Key posts
Players prepare for elimination showdown
Teams warming up ahead of kick off
By Roy Ward
Both teams are warming up and the crowd is slowly building.
It’s a huge sporting evening in Melbourne with Carlton and Melbourne Demons also playing out at the MCG and a crowd of 90,000 plus expected – the streets and trains are packed with people.
Storm captain Christian Welch warms up with his team.Credit: Getty
Not sure what we will get to as a crowd at AAMI Park, but should be well above 15,000, if not more considering how lovely the weather is.
The Storm look determined to make up for last week’s disappointments while the Roosters look like the typically switched on, well-organised team we have come to know.
Should be a cracking game.
Roosters skipper James Tedesco runs drills.Credit: Getty
The Roosters young gun who doesn’t like watching football
Roosters prop Terrell May doesn’t fear the wrath of coach Trent Robinson if he has a bad game because he knows the feedback from his father will be far more critical.
Terrell, the brother of injured Penrith centre Taylan May, says their father Jason is their greatest fan – but also their biggest critic.
Roosters forward Terrell May takes a carry during last week’s elimination final.Credit: Getty
“He still gives us feedback after every game. ‘Robbo’ could say we have a good game here, and my dad can just be like ‘you need to improve here and there’,” May said.
“He just tells me the truth. He’s a very honest person, just tells me if I play good, I play good. If I play trash, he’ll tell me the truth.”
His father’s analytical eye dates back to their junior days at the Minchinbury Jets in Sydney’s west when they would study rugby league by watching their own games.
“I didn’t really watch much football growing up. Me and my brothers don’t really like watching footy, just because we all played it and my dad would always make us watch our own games and study our own games,” May said.
Read the full story about one of the Roosters’ rising stars here.
Head-to-head record
Opinion: Don’t be fooled by the Roosters’ courageous win
There are so many ways to describe the Roosters’ win over the Sharks last week: courageous, tough, improbable. Even days later, I still don’t know how they won.
But the cold hard truth is that match wasn’t anywhere near semi-final standard. We’ve all been swept up in the way they managed to win with Joseph Manu and Joseph Suaalii not finishing the game, James Tedesco spending 10 minutes in the sin bin and back-rowers defending in the centres. That’s all true.
The Roosters will be trying to keep their season alive in Melbourne.Credit: Getty
Yet I don’t think the formline will stand up this week against Melbourne. The Broncos-Storm final was light years ahead of the Roosters-Sharks game in terms of quality and the way I see it, it’s almost going to be impossible for the Roosters to beat Melbourne at AAMI Park on Friday night.
You just don’t see the Storm play that badly two games in a row.
Joey’s tip: Storm by 20
First try-scorer: Harry Grant
Man of the match: Cameron Munster
Where the game will be won and lost
By Dan Walsh
The recent history: Melbourne have had the wood in this one of late, with two convincing wins this season – 28-8 in April and 30-16 in July – prompting serious navel-gazing inside Roosters HQ and scathing critiques from beyond the Bondi Wall. A tense win in Melbourne last year is the Roosters’ only triumph in their last eight clashes with the Storm.
The main man: Nelson Asofa-Solomona. The biggest man in rugby league looked like Melbourne’s only hope as they fell away badly against Brisbane. The Storm’s pack is workmanlike in 2023, but Asofa-Solomona is their point of difference, and at his best adds a couple of tries to their bottom line. Isolating Luke Keary against a man with 40 kilos on him is a no-brainer, especially as Paul Momirovski – who hasn’t played since round nine – slots into a rejigged Roosters left edge.
The stat: One. Victor Radley’s pass-to-run ratio against Cronulla, one of his best games in recent memory. Like plenty in the Roosters topsy-turvy season, Radley has struggled to release the handbrake and shuffled between back-row, lock and the sideline until recently. Now he’s back in the middle but no longer as a linkman 13. The run-first mentality brings his ball-playing back to the fore.
Can the Roosters cause an upset?
Welcome
Good evening footy fans, and welcome to our live coverage of the Roosters v Storm elimination final.
Kick off is at 7:50pm AEST at Melbourne’s AAMI Park with the winner to play Penrith in next week’s preliminary final.
There are a few forced changes for both teams as the intensity of the season starts to take its toll.
The Tricolours have lost Billy Smith, Joseph Suaalii and Joey Manu, while Melbourne are without Jahrome Hughes, Ryan Papenhuyzen and Xavier Coates.
Melbourne are the favourites heading into this one, but if the Roosters have proven anything this year it’s that they’re never down and out.
Cameron Munster and Brandon Smith.Credit: Illustration: Stephen Kiprillis
