Storm Eagerly Await Manly Clash


Billy Slater: "Up for it"


Melbourne Storm welcome Manly Sea Eagles to AAMI Park on Monday night in the pick of Premiership’s round 10 games.

The likelihood of the hosts rolling out the red carpet to their bitter rivals remains low though.

Craig Bellamy’s Storm will look to avoid a hat-trick of losses, after surprise defeats at the hands of Canberra and Penrith saw them slip to 3rd in the ladder.

The visiting Sea Eagles are hot on their tail too, despite coming off the back of a defeat against the highly-rated Roosters.

Since 2006, at least one of the clubs has made the grand final in every year bar 2010, and they have clashed literally and metaphorically in a couple with Manly avenging their 34-8 loss of 2007 a year later with a 40-0 humbling of the Victorians.

Bellamy’s men will need to come out ‘all-guns-blazing’ after their recent disappointments, and it was a point reiterated by marvel full-back Billy Slater, “We’ve been a little bit flat over, not just the last two weeks, but also probably the three weeks prior, too. I don’t know what that is, but hopefully we’ve got a bit more of a spring in our step now,” he said.

Slater, as part of a wonderful ‘1-7-9’combination that includes stand-off Cooper Cronk and hooker Cameron Smith, was instrumental in the Storm side which romped to fifteen straight wins with their slick attacking rugby, but, if there was one criticism which could be levelled at the Storm, it was that they weren’t ready psychologically against the physical mid-table sides in the Raiders and the Panthers.

“Perhaps it’s easier to get up for the big games,” Slater admitted in his pre-match press conference on the club’s website.

There can be little doubt that Manly, who have developed a reputation as one of the competitions most physical sides, are likely to attempt to rough up the Premiers with their imposing figures, such as Anthony Watmough and centre Steve Matai.

If the match is half as fiery as the infamous Adam Blair v Glen Stewart brawl of 2011 (shown below), we should be in for a cracker.



TheSportingHack’s predicition: Storm by 4 points.

Read the match report here on Monday night.

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