By David Nagel
The usually spacious confines of Casey Fields were transformed into a sea of purple on Saturday afternoon as the Melbourne Storm locked horns with the New Zealand Warriors in their first NRL hit-out for the year.
The Storm went down 30-18 in the pre-season trial match to a much-more experienced Warriors outfit, with several Storm stars sitting on the sidelines either through injury or man-management.
Missing from Saturday’s game were players like Jesse and Kenny Bromwich, Justin Olam, Christian Welch, Jahrome Hughes and big man Nelson sofa-Solomona.
Despite missing some big names, the highlights for the Storm were obvious to the eye, with superstar Cameron Munster starting in the halves and having his usual huge impact on the contest.
Brandon Smith was another to show some flare, finding his way over the try line in the opening half. Smith’s try followed a great start to Storm life for boom recruit Xavier Coates, who took just three minutes to introduce him to fans.
Storm trailed by just two points, 12-14 at half time, but three tries to one after the break saw the Warriors emerge victorious.
Storm coach Craig Bellamy took the opportunity to blood some youngsters, who may be called upon in round one of the official NRL season against Wests Tigers on Saturday 12 March.
Harry Grant, Chris Lewis, Brandon Smith and Munster will all miss through suspension, while evasive full-back Ryan Papenhuyzen is almost certain to miss, courtesy of an ankle injury.
Saturday’s game was labelled the ‘Unite for Tonga’ game, with both clubs coming together to raise important funds for the Island nation that suffered terribly after a volcano eruption caused a Tsunami in the South Pacific Ocean.
This was the Storm’s second visit to Casey Fields in recent times, after an open training session earlier this month.
