Check out the match preview and prediction for the round 12 clash between the Sea Eagles and the Storm.
MATCHDAY NEWS
MATCHDAY SCHEDULE
Manly Warringah Sea Eagles Vs Melbourne Storm
Venue: 4 Pines Park, Sydney.
Date: Friday May 4, 8:00pm
MATCHDAY TEAM NEWS
Sea Eagles: 1. Tolutau Koula, 2. Jason Saab, 3. Tommy Talau, 4. Reuben Garrick, 5. Raymond Tuiamalo Vaega, 6. Luke Brooks, 7. Daly Cherry-Evans, 8. Taniela Paseka, 9. Karl Lawton, 10. Josh Aloiai, 11. Haumole Olakau’atu, 12. Ben Trbojevic, 13. Jake Trbojevic, 14. Gordon Chan Kum Tong, 15. Corey Waddell, 16. Ethan Bullemor, 17. Nathan Brown, 18. Aaron Woods, 19. Jakob Arthur, 20. Jaxson Paulo, 21. Lehi Hopoate, 22. Toafofoa Sipley
Players cut from final squad:
Storm: 1. Sualauvi Faalogo, 2. William Warbrick, 3. Reimis Smith, 4. Nick Meaney, 5. Xavier Coates, 6. Tyran Wishart, 7. Jahrome Hughes, 8. Tui Kamikamica, 9. Harry Grant, 10. Christian Welch, 11. Shawn Blore, 12. Eliesa Katoa, 13. Josh King, 14. Trent Loiero, 15. Grant Anderson, 16. Nelson Asofa-Solomona, 17. Alec MacDonald, 18. Bronson Garlick, 19. Jack Howarth, 20. Joe Chan, 21. Dean Ieremia, 22. Tristan Powell
Referee: Ashley Klein
Embed from Getty ImagesMATCHDAY PREVIEW
I was born right on the turn of the century. Dad was a tremendously passionate rugby league man, and so while others grew up watching the likes of Postman Pat and The Koala Brothers – I grew up watching Pat Richards and the Morris brothers.
In the years I was starting to get a grasp of what was going on in the NRL, there were two sides who were utterly dominant. In both 2007 and 2008, Melbourne and Manly finished the regular season in the top two, and went on to make the grand final, winning one each. That two-year era represented a third of my life up to that point, and consequently it felt like their dominance lasted forever.
I’ve never forgotten that – and neither have these two sides. We’ve cleared a decade and a half since those grand finals, and yet every time these sides clash you can sense something different in the air. Moments like the 2011 ‘Battle of Brookvale’ (a dust-up so infamous it has its own Wikipedia page) or Jorge Taufua’s iconic hit on Cameron Munster in 2019… they don’t happen by coincidence.
Half-hearted callbacks to grand finals of the past aren’t uncommon when sides come up against each other. Grand finals don’t inherently create genuine rivalry. This round alone features rematches of the 1985, 2005, and 2019 deciders. And yet – we do acknowledge that past. The rivalry here is genuine.
Billy Slater may have become Sua Fa’alogo, Cameron Smith may have become Harry Grant, Matt Orford may have become DCE, and Anthony Watmough may have become Jake Trbojevic. But the clubs are the same, and the spirit from those dominant days can still be found in the fabric of those jerseys.
There are certain fixtures where the writer doesn’t have to put in the legwork of hyping up the game, because simply recounting the history does that job for them.
This is one of those fixtures. Sit back and enjoy.
Head-to-head stats can be found at Number Crunch Stats.
MATCHDAY PREDICTION
Check out all the NRL Predictions here.
Melbourne by 6 points.
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