5 THINGS WE LEARNED

COWBOYS V STORM

1 IS THE COWBOYS’ STARTING MIDDLE TOO BIG?

Much has been made of the potential impact of Jason Taumalolo, Jordan McLean and Matt Scott in their first season as a trio. But after they were outpointed by a young Broncos pack last week and the Storm exposed their size with a number of offloads in the first 20 minutes. Perhaps one has to start off the bench to provide some impact in the middle part of the game.

2 MORGO QUIET IN HIS RETURN FROM INJURY

Michael Morgan and Johnathan Thurston may have won a grand final together, but last night was their first match back together as a halves partnership since round 14 last year. Morgan missed the first two rounds with a stomach injury and had a first half to forget. His kick out on the full led to a Storm try, and late in the opening 40 he unleashed a wayward kick to Kyle Feldt’s win on the third tackle when pressing Melbourne’s line.

3 DEFENCE AND OFFLOADS HURT COWBOYS

For the second straight week the Cowboys missed far too many tackles, and they couldn’t stop the Storm pack’s second phase play from causing plenty of problems. Melbourne’s forwards were able to get their arms free on a number of occasions and the hosts racked up 14 offloads to North Queensland’s three. It’s an area the Cowboys need to fix quickly.

4 HESS A HANDFUL

Cowboys back rower Coen Hess was nearly unstoppable with the ball in the first half, scoring a try and made another line break soon after when skittling Storm defenders across AAMI Park. He backed it up with another try in the second half, using brute strength to drag three defenders over the line. However he will want to improve his defence on the edge, which was the major reason behind his shift to the middle third last year.

5 STORM HAVE CRACKED THE TAUMALOLO CODE

Cowboys wrecking ball Jason Taumalolo made no secret during the week he was unhappy with his impact in last year’s grand final defeat to Melbourne. The Storm kept the Tongan superstar quiet again. He doesn’t have to shoulder as much responsibility with McLean and Scott in the team, but there’s no doubt he’ll want to increase his effectiveness against Penrith next week.