Before the 2022 NRL season, the conventional wisdom was that it was once again Penrith/Melbourne, then the pack.
Then it became Penrith, then Melbourne, then the pack.
By now it’s clear that it’s really Penrith, then daylight, then the pack (feat. Melbourne). On a good day.
The Storm’s recent slide — four straight losses to Manly, Cronulla, Canberra and Souths — could in previous years be chalked up as the sort of thing a Craig-Bellamy-coached side could bounce back from.
But rather than the fire in which a late-season surge is forged, the current plight appears to be a destructive blaze reducing their premiership dreams to ash.
Even Bellamy said he’s “not confident [they] can turn it around” after their fourth-straight loss on Saturday night. The supercoach seemed completely at a loss to explain why his players have lost the ability to make tackles, and catch and pass the ball.
So too did past and present players on broadcasts when asked why the most successful NRL team of the past decade was suddenly incapable of doing even the basics right.
But looking at the season as a whole, it’s hardly surprising the team is struggling.
One of Bellamy’s favourite forwards, Dale Finucane, and star utility Nicho Hynes set sail for Cronulla in the off-season.
In round one, winger George Jennings and leading prop Christian Welch went down with torn ACLs.
During the Origin period, they lost Xavier Coates to a long-term ankle injury and Reimis Smith to a season-ending pectoral tear.
In the past month, on top of State of Origin absences, Cameron Munster, Felise Kaufusi and Brandon Smith have been sidelined for multiple weeks.
Then came the body blow.
After missing six weeks straight, superstar fullback Ryan Papenhuyzen’s return to the side lasted just three games before his kneecap was obliterated, leaving Justin Olam as the only member of Bellamy’s first-choice fullback-centre-wing combo still in position.
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All that has added up to a constantly changing backline, with the same back five lining up in consecutive matches just once since round nine, more than two months ago.
It’s no coincidence, then, that Melbourne has conceded two-thirds of their tries on those flanks. In the same period, injuries, illness and rep duties have meant six different players have started in the halves, so it’s no surprise that at the other end they don’t have the strike power or the cohesion to hit back.
This year has proven a bridge too far, even for the team famous for being able to win no matter who’s in the line-up.
And with only Coates set to return to the wing, there has already been talk of the team making a late-season Hail Mary play for want-away Warriors fullback Reece Walsh.
And it all started so well …
The Magic Round “blockbuster” against Penrith ended a run of six-straight wins for the Storm, in all of which they had scored at least 30 points.
Up until that point in the season, the Storm and Panthers had gone tit for tat — both only losing one game, taking turns at the top of the table.
And while much attention has been paid to Melbourne’s losing streak in the past month, the woes for the Victorians started around the same time as that highly anticipated clash with the Panthers in mid-May.
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