A relentless Melbourne Storm has reminded the NRL competition of their premiership credentials by thrashing the Broncos by 60-12 at Suncorp Stadium tonight.
With hooker Harry Grant pulling the strings out of dummy half, the Storm ran in ten tries to two in a dominant performance to entrench themselves in the Top 4 with just two regular season matches remaining.
Incredibly, it was the fourth straight win where the Storm have put a forty plus score line on the Broncos at Suncorp Stadium and leaves Kevin Walters' men in dire straights as they now cling to a Top 8 spot with tough matches against the Eels and Dragons to come.
It was an exciting start from both sides, with Melbourne forcing the home side into two consecutive dropouts. The Storm took the second one to deliver, when Nelson Asofa-Solomona stood in a tackle close to the line and offloaded to his centre Young Tonumaipea who burst onto the ball to score the first try of the match. Nick Meaney converted and it was 6-0 to the visitors.
Asofa-Solomona then turned villain just moments later when he threw a no look flick pass which found a surprised Xavier Coates. The Queensland winger then in turn produced another loose pass which was intercepted by Kurt Capewell who raced away to score and get the Broncos on the scoreboard. Adam Reynolds converted and it was all square at 6 all.
Melbourne then hit the lead when off the back of a strong run and quick play the ball from Brandon Smith. This allowed Harry Grant to jump out of dummy half to find Tui Kamikamica and the Fijian international took the opportunity to score the Storm's second try and put them back in front.
The visitors continued to pressure the Broncos defensive line and they were rewarded again, when blockbusting Justin Olam backed his way towards the tryline. Then showing tremendous strength he managed to produce a scrappy offload for his winger David Nofoaluma who scored in the corner. Meaney nailed the conversion and it was the Storm up 18-6.
Melbourne scored their fourth try on the stroke of halftime following a sublime grubber from Grant close to the line and it was Cameron Munster who won the race for the ball to score and give his side a commanding 24-6 lead at the break.
It was a horror start to the second half for Brisbane, as Harry Grant darted out of dummy half again off a strong Brandon Smith run, and this time the Queensland hooker scored himself to extend the lead.
The game then completely slipped out of Brisbane's hands with two tries to Justin Olam, who first scored after brushing off three defenders to score. The PNG international then collected a superb late offload from Kenny Bromwich to extend the lead to 42-6 with 20 minutes remaining.
Brisbane then finally gave their home fans something to cheer about, when Adam Reynolds kicked for his winger in Corey Oates who collected the ball in goal and did amazingly well to ground the ball and narrow the lead to 42-12.
The Broncos try seemed to only fire up Melbourne who went on a rampage with tries to Jahrome Hughes, Nelson Asofa-Solomona and a second try to David Nofoaluma to blow the score out to a record 60-12 thrashing.
Melbourne now return to AAMI Park next Friday night where they faced their old nemesis in the Sydney Roosters in an absolute blockbuster next Friday night.
Brisbane now face a huge test to prove they haven't run out of gas, as the face the Eels in their final home match of the year against an equally desperate Parramatta next Thursday.