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Sport Nation
'We're a different team now': Can the Warriors snap the Storm curse?
Stephen Foote • April 11th, 2025 12:30 pm
The Storm celebrate Xavier Coates' match-winning try in 2024 | Photo: AAP
The Warriors away to the Storm. The sentence alone is enough to cause heart palpitations for the Mt Smart faithful.
Despite the best efforts to spin this fixture into some kind of genuine rivalry - in large part, inspired by their annual ANZAC Day clash - the results suggest anything but.
You have to rewind the clock to 2015 for the last Warriors victory over Craig Bellamy's side. A 16-game stretch of dominance that is the longest by one team over another in the NRL.
This year, their first meeting arrives a couple of weeks earlier than usual, but the Warriors remain in their familiar position as underdogs against the perennial Premiership contenders.
Those odds ($5.60 on betcha, to be precise) are even longer this season, and rightly so given the rampant form of the Melburnians, flaying the Manly Sea Eagles at 4 Pines Park in a ruthless display that has seen them firm as favourites to lift the Norman-Provan Trophy for a fifth time.
It may seem unfair given the Storm share the very same record as the Warriors at 3-1, sitting just one place ahead of the Auckland-based side on the competition ladder in third, having cashed in the full six points on offer in their last three outings.
Warriors forward Marata Niukore enjoys his try | Photo: NRL
But that's what a decade-long win streak buys you. Where do you even begin trying to shake a rabid monkey like that off your back?
They came agonisingly close to breaking their drought the last time the sides met at AAMI Park back in May 2024, where two late strikes in the final three minutes - including the most spectacular finish of the year from Xavier Coates - consigned Warriors fans to perhaps the most heartbreaking defeat of the past 10 years.
It's a painful memory coach Andrew Webster admits he's buried deep in the darkest receses of his mind.
"Obviously those ones hurt, but we're a different team now," Webster said. "So much water has gone under the bridge since that day.
"I think the last three or four starts we've pretty much been in front for big periods of the game and then just haven't been quite ruthless enough at the end to finish it off. We know parts of our game works against them and now we've just got to piece it all together
"But if you're Melbourne, you've found a way to win all the time. That's where they are as a club and that's where we want to be."
The return from injury of Dally M medallist Jahrome Hughes last weekend provided a huge boost for the Storm, putting into place the last - and most dangerous - piece of their formidable spine alongside Cam Munster, Ryan Papenhuyzen, and Harry Grant.
Warriors teammates rush to congratulate Ali Leiataua after one of his tries against the Roosters | Photo: Brett Phibbs/AAP
The Warriors receive a leg-up of their own with rock-solid Rocco Berry slotting back into the midfield, part of a backline that is still without Roger Tuivasa-Sheck and Dallin Watene-Zelezniak, both of whom Webster says are unlikely to be seen before Round 10.
Co-captain James Fisher-Harris has his fair share of battle scars against Melbourne from his time with the three-time Premiership winning Panthers, although the majority of those were rewarded with wins - most recently in last year's Grand Final.
But the Kiwis enforcer dismisses any notion he may have the secret sauce on the Storm - other than to reiterate his team's slate had been wiped clean.
"They're saying that it's a new year, they're a new Melbourne Storm. We are a new Warriors team," says the 200-plus game veteran.
"Obviously been at the top of the game for a long time and they're very hard to beat at their home, but we're looking forward to the opportunity and just trying to be better as a team."
The Warriors head into Victoria rejuvenated from an early bye week, and while results suggest the team is among the cream of the competition, the eye-test suggests otherwise.
While any win is a win in the NRL, the team's displays in that trio of triumphs - as hooker Wayde Egan attests - a fair way shy of convincing, and that's without mentioning the horrors of Las Vegas.
But knowing his side has at least one more gear to hit has Egan feeling excellent about their chances on Sunday.
"We probably haven't played our best footy yet, as you've probably seen in the first four or five weeks," Egan admitted.
"They're always a benchmark and they came off a really good win against Manly last weekend.
"We're going to have to be on our 'A' game and I think it's going to be a pretty good battle."
Webster concurs, stressing the importance of leaving the past where it belongs.
"We've got a lot of respect for them as a club. They've been at the top for a long time but we back our own ability too," he adds.
"It'd be a big mistake to be beaten before we got to the start line by thinking we can't win.We say that with respect to every opponent we face.
"They're premiership favourites for a reason, but we back our own ability and one day we want to be sitting in their shoes."
Tune into Sport Nation for live commentary of the NZ Warriors vs Melbourne Storm from 3.30pm Sunday.
