No footy this Saturday?

The Melbourne sporting landscape will be turned upside down this weekend, with the big rugby league (Melbourne Storm vs South Sydney Rabbitohs) and rugby union (Australia v Italy) double taking over the AFL dominated city.

With only two games of AFL being played all weekend, and only one in Melbourne on Friday night, it’s an opportunity for the Melbourne public to take in a game of rugby league.

This Saturday night at 7:30pm sees the Melbourne Storm take on a resurgent South Sydney Rabbitohs outfit at Olympic Park in a do-or-die encounter for the home side.

The Rabbitohs have been a different side over the past four weeks, losing narrowly to the Broncos and the Dragons, drawing with last years Premiers the Bulldogs and defeating the in-form Sea Eagles who are sitting in third position on the premiership ladder.

On the other hand, after blazing a trail through the competition in the early months of the season, including a 50-4 victory over current ladder leaders the Brisbane Broncos, the Storm have been on what can be best described as a roller coaster ride of results.

Having been anointed early season favourites for the title, Melbourne are now clinging on to a finals position by the skin of their teeth. This weekend’s game will give them the opportunity to kick-start their season back into life. They will also be hoping to provide a performance that will go some way to getting back some respect from the Storm faithful, and pay them back for their loyalty and devotion to the cause.

With only five home games left this season, it’s the perfect opportunity to take the family to see the best in the business such as Billy Slater, Matt King and Cameron Smith strut their stuff on the Olympic Park turf. There is always something going on to keep the children entertained such as face painting, a jumping castle, pyrotechnics and Storm Man, the most energetic mascot in the land.

In other Storm news this week;

Sydney Roosters star back rower Michael Crocker spent the weekend in Melbourne having talks with Storm management about the possibility of the Queensland State-Of-Origin and Australian representative playing in Melbourne next season.

Crocker has played for the Maroons on five occasions and toured with the Kangaroos in 2003.

Storm manager of football operations Peter O'Sullivan believes talks with Crocker's manager have gone extremely well.

"Talks were very encouraging," O'Sullivan told the Herald Sun.

"Mick really enjoyed having a look around. We should have a decision in the next 10 days."

After match pow-wow:

Storm coach Craig Bellamy attended the post-match press conference without his skipper by his side. Why? Robbie Kearns sat his players down after the weekend’s loss to Penrith and in typical leadership style, without the coaching staff present, told them exactly what he thought of their performance, and what the ramifications would be should they continue to deliver such inconsistent performances.

"I can't put my finger on why we played so bad in the second half, but at the end of the day .... as the guys who were there (on Saturday night), we have to have a good look at ourselves and try and get the club out of the little bit of a rut that we're in," Kearns said.

"I just think it is a case where we have a core six players who turn up each week to play whether we win or lose and the rest of the players are either good or bad. Everyone is going to have to start turning up ready to play because as you've seen, it only takes one or two guys to be off their game and it spreads like cancer.

"There's been a lot of talk, we just have to start doing a bit more action rather than words."