Storm with minds on job

After a week of turmoil, the Melbourne Storm got back on track today with a fine display against the Sydney Roosters as they ran out winners by 14 points at Olympic Park.

With Melbourne leading by eight points with less than 20 minutes left, State of Origin centre Matt King put the result beyond doubt with a wonderful display of soccer skills to keep a Matt Orford kick in play as he soccered it past Amos Roberts to score in the South-West corner.

The Storm was led around the field masterfully by Orford, who, during the week accepted a big money offer to follow team-mate Steven Bell to Manly next year. Orford was well helped out by the electrifying Billy Slater, while Robbie Kearns attacked the line all day with 27 tackles and 15 hit-ups.

Sydney on the other hand were disappointing. Craig Fitzgibbon (39 tackles and 16 hit-ups) and Luke Ricketson (32 and 12) worked hard in the forwards all day while rookie five-eighth Jamie Soward tried hard for the Roosters.

Melbourne would have expected to have gotten out to a flying start early as they were kicking with a considerable breeze and it was a relief that they were first over the chalk in the tenth minute when Dallas Johnson burrowed over the line from close range to score his second try in two games and give the Storm an early lead which was 6-0 when Orford converted from close to the posts.

The Roosters, however, were not settling inside their shell and spent considerable time in their opponent’s half. Fitzgibbon missed a golden opportunity to get on the board in the 22nd minute after missing a penalty goal from almost directly in front to stay within breathing distance of Melbourne.

Five minutes later, Orford took his chance to claim two points as he booted a penalty goal to take the lead out to eight points.

The Roosters maintained their pressure in the ensuing ten minutes but could not break the defensive line that kept Canberra scoreless two weeks beforehand. Eventually the counter attack happened and Slater broke through a yawning gap to score after good work from Orford and Matt Geyer. Orford’s kick after the siren saw the lead stretch to 14-0 at the half.

The Roosters would have still had their hopes up at half time considering the wind that they were kicking with and when Soward intercepted a Scott Hill pass and ran 85 metres to score in the 58th minute, the Roosters were back in the game. However, this run was snuffed out by King’s incredible skills to toe a ball past Roberts and dive over the whitewash with 15 minutes to go.

Six minutes later former Rooster David Kidwell also joined the party as he took advantage of an overlap to take the score out to 24-6 after Cameron Smith’s conversion.

With two minutes to go the Roosters gained some late respect with centre Iosia Soliola scoring a simple try as he was unmarked in the corner. Fitzgibbon’s conversion attempt missed and that summed up Sydney’s day.

Melbourne have the chance to move to second next week as they travel to Newcastle as they take on the bottom of the table Knights while the Roosters – now 12th – take on a red hot Dragons outfit at WIN Stadium in Wollongong.

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