
Wendell Sailor 1
Chase Stanley 1

Tackles
Dallas Johnson 49
Cameron Smith 47
Jeff Lima 38
Matt Prior 31
Dean Young 31

1-on-1 Tackles
Beau Scott 6
Cooper Cronk 4
Ben Creagh 3
Darius Boyd 3
Ryan Hoffman 2

Tackle Breaks
Darius Boyd 7
Greg Inglis 6
Billy Slater 5
Anthony Quinn 4
Wendell Sailor 4

Line Breaks
Anthony Quinn 1
Billy Slater 1
Wendell Sailor 1
Greg Inglis 1
Will Chambers 1

Penalties Conceded
Jeremy Smith 2
Ben Creagh 1
Ryan Hoffman 1
Beau Scott 1
Justin Poore 1

Missed Tackles
Jamie Soward 5
Chase Stanley 5
Steve Turner 3
Adam Blair 2
Ryan Hoffman 2

Kicks
Jamie Soward 15
Cooper Cronk 9
Cameron Smith 5
Ben Hornby 2
Billy Slater 1

Errors
Wendell Sailor 4
Billy Slater 3
Jeremy Smith 2
Cooper Cronk 2
Anthony Quinn 2

Gets
Cameron Smith 90
Dean Young 77
Ben Hornby 46
Luke Priddis 45
Cooper Cronk 42

NRL Stats: Storm 17 v Dragons 16
NYC Stats: Storm 26 v Dragons 24
Storm v Dragons Match Thread


Golden point win for Storm
Fri March 13, 2009
Source: www.melbournestorm.com.au

The Storm has beaten the Dragons 17-16 in an extra time thriller to win the inaugural Emergency Services Cup as the 2009 season finally got under way at Olympic Park in Melbourne.

The game plan was simple as the forwards took the ball straight up the middle.

Attempts to get it out wide with quick passes were fraught with early season errors by Anthony Quinn and Billy Slater.

The Dragons were similarly rusty with Wendell Sailor earning jeers from the crowd for a chip and chase that went out on the full.

The hype surrounding the Storm's marquee players, particularly the bigger and stronger Greg Inglis, was justified time and again as he opened up the Dragons defence with ease.

The Storm relied on Inglis' brute strength to register their first try for the season in the 15th minute. Inglis accelerated off just a few steps to bullock his way past Jamie Soward and cross the line. Cam Smith's conversion attempt was wayward.

The Dragons captain, Ben Hornby, scored an opportunistic try six minutes later as Quinn lost the ball in a tackle trying to return a kick. Soward converted the try and an earlier penalty for the Dragons to lead at half time 8-4.

The first half didn't have much of the flare Storm fans are used to but it didn't take long for the stars to blow off the cobwebs.

The second half began slowly before a kick in goal attempt by the Dragons in the eighth minute was returned past halfway by Inglis. The most fluent passage of play for the game saw the ball swing one way and than the other before Smith put Slater into a gap for a try. Smith converted and the Storm took a 10-8 lead.

The Dragons showed some trademark Wayne Bennett discipline but they needed more than that to break the Storm's defensive lines. Smith made 48 tackles and Dallas Johnson 41 to clamp down on the Dragon's playmakers.

Soward converted a penalty and evened up the scores in the 58th minute.

Another show of power by Inglis helped Cooper Cronk cross the line in the 65th minute. An offload 20 metres out opened up the field and the Storm lead 16-10 after a successful conversion.

It looked like the Storm would run away with the game but the momentum quickly swung the way of the Dragons.

The last ten minutes of time had the Storm defending desperately but they couldn't stop the thirty-four-year-old Wendell Sailor from coasting 65 metres, evading the tackles of Inglis and Slater to allow Matt Cooper to cross for a try - evening up the scores with two minutes to play.

The break in play was what the Storm needed, allowing them to compose themselves before extra time.

Within the first minute, a crucial holding penalty against Hornby gave the Storm the attacking ascendancy. Cronk tried for a field goal but it was deflected.

In the 3rd minute of extra time, the Storm were back in front of goals with Inglis calling for the ball. Inglis showed his versatility, putting a chip kick through to secure a thrilling victory in front of the nearly 15,000 strong crowd.

Storm 17 (Tries: Inglis, Slater, Cronk; Goals: Smith 2; Field Goal: Inglis) def. Dragons 16 (Tries: Hornby, Cooper; Goals: Soward 4).

Fri March 13, 2009
• Round 1 NRL Preview & Best Bets
  
Fri March 13, 2009
• Storm Round One v Dragons Game Notes
  
Tue March 10, 2009
• Bellamy names strongest team for Dragons clash
  
Sat March 7, 2009
• Storm and Dragons to battle it out for Emergency Services Cup
  
Tue February 24, 2009
• Storm move back to Olympic Park to aid Bushfire Relief concert
  
Wed February 11, 2009
• Etihad Stadium to host Round One Storm v Dragons
  

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