MELBOURNE’s premiership campaign was upended as talismanic half Jahrome Hughes suffered a broken arm, front row giant Nelson Asofa-Solomona was reported and Brisbane secured a top-four finish.
The cyclopean Asofa-Solmona was sent to the sin bin during an at-times emotional 30-14 win for Michael Maguire’s side at a Suncorp Stadium packed with 44,055 fans.
Broncos centre Deine Mariner was in the bin at the same time after his captain Pat Carrigan argued with referee Grant Atkins but the story was Hughes arguing only 25 minutes of his comeback before grabbing a wrist in agony.
He spent the rest of the evening looking glum on the sidelines, with scans to confirm the bleak early diagnosis.
“I’m not sure if it’s wrist or halfway on the forearm,” said coach Craig Bellamy.”I don’t think they’re quite sure … I think they pretty much think it’s a break, without a doubt.
“He’s in plaster already. So that wasn’t a great idea to put him back in this week.”
Asked if the Dally M medallist was out for the season, Bellamy answered: “I haven’t asked that question directly but I’d imagine he will be.”
The Broncos – who iced the win with a try right on fulltime off an intercept to winger Josiah Karapani – will play Canberra at GIO Stadium on the first weekend of the finals.
A try in the wake of Asofa-Solomona’s departure to Brendan Piakura off Reece Walsh’s pass put the home team ahead and in control, 12-4 at the break.
Walsh continued his purple patch using blind acceleration to post a touchdown four minutes after the resumption of play.
Winger Will Warbrick gave the Storm a glimer of hope with a 65th-minute score he was unable to convert, with Walsh adding two late penalties – including one when they took too long over a line dropout.
Storm football manager Frank Ponissi lodged a formal complaint that there were no balls in the sideline basket usually used by players in that situation.
Cameron Munster said: “I thought you couldn’t take the two from a dropout … if you kick the ball and it goes out on the full, you can’t take the two … I don’t know how you can take the two for time wasting.
“A bit similar to the Broncs kicking off after we scored, they took almost a minute and a half to kick off. Where’s the penalty for that?”
Soon after Nick Meaney posted another Storm try, initiated by Tyran Wishart, to narrow the scores again
Earlier Carrigan said to Atkins when Mariner was given his marching orders: “They had eight (infringements) and didn’t have anyone sent. We didn’t even get a warning”.
Brisbane opened the scoring with an early Reece Walsh penalty goal after Piakura was taken high. He capped the night with another penalty goal with four to go, before Billy Walters handed off to Karapani for his celebratory finale.
“The biggest disappointment for me is we’ve conceded 70-odd points in the last two weeks,” Bellamy said.
“That’s not a good sign going into the finals.
“We like to pride ourselves on our defence. With the side we’ve got, we’ve probably been known more for our attack the last couple of years but defence is what wins big games.
“And big games are just about to start. We’re no-where near where we need to be in that department.”
BRISBANE 30Â (Walsh 2 Piakura Karapani tries Walsh 7 goals) beat MELBOURNE 14 (Katoa Warbrick Meaney tries Warbrick goal) at Suncorp Stadim. Crowd: 44,055.
NRL Rd 27 – Broncos v Storm
Embed from Getty Images
Teams:
BRISBANE: Reece Walsh; Josiah Karapani, Kotoni Staggs, Deine Mariner, Jesse Arthars; Billy Walters, Ben Hunt; Corey Jensen, Cory Paix, Payne Haas, Brendan Piakura, Jordan Riki, Pat Carrigan (c). Res: Tyson Smoothy, Kobe Hetherington, Ben Talty, Jayden Hunt. 18th man: Delouise Hoiter.
MELBOURNE: Ryan Papenhuyzen; Will Warbrick, Grant Anderson, Nick Meaney, Xavier Coates; Cameron Munster, Jarome Hughes; Josh King, Bronson Garlick, Tui Kamakamica, Ativalu Lisati, Eliesa Katoa, Trent Loiero. Res: Nelson Asofa-Solomona, Tyran Wishart, Alex McDonald, Joe Chan. 18th man: Marion Seve.
Referee: Grant Atkins.