Manly coach Trent Barrett was left lamenting a deplorable opening 20 minutes on Saturday as Melbourne staved off a spirited Sea Eagles fightback to land a four-point win at Lottoland.
Barrett's team conceded four tries in the opening 17 minutes en route to a fourth home loss of the year, which bumped them out of the top eight while sending Melbourne back to the top of the NRL ladder.
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Manly comeback falls short
Melbourne put four tries on Manly in the opening 20, only to find themselves forced to hold the hosts out in the final minutes as they earned their fourth away win of the season.
The Storm scored just twice more after that explosive start to the match while Manly dug a foothold into the game and started chiselling away at the margin but it proved too far a bridge to cross.
And the game ended on a further sour note for the home team when interchange forward Lloyd Perrett left in an ambulance with a sternum injury.
"We got found out with our edge defence pretty early on in the game, we were a bit deer in the headlights to be honest," Barrett said.
"[The] first 20 minutes really cost us. Really happy with the way they came out and won in the second half, there were still some moments I thought there in the second half where we could've executed a little bit better.
"One or two things probably go our way and we might have jagged it at the death. We've got to work hard this week and fix up a few of those errors that we're making with or without the ball so that we aren't chasing our tail.
"We've got a good enough side to beat those teams if we're doing everything right."
Both coaches were left bemoaning their teams' defensive efforts after 11 tries were scored in the match, nine of which came in the first half. It was the most tries scored in the first half of an NRL match since 2013.
After leading 18-0, the Storm let Manly back into the game with two soft tries. A Felise Kaufusi double restored Melbourne's advantage before Brian Kelly touched down in the corner after the half-time siren to make it a 14-point ball game at the break.
"I was really angry at halftime coming into the sheds, to allow three tries in, they were soft tries as well," Melbourne captain Cameron Smith said.
"Fairly frustrating game to play in, it's a really funny feeling at the end.
"It's like we can't put an entire game together at the moment. The first six rounds we've been very good defensively and our attack's been poor.
"End of the day we got a win, but playing like that, we can't continue to play like that. That's just very very inconsistent rugby league. You play inconsistent football throughout the year, it'll come back and bite you when it matters."
Melbourne fullback Billy Slater produced his best game since returning from a shoulder injury, setting up three tries in the first half and suggesting he could well be back to his best in time for State Of Origin.
Yet his most important moment came in the second half, where he sprinted across his own goalline to force an error from a flying Brian Kelly who looked certain to score in the corner.
That came five minutes after a Jake Trbojevic try, and 10 minutes before Brenton Lawrence touched down after superb work by Akuila Uate to retrieve a Daly Cherry Evans bomb. Unfortunately for Sea Eagles fans, that was the last of the scoring.
"I was really disappointed with our performance to be quite honest," Storm coach Craig Bellamy said.
"Defensively we couldn't defend a set, we'd give away a penalty, we couldn't defend that set, we'd make an error, we couldn't defend that set.
"The try they scored on halftime was pretty indicative of our performance.
"We've always built this club ... on having pride in our defence and I didn't think we did a great job of that today.
"It could've been a whole different result. We were lucky to hang on."
Manly skipper Cherry-Evans suffered a shoulder knock early in the game but was cleared of any damage and played the rest of the game.
"There's not too many Manly-Storm games that have reflected a 20's scoreline," Cherry-Evans said.
"It's just a matter of us making errors and letting the opposition get off to an early start. I don't think we have to look to far, it's our own fault and we need to change it."
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