Storm v Warriors Olympic Park, Melbourne, 7.30pm Saturday (NZT)
Twelve teams have played Monday night football so far this year and just three have backed up from it to win the following weekend. That fatigue factor leaves the door wide open for the Warriors when they go to Melbourne to play the Storm this weekend.
There are other things
in the Warriors' favour. The 2007 champs and 2008 Grand Finalists are struggling with cohesion and have no five-eighth, so centre Greg Inglis and hooker Cameron Smith filled in there until they took a punt on rookie James Maloney against Penrith a fortnight ago.
They just bought halfback/five-eighth Brett Finch after he was punted from Parramatta after he clashed with the Eels' new coach Daniel Anderson, but the Melbourne club was adamant Finch would not face the Warriors at Olympic Park on Saturday evening.
Don't be surprised if that changes.
Maloney, 22, comes from Orange, in central New South Wales, and he made a good debut in the scratchy 16-14 away win to Penrith despite having lost his father in February after a long illness. He was also solid in the 16-6 loss to the Tigers on Monday. But he is no real attacking threat just yet.
"We had a lot of chances, we just didn't take them," Storm coach Craig Bellamy said of what was a physical, defence-based game. "Our guys are trying, I'm not disappointed in the effort we're putting in, it's just a couple of guys each week not doing roles as well as we'd like and it's not the same guys every week."
New combinations could not be an excuse after six weeks, Bellamy said.
They named the same XVII that lost at Leichhardt Oval and are unchanged over the past two games.
The Warriors too are unchanged after beating the Roosters 17-16 in overtime on Sunday.
Fullback Wade McKinnon is making good progress in repairing his hamstring injury, but Cleary said they would not rush him back. "We want Wade to be completely right rather than risking him having a serious hamstring injury," Cleary said.
In the last two weeks Ben Matulino and Lance Hohaia have both returned a week ahead of the medics' schedule. It had been hoped last weekend that McKinnon, who is running comfortably with the side in training, would also make an early return.
Forward utility Lewis Brown, 22, from Christchurch is 18th man.
The Storm have had trouble scoring tries this season, with just 13 from their six games, while the Warriors, who are also struggling with their halves combination and have yet to realise their backline potential, have 21.
The Storm want Inglis playing wide from the ruck but circumstances have demanded he move in to first or second receiver and he has not been as effective there. The shunting of Smith between positions hasn't worked and halfback Cooper Cronk has been ineffective.
Te Kuiti-born Kevin Proctor, 20, gets his sixth game this season and former Warrior Wairangi Koopu, who played just six games for the Auckland club last season, has that many already for the Storm, running for between 50 and 60 minutes.
The England secondrower Gareth Ellis told how the Tigers were inspired to victory by a pre-match talk from the Queensland and Kangaroos great Arthur Beetson. "He just came in and said a few words and the boys really responded to it. The theme was just about everyone doing their job and the attack will take care of itself," Ellis said afterwards.
It's a theme the Warriors need to take on board as they fly to Melbourne.
STORM v WARRIORS
Storm
Billy Slater
Steve Turner
Will Chambers
Greg Inglis
Anthony Quinn
James Maloney
Cooper Cronk
Jeff Lima
Cameron Smith (c)
Adam Blair
Kevin Proctor
Ryan Hoffman
Dallas Johnson
Interchange (from): Ryan Hinchcliffe, Wairangi Koopu, Aiden Tolman, Scott Anderson, Matt Cross (one to be omitted).
Warriors
Lance Hohaia
Denan Kemp
Simon Mannering
Jerome Ropati
Manu Vatuvei
Joel Moon
Stacey Jones
Sam Rapira
Ian Henderson
Steve Price (c)
Ben Matulino
Jacob Lillyman
Micheal Luck
Interchange (from): Nathan Fien, Russell Packer, Jesse Royal, Patrick Ah Van, Lewis Brown.
