Junior Report: Round 25

Storm U21s secure minor premiership with dominant win

Melbourne Storm U21s produced a commanding performance on the weekend, defeating the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles 64-4 to secure the Minor Premiership.

Storm came out firing, scoring six first-half tries to take a dominant 36-4 lead into the break. They carried their momentum through the second half with another five tries, while keeping Manly scoreless.

“Just to have only one try scored on us was really impressive,” Head Coach Mark Russell said.

On securing the Minor Premiership, Russell added, “Looking at what we’re doing across our whole Pathways program, it’s outstanding. We’ve got good people working from top to bottom.”

Hugo Peel was again a standout, while Eli Morris impressed in a new role. Gabriel Satrick also had a strong outing, running for 127 metres.

Zayvian Langkilde-Fale, Stanley Huen and Peel each crossed for doubles in the win.

With the Minor Premiership now locked away, the young side will be aiming to finish the home-and-away season strongly when they face the Parramatta Eels this weekend, before heading into week one of finals in two weeks’ time.

A few players may be rested, but Russell emphasised the strength and depth of the squad.

“I’m not giving a jumper away for free. It’s a good opportunity to reward those blokes that have worked really hard all year. We’re going out there to win, we want to win, we want to beat Parramatta.”

The U21s host the Parramatta Eels this Saturday 30 August at 2pm at Seabrook Reserve.