Round 16 - NRL Preview

Melbourne Storm v Wests Tigers
Sunday June 26, 4.00pm
AAMI Park

After playing out a golden point thriller in Round 7, these two teams lock horns again in what will be Wests Tigers’ first trip to Melbourne since 2013.
Only a Cooper Cronk field goal separated them a few weeks a go. That game was also Suliasi Vunivalu’s debut where he bagged a double. The Fijian has since gone on to score 11 more tries to be the NRL’s leading try scorer heading into this weekend.
Storm had their seven-game winning streak ended last week with a 20-10 loss to the Dragons but Cameron Smith and Cooper Cronk have been named to return to the side for this week.
Despite losing six straight games early on, Wests Tigers have won three of their last four to now sit just one win outside the top eight.
NSW prop Aaron Woods has been named to make the trip south but Robbie Farah, who was also named, has since been ruled out after suffering a head knock in Game II on Wednesday night.
Storm enjoys a good recent history against the Tigers, winning four of the past six meetings.

Be at AAMI Park when we take on the Tigers, Sunday 26 June, 4pm.

Key Matchups:

Jesse Bromwich v Aaron Woods
These two man mountains will meet for the first time this year after Woods missed the Round 7 clash through injury. Bromwich currently ranks 8^th in the NRL for total metres and put in a herculean effort as Storm captain last week, playing 71 minutes to finish with a game-high 172 metres. Woods has averaged 165m from his 10 games as well as 30 tackles. Leaders of their respective forward packs, these two men will have more of a say than any in the outcome of Sunday’s game.

Cooper Cronk v Luke Brooks
Brooks intercepted a Cronk pass for a 60m try in Round 7 before the champion halfback responded with a try of his own and game-winning field goal to get Storm over the line. With nine games still to play this season Cronk already has nine tries to his name, just three shy of his season best. Brooks leads his club with 13 try assists. Cronk showed against Penrith how good he can be backing up from Origin, if he is close to that Brooks will have to be stellar to out perform him.

History: Played 27: Storm 17, Wests Tigers 10. The Tigers have managed to win only once from their 11 trips to Melbourne.
 

What we’ve said:

“They’ve been in good form which is what we expected all year of them, they're a very talented team” – Craig Bellamy

“I suppose we can get a little bit of confidence out of the game on the weekend, we were a little bit undermanned but the boys showed a lot of effort in the game but we will need to step it up again this weekend” – Kevin Proctor
 

What they’ve said:

“It's always a big challenge when you play Melbourne at home. I've never played there before but I'm looking forward to it and I'm sure the rest of the boys are too.” — Tim Simona

“It will be a big test for us — the biggest of the year so far. When we beat Brisbane up there, they had six Origin players out, but Melbourne will have their full strength team, so this will be a good test to see where we are at as a team.” — Elijah Taylor
 

Match Officials: Referee - Jared Maxwell; Assistant - Adam Gee; Touch Judges - Brett Suttor & Rohan Best; Review Officials - Ben Galea & Jason Robinson; Senior Review Official - Bernard Sutton.
 

Broadcast: TV – Channel GEM & Fox Sports 1, Radio – ABC Grandstand, 2GB & Triple M, Online – NRL Digital Pass.
 

Squads: