Melbourne Storm vs. Newcastle Knights

The second of NRL Week 2 matches is between Melbourne Storm and Newcastle Knights. The opening kick is set to commence at 7:45PM local time with the game to be played at AAMI Park. The home team the Melbourne Storm are the current favourites in the market. View our preview and teams for the game between Melbourne Storm and Newcastle Knights.

Melbourne will be playing to keep their hopes of making their sixth Grand Final in the past eight years alive when they take on Newcastle this Saturday night.
The Storm had two tries disallowed (somewhat controversially) in last week’s loss to South Sydney at ANZ Stadium (20 – 10).
It means that the Storm’s only win in the past three weeks has been a one point victory in Golden Point over Gold Coast Titans.
It’s not the form we’ve come to expect from Melbourne at this time of year but, they do have everything in their favour for this clash in that they possess an excellent home record – only one loss this year and, have seven straight wins over their opponents Newcastle, including both clashes this year by margins of 2 and 7 points.
Playing for the last month of the regular home and away season just to keep their season alive prepared the Knights well for last week’s sudden-death clash against Canterbury.
Despite being outsiders, the Knights were too good in all aspects of the game and recorded a strong 22 – 6 point win.
There are some very experienced heads in the Newcastle team, their forward pack especially, who they’ll rely on heavily in this match and of course, with Wayne Bennett at the helm, you know they’ll be prepared as best as they can be.
Their defence has been good in recent times with only the Cowboys in the past seven matches being able to post in excess of 18 points against them.
This is where Newcastle will have to be at their best as Melbourne, who if allowed to get on a roll, have plenty of points in them
Three of the last four matches have produced total match scores of 30 points or less and with it all on the line for both teams here, a similar result would not surprise.
Not as much between them as the current head to head market would suggest but at home, Melbourne to be a shade too strong.

Melbourne Storm know Newcastle are a huge obstacle but believe being forced to play in an elimination semi-final could be beneficial to their NRL title defence.
The Storm will host the Knights at AAMI Park on Saturday night with the winner to meet the Sydney Roosters at Allianz Stadium next weekend for a grand final berth.
Their loss to South Sydney meant there was no week off to rest this year, however Storm lock Ryan Hinchcliffe said it could work in their favour.
“Ideally you’d like to be hitting your straps and have the week off but that’s not how it’s worked out,” Hinchcliffe said.
“We’re still not playing the full 80 minutes the way that we need to and the way that we know that we can.
“For that reason us being able to have another game gives us another week to really find that footy that we know we can play because when we do that we’re a hard side to beat.”
Melbourne know they can’t afford another slow start; taking 54 minutes to post a try against the Rabbitohs.
In their round 25 loss to fellow semi-finalists Manly they only crossed a minute from half-time.
The Knights led both of their two clashes this season before the Storm fought back to take the points but the home side isn’t relying on history repeating itself.
“They’re a really good side and they played really well on the weekend,” Hinchcliffe said.
“They’ve got a lot of experience in their forwards and I think their outside backs are some of the best in the competition so we have a lot of respect for them.”
One player Melbourne have on their radar is Queensland Origin representative, Knights fullback Darius Boyd.
“He’s got a few dimensions to his game with his running game but he’s also got a really good pass on him,” he said.
He said centres Dane Gagai and Joey Leilua were also strong ball carriers.
“You can also throw in (wingers) Akuila Uate and James McManus, who have both played Origin – their real strength is their outside backs,” Hinchcliffe said.
“They create a lot of momentum for them and they’re all high quality players.”