Warriors feel the force of the Storm

A convincing win tonight in Melbourne for the home side has them hold the Michael Moore trophy for the rest of the year as they trounced the Vodafone Warriors by 42-6 in front of a very vocal home crowd boosted by the lack of AFL matches this weekend in the city.

Scoring 8 tries to 1 the Storm were on fire right from the beginning of the game, making yards almost everytime they had their hands on the football.

To their credit the Warriors found some composure and played well for the last 10 minutes of the first half to be down at the break by 18-6.

The second half saw both sides evenly matched in attack and unforced errors until Matt King from the Storm went in for his third try of the match 15 minutes into the half, and the Storm never looked back.

With the penalty count of 11-3 against them the Warriors have some work to do on their discipline, some fine plays in the end spoiled by tempers. 41 missed tackles is also something needed to be worked on as they sometimes struggled to hold the Storm players fully in the tackles allowing the offloads.

Billy Slater and Matt King were both impressive with their attacks for the Melbourne side, both making over 200 metres, while the defence of Alex Chan and Robbie Kearns playing his 250th match, was outstanding.

Olympic Park Melbourne Referee: Steve Lyons Video Referee: Mick Stone Touch Judges: Russell Turner, Ben Cummins

Scorers: STORM 42 Tries: Kidwell, Bell, King 3, MacDougall 2, Slater Goals: Orford 4/7, Cooper 1/1 defeated WARRIORS 6 Tries: Martin Goals: Hohaia 1/1

By the clock: Discipline needed by the Warriors following the game last week against the Cowboys. The Warriors wearing black armbands as a tribute to long serving fan Tony Whitworth. Robbie Kearns from the Storm playing his 250th first grade match, Matt Geyer his 150th.

0 min: Kick off!

4th min: NEWS - Early penalties to the Storm forcing the Warriors back to the tryline. Webb lucky not to be binned for a professional foul.

7th min: NEWS - The Warriors scrambling defence holding so far. The Storm making the metres on attack. Tony Martin (Warriors) making some great tackles against his old club. No score so far

8th min: TRY - Kidwell for Storm. The Storm offloading close to the line. Orford kicks the perfect ball to his winger Geyer on the fifth tackle, who flicks a one handed pass back in for Kidwell to score. Orford puts a nice kick over for the 2 extra points. Storm 6-0

10th min: TRY - Bell for Storm. Slater, Hill and Kidwell splitting the defence wide open, after a poor kicking option. Bell finishes off from close to the line. Orford misses the conversion. Storm 10-0

15th min: NEWS - The Warriors putting themselves under pressure by not completing their sets through errors. The Storm looking composed and dangerous

20th min: NEWS - The Warriors have their first honest chance on attack and bomb it on the first tackle. Storm have possession on the 20 metre line followed by a saving penalty. 10-0 to the Storm

22nd min: NEWS - Martin (Warriors) off the field with blood pouring from his head

23rd min: TRY - King for Storm. Play restarting on the first tackle, Melbourne spin the ball wide quickly to Martin's side of the field with no replacement on for the Warriors and King scores in the corner. Martin returns. Orford from right on the sideline, hooks it to the left. Storm 14-0

25th min: NO TRY -The Storm defence holds true as three of the Warriors big boys try to bust over the line. Fa'afili close to scoring in the short in goals however his foot grazes the sideline before he grounds the ball as the replay shows. Storm 14-0

29th min: TRY - King for Storm. Orford puts a chip through at the halfway mark, regathers with a favourable bounce and heads off upfield. The ball is quickly out to King via MacDougall, and he's in four the try. Orford hooks the conversion to the right. Storm 18-0

34th min: TRY - Martin for Warriors. The Storm make a mistake on their 30 metres mark. Vinnie Anderson scoops up the ball and sets sail for the other end of the field. Martin flying in support scores the try. Converted by Hohaia. Storm 18-6

36th min: NEWS - The Warriors more confident. Ropati makes a bust down the side however unable to finish off as Webb toes the ball dead in goal

HALFTIME: The Storm looking good for most of the game but the Warriors have hit back late in the half, after discipline was letting them down. Great crowd support. Storm lead 18-6

HALFTIME STATS: Penalties; Storm 5 - Warriors 1 Possession; Storm 51% - Warriors 49% Completions; Storm 15/20 - Warriors 15/18 Line breaks; Storm 4 - Warriors 2 Offloads; Storm 9 - Warriors 7 Errors; Storm 3 - Warriors 5

Second half underway once the smoke from the fireworks disappears..

42nd min: NEWS - Webb (Warriors) busts through the line as Orford comes up early. The next play by Ropati is fumbled and the Warriors lose possession 10 metres out from their line

47th min: NEWS - The Storm solid in defence as the Warriors have more possession than when they started the first half. Score remains 18-6

53rd min: TRY - King for Storm. A missed tackle by Fa'afili who had come in off his man and King makes him pay sprinting a good 50 metres to score under the posts. Orford adds the extra 2 points. Storm 24-6

55th min: NEWS - Villasanti (Warriors) penalised for a strip then marched 10 metres for backchat with a warning he'll be off for 10 miuntes

57th min: NEWS - Johnson (Storm) on report for a dangerous tackle on Stacey Jones, going over the horizontal. The penalty backed up by another rewarded to the Warriors, the Storm lacking a bit of discipline this time. Storm lead 24-6

63rd min: TRY - MacDougall for Storm. Good fast plays to get the Storm close to the line. Offloads have killed the Warriors and Chan holds the ball just enough to get MacDougall who had followed him around, over for the try. Orford converts from near in front. Storm 30-6

67th min: TRY - Slater for Storm. Slater takes off from his 10 metre line. Wrong foots the defence and smiles all the way to the tryline with the chant of 'Billy' going up around the stadium. Orford adds the extra points. Storm 36-6

75th min: NEWS - The Storm continue to pile on the pressure. The Warriors defence out on their feet but holding. Villasanti (Warriors) once again penalised, his discipline pushing the limits

77th min: NEWS - Beetham (Warriors) penalised for a high shot on Slater, the crowd calling for the sin bin but to no avail.

78th min: TRY - MacDougall for Storm. The resulting penalty catches the defence. Quick play and MacDougall flies over the line. Cooper converts. Storm 42-6

FULLTIME: Solid performance by the Storm to win convincingly, 42-6. The Warriors back to some more soul searching

FULLTIME STATS: Penalties; Storm 11 - Warriors 3 Possession; Storm 53% - Warriors 47% Completions; Storm 33/42 - Warriors 26/32 Line breaks; Storm 8 - Warriors 4 Offloads; Storm 18 - Warriors 17 Errors; Storm 8 - Warriors 7

----------------------------------------- Leagueunlimited.com players of the match: 3 - B Slater (Storm) 2 - A Chan (Storm) 1 - M King (Storm) -----------------------------------------