Storm survive scare to topple Eels
MELBOURNE have survived an almighty scare from Parramatta to book their passage into the preliminary final.
In defeat, Parramatta’s premiership credentials strengthened, going down 18-16 to the Storm in front of 22,626 at AAMI Park yesterday.
The Eels almost produced one of the biggest boilovers in finals history, but fell short of gatecrashing Cameron Smith’s party despite leading at halftime.
It had been eight years since the Eels tasted finals football, coincidentally making their return against the club that ended their grand final dream in 2009.
The lone survivor from that night was Tim Mannah – who together with coach Brad Arthur held the fort during a tumultuous period in the club’s history.
But as Arthur said on the eve of the match, the excuses and time for mediocrity at the successstarved club is over. Time to deliver on the promises. And deliver they almost did. The Eels came into the game with a plan to ‘‘bash’’ and ‘‘ambush’’ the Storm. That’s what the Eels focused in preparation for a match few expected them to win.
However, that went out the window after less than four minutes when Josh Addo-Carr scored to provide the Storm with the dream opening to the match.
The fact it was just 4-0 after 23 minutes would have delighted the Eels, but when Cameron Munster was sent to the sin bin for a
Then there’s Smith. Genius, referee, politician.
professional foul, the match was turned on its head.
Then the ambush began. The awareness of Kenny Edwards to take a quick tap close to the Eels’ line and ping Munster inside the 10 paved the way for the Eels to score as they capitalised on the extra man to send Kirisome Auva’a over to level the score.
Just as Munster prepared to return to the field, Mitchell Moses threw one of the passes of the year, to fool the Storm defence and put Will Smith over for a 10-4 lead.
Then there’s Smith. Genius, referee, politician – call him what you like, but few can argue about his influence. Yesterday he became the most capped player in the history of the game.
And he had to call on his experience from those 356 games to help his team over the line, with his team combining for one of the tries of the season to square the ledger after half-time, which was added to through Billy Slater to give Melbourne a 16-10 advantage.
A penalty to Smith pushed Melbourne out to an eight-point lead, but a converted try to Semi Radradra minutes later set up a grandstand finish. Yet the Storm defence stood firm, leaving Parramatta with a do-or-die match against either the Sharks or Cowboys.