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📻 IMPORTANT AUCKLAND UPDATE 📻
"Frantic" Storm escape with narrow win over "brave" Parramatta Eels
Sam Kosack • August 1st, 2025 12:06 am
A late Xavier Coates try has kept the Melbourne Storm in the hunt for a top two finish, narrowly escaping with a 16-10 win over the Parramatta Eels.
On ladder positions, the third placed Storm were expected to record a big win over the 15th placed Parramatta.
Melbourne opened the scoring in the 16th minute through Eli Katoa, the 10th try of the second rower’s season, before former Storm winger Josh Addo-Carr crossed for his 151st career try to narrow the score again.
Tries five minutes either side of halftime to the Storm's Tui Kamikamica and Eels' Charlie Guymer meant scores would be locked at 10-all until the 69th minute where Xavier Coates crossed to sink the dreams of the Parramatta players.
The Storm, who are premiership favourites, have had an uncharacteristic three weeks, unable to emulate their dominant early season form that saw them trounce the Eels 58-16 in Round 1.
“We know how to make it hard on ourselves… we just need to be more clinical,” Storm captain Cameron Munster told SEN League.
“We look good in patches, made some dents, got some quick play-the-balls and sometimes when blokes fall on the ground… it gets a bit messy, but we’ve just got to be a bit more diligent, a bit more resilient with the ball in hand.
“I think a couple of times our awareness or attention to detail, it just wasn't there when the ball hit you and we dropped it.
“It looked a bit frantic and a bit nervous. If we can get that out of our game, we’re going to look really good… two points is two points.”
The Storm welcomed Munster and fullback Ryan Papenhuyzen back for the match but were without Jahrome Hughes after the halfback dislocated his shoulder last week.
With injuries impacting the Storm’s ability to build squad consistency, Munster conceded the timing of the Origin period has also taken a toll, with multiple players involved in the series.
“We just can't afford to be, not playing victim, but just a couple of times there, we expected things to happen, and it didn't happen for us, and we’ve just got to be better as a group, but we'll sort that out,” Munster said.
“It’s a bit hard when in its Origin period, you’ve got blokes coming in and out, like Trent Loiero didn't play this week.
“We do this because sometimes we’ve got to rest out players and some blokes are a little bit different.
“We’re just going to have a bit more of an understanding of each other’s strengths and probably play for them.”
The Eels have shown great leaps over the past two weeks in a strong sign of the future under Jason Ryles.
A win over top four hopefuls the Brisbane Broncos last week and a narrow loss to the Storm are evidence that Ryles decision to drop Dylan Brown to plan for the Eels’ future was a correct one, and that the future is bright.
