Melbourne’s mid-season resurgence has continued with the Storm coming out on top against Canberra in a try-scoring frenzy that included a hat-trick from winger Will Warbrick.
This year’s club record seven-game losing streak appears to be in the rear view mirror for Melbourne with the 42-20 victory, but the Raiders’ hopes of making the NRL finals are fading badly after their 10th defeat.
Both teams scored four tries in the first half of their Sunday afternoon clash to be locked at 20-20 at halftime.
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The Raiders got off to the best possible start and took a 16-0 lead after 16 minutes with Savelio Tamale, Owen Pattie and Xavier Savage all crossing.
Winger Savage couldn’t be caught as he raced downfield after intercepting a pass from Melbourne’s Jack Howarth 10 metres from the tryline.
But the tide turned when Harry Grant entered the match after starting from the bench following Wednesday’s Origin win for Queensland.
With the superstar hooker making metres out of dummy half, the Storm scored three tries in six minutes including one to Cameron Munster, celebrating his 250th NRL match.
Centre Matthew Timoko bumped off some flimsy defence to again put Canberra ahead but the Storm tied up the match in the 39th minute when Warbrick scored his second of the half, using brute strength to plant the ball down.
While the Raiders had plenty of ball, they did themselves no favours in missing a whopping 39 tackles in the opening 40 minutes. The second half was more of an arm wrestle with Warbrick breaking the deadlock in the 59th minute with his third try, the Warriors-bound flyer leaping high to take a Jahrome Hughes bomb.
A converted try from Moses Leo opened a 10-point lead for the home side and while there was still 10 minutes to play the Storm never looked like surrendering.
They put the result out of doubt with another two tries to bank their fifth win in six games, with milestone man Munster adding the final conversion, which he kicked with his boot lace untied.
Melbourne moved up to 11th on the ladder on 16 points while the Raiders sit second-last.
