Head to Head overall in the NRL
Manly: 12
Storm: 15
Drawn: 1
Last time they met: Manly vs. Melbourne always turns out to be an epic battle but the Round 2 clash earlier this year really tested the mental strength of Geoff Toovey’s side.
The home side started very brightly after New Zealand international Peta Hiku came within inches of giving the Silvertails an early lead but couldn’t quite get a firm hand down to plant the plant in the try line.
It didn’t take long before the points were up when on the stroke of the 10th minute, Feleti Mateo offloaded brilliantly for Jamie Buhrer who charged through the Melbourne defence to set up Steve ‘Skivy’ Matai who made sure the Northern Beaches side were the first to score.
Young Tonumaipea hit back for the visiting side but they were looking weary as Dunamis Lui put in some hard hits to fire up the Brookvale crowd.
Daly Cherry-Evans was ruthless in attack and played a beautiful inside pass to Tom Symonds who stormed through the lines to lay the ball on a plate for Brett Stewart to put Manly back in the lead with five minutes to play before half time.
The Silvertails were far from finished for the first half and DCE was at it again this time kicking off the side of his boot for Blake Leary to run through the Melbourne defence and firmly place the ball down to extend the margin.
Stewart scored his 2nd for the night after DCE made a line break to offloaded for the Sea Eagle fullback to give the home side a 24-6 lead going into half time.
The first 20 minutes of the second half was somewhat of an arm wrestle only for the momentum to swing into Melbourne’s favour as they scored three consecutive tries through a Blake Green double and Will Chambers.
The Sea Eagles were determined to hold out the Victorian side as Jake Trbojevic put a big tackle on Melbourne’s Tom Learoyd-Lahrs to help the Silvertails hold on for a 24-22 win.
Last five meetings:
2013 May 20th Round 10, Manly 10–10 Melbourne, AAMI Park
2013 August 31st Round 25, Manly 28-8 Melbourne, Brookvale Oval
2014 March 8th Round 1, Manly 22-23 Melbourne, Brookvale Oval
2014 May 10th Round 9, Manly 19-22 Melbourne, AAMI Park
2015 March 14th Round 2, Manly 24-22 Melbourne, Brookvale Oval
General Stats:
Manly’s largest win over the Storm in the NRL came in the 2008 Grand Final when the Sea Eagles triumphed 40-0 over the Strom in front of over 80,000 people at ANZ Stadium.
Peta Hiku from Manly and the Storm’s Bromwich brother’s Jesse and Kenny, share the same junior club in New Zealand, the Manurewa Marlins.
Blake Leary in only his second game for the Sea Eagles scored his first try I the 24-22 win over the Storm in Round 2 of the current season.
Ten years ago in Round 3 of the 2005 season, Steve ‘Skivy’ Matai made his NRL debut for the Sea Eagles against the Storm at Brookvale Oval. Manly won the game 25-18.
From the previous meeting between the two sides in Round 2, Kevin Proctor from the Storm and Matt Ballin from Manly completed the most amount of tackles, 41 each.
