The Melbourne Storm rose to the summit of the Telstra Premiership with an emaculate away performance, shutting out a toothless Tigers side in the final 55 minutes to run away with a deserved 12-4 victory.
In front of a sold out crowd of 20,468, the Leichart Oval faithful were in full voice but were unable to drive the Marshall-less Tigers home.
Marshall hobbled off injured in the 58th minute with a suspected knee injury after a swinging tackle by Melbourne makeship centre Justin O'neil, left the star tiger entrenched on the turf.
Melbourne coach Craig Bellamy made several late changes, including shifitng Captain Cameron Smith to the interchange after a stellar performance midweek in State of Origin. Veteran prop Bryan Norrie joined Smith on the bench, while Sika Manu and Adam Woolnough replaced Norrie and the excluded Jesse Bromwich in the Front Row.
Despite the changes Melbourne were immediately placed on the front foot by man of the match Cooper Cronk who punted two long range 40/20's in the first 4 minutes.
Melbourne were unable to capatilise on the field position and escaped down the other end, when Tigers Prop Bryce Gibbs fumbled the ball over the Melbourne goal line.
Gibbs' error was compounded minutes later after a Storm pet play, saw five eigth Gareth Widdop through off a Cronk inside ball, before sending Hooker Ryan Hinchcliffe under the posts to register the games first points.The Tigers hit back shortly after with a ranging cross field pass from Benji Marshall finding winger Beau Ryan who crossed over in the corner. Marshall sliced the attempted conversion way off the mark.
Ryan's t
ry triggered the Storm back into action and on the back off some ill discipline found themeselves in the Tigers 20. The troublesome Tigers defense was again caught founding as Cronk found back rower Kevin Proctor on a lovely short ball, to send the young Kiwi over the line barely untouched. Smith slotted home the extras in what turned out to be the final scoring play of the round 15 encounter.After the interval was a Melbourne masterclass in how to 'grind' out a match. Even with the majority of possession the home side failed to break through a stubborn Melbourne line which has now only conceded 3 tries in its past 3 games.
No doubt Marshalls inury had a negative affect on the Tigers however interchange halve Robert Lui failed to inject himself in the match while Captain Robbie Farah spent more time whinging then playing.
To the Tigers credit they never gave up and only last ditch tackles from Cronk and Billy Slater held out winger Mitch Brown from scoring in the second half.
The sealer for Melbourne was a terrific chase and tackle effort from Lock Todd Lowrie. Lowrie ran down rookie centre Tim Simona before hurling him over the sideline in the 68th minute, gaining praises from his Storm teamates.
In the battle of rival hookers Farah had only 20 tackles and 80 kick metres i
n 80 minutes, apposed to Smith's 39 tackles and 140 kick metres in 60 minutes. Along with Smith's decision making this game highlighted the gulf in class between the two number 9's.Man of the match Cooper Cronk kicked for over 400 metres, had 2 line break assists, a try assist and made 25 tackles in a near perfect performance.
Halves pairing Cronk and Widdop were far more controlled than Tigers halves Marshall and Tim Moltzen while the Melbourne was solid as ever lead by Adam Blair, who speculated to be joining the Tigers at seasons end.
The only downside is Forward Sika Manu who was placed on report for a crusher tackle on Beau Ryan.
The Tigers are at home to face the Bulldogs on Friday night whereas the Storm travel to Auckland to face the Warriors.
