Storm Exposed.

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Guardog

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The Storm still played pretty well last night, and the Tigers did have problems putting them away. The conditions didn't suit for fast open football, but we got a good game out of it anyway. The Storm dominate in those three critical positions and they are hard to replace. Other players lift when the play alongside them.
 

Pink Pikachu

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Why does every keep saying Tigers were only down Farah?

Forget about just Origin, they were also missing Gareth Ellis who is their best forward and club's player of the year the past 2 seasons.

They also lost Moltzen in warm-up before kick-off, and fullback is a pretty important position to re-shuffle and they had to do it with 5mins notice, not like the Storm who have known and been able to prepare for Slater being out... Moltzen also does a fair amount of halves work for them.

So, big names out:

Melbourne (4 players): Slater, Smith, Cronk, Chambers
Tigers: (3 players): Farah, Ellis, Moltzen

Sure, Melbourne's players may be better, but as far as importance to their respective teams, the Tigers were basically missing just as many, plus were away from home in a freezing cold and rainy Melbourne and also lost Fulton to injury during the match.

Tigers didnt have the advantage that most people think they did... Was a solid win for them, Melbourne were not beaten during the Origin period last year.
 

Pom_81

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Take away the starting fullback, half and hooker from any team and watch how crippling it is.
Exactly. They haven't been "exposed" at all.

Of course they're many times weaker without three of the best ten players on the planet. If anyone looked like frauds from last night's game, it was Wests. A team with the entire core of its main structured plays removed matched them all the way and came within a few centimetres of beating a basically full-strength (only Farah missing?) Wests side. If Marshall, Farah and Lawrence had all been out for Wests, it would have been a no contest against the Storm side of last night.
 

Trendsetter

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Why does every keep saying Tigers were only down Farah?

Forget about just Origin, they were also missing Gareth Ellis who is their best forward and club's player of the year the past 2 seasons.

They also lost Moltzen in warm-up before kick-off, and fullback is a pretty important position to re-shuffle and they had to do it with 5mins notice, not like the Storm who have known and been able to prepare for Slater being out... Moltzen also does a fair amount of halves work for them.

So, big names out:

Melbourne (4 players): Slater, Smith, Cronk, Chambers
Tigers: (3 players): Farah, Ellis, Moltzen

Sure, Melbourne's players may be better, but as far as importance to their respective teams, the Tigers were basically missing just as many, plus were away from home in a freezing cold and rainy Melbourne and also lost Fulton to injury during the match.

Tigers didnt have the advantage that most people think they did... Was a solid win for them, Melbourne were not beaten during the Origin period last year.
It's sacrilege to come here and speak highly of another club. Whether it be common sense/knowledge or not. So pipe down you! You either talk trash about them or you keep it to yourself.. ;)
 

sgodllubsti

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was a rubbish game storm had nothing , tigers were only just a bit better
 

Horse

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Mr Invisible would have to be the worst commentator on this forum. Dribbler.
 

Mr Invisible

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The point (that many missed) still stands.

The Storm are focussed around 3 key players. All are around the same age, and realistically not all that far from retirement. The older one gets the more injury prone they can be.

Storm should be starting to blood new players to cover the 1, 6, and 9 soon, to cover for when Slater, Cronk, and Smith leave.

Sure it may be years away and other clubs are most likely affected by a similar situation, however the Storm have had a hold on the NRL competition for quite a few years now, and namely due to those 3 players. Clubs like the Bulldogs on the other hand are blooding quite a few young players now and will be interesting to see how far they can take the side with a few years under their belts.
 
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Almobro

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The point (that many missed) still stands.

The Storm are focussed around 3 key players. All are around the same age, and realistically not all that far from retirement. The older one gets the more injury prone they can be.

Storm should be starting to blood new players to cover the 1, 6, and 9 soon, to cover for when Slater, Cronk, and Smith leave.

Sure it may be years away and other clubs are most likely affected by a similar situation, however the Storm have had a hold on the NRL competition for quite a few years now, and namely due to those 3 players. Clubs like the Bulldogs on the other hand are blooding quite a few young players now and will be interesting to see how far they can take the side with a few years under their belts.
There all 28 years of age they still have at least another 3-4 years before they have to worry about bringing in a new fullback, hooker or half. Like I said Craig Bellamy can bring out the best of players.
 
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sneakyprick

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The point (that many missed) still stands.

The Storm are focussed around 3 key players. All are around the same age, and realistically not all that far from retirement. The older one gets the more injury prone they can be.

Storm should be starting to blood new players to cover the 1, 6, and 9 soon, to cover for when Slater, Cronk, and Smith leave.

Sure it may be years away and other clubs are most likely affected by a similar situation, however the Storm have had a hold on the NRL competition for quite a few years now, and namely due to those 3 players. Clubs like the Bulldogs on the other hand are blooding quite a few young players now and will be interesting to see how far they can take the side with a few years under their belts.
The storm don't need to blood younger players when they have the 3 best players in the world in key positions, hell they made the Tigers look very average even without the big 3, the Bulldogs have struggled for quite a few years now so they will always be bringing younger and players purchased from other clubs though. Also the big 3 will play till they are in their early thirty's easily, 4 years is a long time in League. I would be more worried about your own team that has been buying players galore for a few years now with no premiership to show for it.
 

Rodzilla

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why should melbourne build for the future when they currently have the championship contending team in their prime right now, they should ride the wave of success as long as they can and who cares if it costs them in the future
 
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sneakyprick

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why should melbourne build for the future when they currently have the championship contending team in their prime right now, they should ride the wave of success as long as they can and who cares if it costs them in the future
Exactly. Its the same as if Kasiano becomes the best forward in the game then saying you should replace him once he is 28, you are going to keep using your best players till they no longer make an impact.
 

Naki

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what an idiotic thing to say... how were melbourne exposed by the tigers of all teams? missing 3 origin stars that are the heart and soul of their attack..

the only team to beat melbourne were cronulla and that was against their(melbournes) full strength team...
 

PantherPower83

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Storm should be starting to blood new players to cover the 1, 6, and 9 soon, to cover for when Slater, Cronk, and Smith leave.
Exactly how will Melbourne blood these new players? An uneccessary rotation system to take out Slater, Cronk and Smith for several games during the peak of their careers?

Also, how long would you expect to blood these new players? 4-5 years until Slater, Cronk and Smith eventually retire? No upcoming junior would be dumb enough to sit and wait behind these players, especially for that period of time.

Even if Melbourne unearthed some a talented upcoming fullback, halfback and hooker, there is a high probability that another club will offer some big bucks for them to get a shot at a starting position. Hardly a great return on investment for Melbourne.

Live in the moment.
 

Stoofy

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Melbourne got beaten 40 to nil by Manly in a Grand Final.

The only player missing was Cam Smith and they had no-one to replace him.

Backup for key players is important in this comp!
 
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Alan79

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All three players would demand significant pay cheques so even when they retire the Storm will have big money to throw at possible replacements. Like others have said, they all probably have 3-4 years left possibly more. Injury might become more of a problem as they get older but when they retire i'd expect that Bellamy will go on a spending spree. It would be hard to buy in three replacements with the skill level of Slater, Smith and Cronk though. I'd expect that Bellamy will be tested as a coach when he has to replace them.
 
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chipandchase

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I am another that can't understand your logic on this post or agree with any of it
If you take your 3 best players out of any team you are going to struggle big time
but these aren't just top players they 2 all time greats and other a aus / soo rep
They were also missing chambers as well

the tigers had their superstar playing Benji Marshall , and the storm could have won the game in the last play

Mr I sorry mate don't agree with any of your post
 

Book

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Not sure how many watched the game tonight, but take away Slater, Cronk and Smith and the Storm are terrible.
Take out three absolute world class players who are the very top in their respective positions and who the team gameplan is built around and the Storm are not good.

Wow, who would have thought?
 

vietorious

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Boring game. Fell asleep twice trying to watch it.
Woke up from a nap watched 2 tries go in and fell asleep again.
 
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