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Melbourne have won a grinding arm-wrestle against Penrith to extend coach Craig Bellamy’s NRL opening round winning streak.
Bellamy’s record now stands at 22 seasons without a first round loss, with his Storm troops overcoming the three-time defending champions 8-0 at AAMI Park on Friday night.
It was the first time since 2022 that Penrith had been kept scoreless, with Melbourne also responsible for that result.
After three losses to the Panthers last year, including a thumping 34-point defeat in the preliminary final, it was sweet revenge for the Storm.
Bellamy lauded the gutsy effort by his team to shut the Panthers out, with new skipper Harry Grant leading the way with 34 tackles.
I don’t think we played that well but we were really gutsy,” Bellamy said.
“We had a lot of a lot of tackles to be made in our 20 metre area and we were out on our feet there a few times, but we just kept finding a way to to keep turning up so that was the really pleasing part.”
The game was effectively decided in the space of two minutes in the second half when Penrith were denied a try in the 48th minute with the bunker ruling obstruction.
In the subsequent set of six, Melbourne scored down the other end with Jonah Pezet, in for injured playmaker Cameron Munster, putting up a pin-point bomb. It was batted back by Xavier Coates to Reimis Smith who dived across the tryline.
With both teams turning in massive defensive efforts, it ended up being the only try of the night, as unheralded forwards Joe Chan and Josh King and makeshift centre Nick Meaney stood up for Melbourne.