NRL Round-22: Sea Eagles vs. Storm
The Sea Eagles welcomed the Melbourne Storm to the Brookvale Oval in Manly over the weekend.
The Sea Eagles were looking to hold on to a playoff position late in the year and hoped to snag two-points against the last place Storm.
The Storm, meanwhile, are still incapable of winning any points this season due to their penalty for manipulating the league salary cap. Therefore, they were reserved to their regular position as spoilers.
Recap
The game was never in question, as the Sea Eagles demonstrated they were the better team. With something to play for, the Eagles held a solid lead at half and were able to finish out the game with a 26-6 victory.
The Eagles' Jamie Lyon started out what would be a terrific game by crossing the line for the first points of the match. Lyon hit the conversion on his own try to give the Sea Eagles a 6-0 lead in the 13th minute.
Only three minutes later, Tony Williams managed another try for the home side, and Lyon smashed through his second conversion on the day to make it 12-0 for the Eagles.
The Eagles continued their strong play as Steve Matai notched the third try of the day for the Manly side in the 28th minute. Lyon made the conversion in the 30th minute to push the lead to 18-0.
Ryan Hoffman scored the only try of the day for the visitors, and Cameron Smith hit the conversion in the 34th minute to make it an 18-6 game at the break.
The second half was all Sea Eagles as Lyon added to his already impressive day with a try and conversion in the 51st minute to make it 24-6 for the Eagles.
As if Lyon had not done enough, he added a penalty in the 61st minute for good measure and the Sea Eagles coasted the rest of the way to a 26-6 home win.
Lyon’s impressive day was the key to the Sea Eagles domination as he scored 18 of his teams 26 points, tripling the score of the visiting Storm on his own.
The Storm spent the whole game tackling, as the Sea Eagles offence ran all over the Melbourne side. Smith recorded 49 tackles on his own for the visiting squad.
Analysis
The Sea Eagles game seems to be improving at just the right time. Although they scored 26 points on the last place Storm, it could have easily been more with players like Shane Rodney and William Hopoate moving the ball well, but they were not able to get on the board with tries of their own.
Next week, the Sea Eagles will face a much tougher test as they are away to the first overall Dragons in the featured Monday night contest. Still sitting very close to 8th place, it is important for the Manly side to continue collecting points in the final rounds of the season.
The Storm looked like a different team this week, when compared to the side that has been generating upsets over the last two rounds. Although they cannot advance in the standings, the Melbourne group will continue to take their role as spoilers seriously.
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