Storm begins on-field fight, wins 40-6
By Melissa Woods 20:14 AEST Sun Apr 25 2010
In their NRL match against the Warriors Sunday night the Storm played like defending champions, not like a club in disgrace and disarray since their massive salary cap rort was exposed.
Stripped of all points for this season and of their two premierships since 2007, Bellamy rallied his troops over the past three days, saying they would stand up for themselves and fight their way back.
They players answered his call, crushing the hapless Warriors 40-6 before 23,906 cheering fans.
They showed they could play for pride as much as premiership points, running in seven tries; winger Matt Duffie scored a double on his NRL debut.
Showing intent from the kick-off, prop Aiden Tolman steamed into the Warriors defence and then a fired-up Ryan Hoffman smashed fullback Wade McKinnon back into the in-goal as Melbourne went on to dominate all aspects of the game.
Their first try came fittingly to skipper Cameron Smith, who earlier led the side out on to the ground to rapturous cheers, as well as a few boos.
Smith burrowed across the line from dummy-half in the 16th minute and was swamped by his teammates.
The tireless hooker also kicked six from seven conversions to finish with 16 points for the match.
Melbourne went on to score a further three tries to take a 22-0 halftime lead, including Duffie's first.
The video referee ruled the 19-year-old went into touch with his first effort, in the 21st minute, but Duffie made no mistake less than three minutes later when he scooted outside defenders after a Cooper Cronk pass.
Forwards Adam Blair and Ryan Tandy also touched down before the players left the field for the break, clapping their fans on their way to the tunnel.
The second half started and finished much the same, with the only change the volume of the cheering crowd, which seemed to grow louder as the match wore on.
Duffie, who replaced Luke MacDougall got his second eight minutes into the second half before Willie Isa and Billy Slater were rewarded with tries for their efforts.
With tensions simmering, the Warriors finally got on the board with three minutes remaining, through Ukuma Ta'ai, who showed his feelings by throwing the ball at the Storm tacklers.
Retired Storm legends, including Glenn Lazarus, Tawera Nikau, Matt Geyer and Scott Hill, travelled to Melbourne to support the besieged club and followed the team on to the ground.
Smith said after the match he didn't know what to expect of the players after the shock of losing their premierships and points for this season on Thursday.
"The first few days were heart-breaking," he said.
"Earlier we didn't know how we were going to get through this game."
Despite the club unable to accrue any points, Smith pleaded for the fans to continue to show their support and said they would be repaid with a 100 per cent effort.
"Every time we put on this jersey to play for our club we're going to do our best and we hope you'll all turn up.
"Hopefully for the rest of the year we can do what we did tonight."
