Storm fade out to the Cowboys

It was deja vu for the Melbourne Storm as they gave the North Queensland Cowboys yet another healthy start, only this time they kept getting further and further away, eventually going down 40-8 at Dairy Farmers Stadium in Townsville.

Perhaps it was the heat; perhaps it was the third away game in a row; perhaps it was a combination of the two. But Storm coach Craig Bellamy wasn’t too happy with the performance.

Too many errors and too many penalties cost the Storm any chance of victory, and the Cowboys took full advantage of almost every mistake.

The Cowboys opened the scoring in the 7th minute when a Jonathon Thurston bullet-like pass cut out three Storm defenders, gifting winger Neil Sweeney a try in the corner.

Four minutes later it was Luke O’Donnell who took advantage of some soft defending to extend the Cowboys lead out to 12-0.

A penalty against Hoffman and a subsequent conversion to Thurston made the deficit 14-0 before a Storm set play saw Matt Geyer get Melbourne back in the game, scoring in the corner.

However, a wonderful Matt Bowen pass found Ty Williams five metres out and he made no mistake before a penalty against Storm for a high tackle on the stroke of half-time allowed Thurston to convert, sending the home team in 22-4, leaving the Storm with a mountain to climb.

The second half started in the best possible fashion for the Storm.

A Scott Hill kick behind the defence found Jake Webster who showed an amazing turn of pace to beat the retreating Cowboys defenders to the ball, giving the travelling Storm faithful a glimmer of hope.

However, an interception by man-of-the-match Thurston and a 40-metre sprint to the try line made the assignment for the Storm an almost impossible one.

With 17 minutes to go, the assignment went from almost impossible to not-a-chance when Thurston sent the Storm defence the wrong way before scoring near the posts to make the score 34-8.

Six minutes later Paul Bowman got on the end of a Thurston kick that somehow found its way through several sets of hands, extending the lead to something resembling a rout.

After the game, Storm coach Craig Bellamy was full of praise for the opposition, especially half-back Thurston.

“He’s a very good player. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s the game’s next superstar,” said Bellamy.

“You take him out of their side and it evens things up I think.”

Storm captain Cameron Smith also sang Thurston’s praises.

“He was playing well at the end of last year and he certainly has continued that into this year,” said Smith.

“At the moment he’s one of the top two players running around in the competition.”

Although it was the third game in a row the Storm had played on the road in hot conditions, Bellamy wasn’t looking to make excuses.

“We were pretty flat the whole game,” said Bellamy.

“We got off to a bad start. We got hammered in the penalties and we looked really sluggish with the footy.

“We don’t want to use the travel or the heat as an excuse. We were well prepared, or we thought we were, and we just didn’t produce tonight.”

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