Three moments of brilliance from Melbourne Storm's Marika Koroibete and Jesse Bromwich gave their club the win in an error-filled game on Monday night.
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Storm open 2016 with a win
Melbourne Storm welcomed back Billy Slater with a tight opening round win over St. George Illawarra at AAMI Park.
In his 50th game, Koroibete used his powers of acceleration to score two first-half tries before Bromwich's try-line offload early in the second half allowed his brother Kenny to score the decisive try in an 18-16 win over St George Illawarra at AAMI Park in front of 12,148 supporters.
Billy Slater showed his attacking prowess hadn't disappeared during his injury layoff, assisting on both of Koroibete's tries while both clubs had first-round handling problems with the error count finishing at 11 for the Dragons and nine for the Storm.
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Errors always come at a cost and Storm winger Young Tonumaipea's dropped high ball, just metres from the Storm's line set up the visitors' first score.
The Dragons moved the ball to the right before swinging it back to the left side and drawing Tonumaipea out of position before finding Jason Nightingale to make it 4-0 after seven minutes. St George Illawarra again exposed the Storm's left edge defence before a fumbled ball close to the line fell backwards into Benji Marshall's hands allowing him to score the second try and see his club up 10-0 after 16 minutes.
The Storm's early butter fingers must have been airborne as the Dragons coughed up the ball inside their own 10-metre line on the kick-off and the home side grabbed the chance with both hands as Slater moved to the left edge, exploded into a gap and lofted a perfect cut-out pass to Koroibete who scored with ease.
The Storm gained momentum from a penalty deep in their half then drove deep into attack before Slater's flick pass found Koroibete one on one with just a defender to beat and the Fijian did it in a canter rounding the last marker and scoring in the left corner.
Cameron Smith again couldn't convert from the left touchline to see his club down 10-8 on 25 minutes.
Smith landed a couple of penalties for a 12-10 buffer. Gareth Widdop had a kick after the siren to level the scores but he missed to the right.
Jesse Bromwich is looking to add more offloads to his carries this season and he set up the club's third try doing just that as he loosened his arm close to the line and passed to Smith who quickly found brother Kenny Bromwich for an easy try on 46 minutes as Storm went up 18-10.
The Dragons caught up as a Marshall bomb was dropped backwards by Koroibete with Dragon Tyson Frizell happily sliding in-goal and touching it down with Widdop's kick making it 18-16 just before the hour.
Points became hard to find in the final 20 minutes but Slater's sure hands and the Storm's defence made sure of the win.
Dragons star Josh Dugan almost touched down a grubber on the end of the in-goal with two minutes to play but the ball rolled out of bounds.
A final dropped ball from the Dragons with just seconds left sealed the result.
Storm star Cameron Munster made a surprise early return from a knee injury and played out the full game.
The Storm host Gold Coast Titans at AAMI Park this Sunday at 6.30pm while the Dragons face Cronulla Sharks at Shark Park on Sunday.
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