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Storm's first-round masters power past Parramatta
Melissa Woods, AAP •  March 6th, 2026 12:00 am
Melbourne Storm captain Harry Grant was a star in their round-one win over Parramatta | Photo: Joel Carrett/AAP
Melbourne have sent an early message that they remain an NRL premiership force, thrashing Parramatta to stretch their round-one win record under coach Craig Bellamy to a 23rd year.
There were question marks on the Storm, missing some key men due to retirement, injury and suspension, but the home side barely skipped a beat as they romped to a 52-4 victory in their Thursday night season-opener at AAMI Park.
Bellamy remains unbeaten in the game-one fixture since taking charge of the Storm in 2003 while it's also the club's 24th round-one win in succession.
Skipper Harry Grant, who scored two tries, said while the coach downplayed the achievement, it was important to the players - both past and present.
Harry Grant | Photo: Joel Carrett/AAP
"Ultimately, the work you've done in the pre-season, you get a chance to showcase it," Grant said.
"I think the playing group really respects it. At the end of the day, there's a lot of old boys sitting at home watching, knowing that they've contributed to that as a part of the history of the club.
"Whether you call it a record or a streak or whatever, there's plenty of people that have played a part in that and hopefully, they can be pretty proud that it's still rolling."
Although they were down on troops, Melbourne's superstar trio of Grant, Cameron Munster and Jahrome Hughes stood up, while prop Stefano Utoikamanu was almost unstoppable, clocking more than 200 run metres.
The Eels looked good for the opening 10 minutes and were first on the scoreboard, with new halves combination Mitchell Moses and Jonah Pezet combining to put Sean Russell across the tryline in the fourth minute.
They did that while down a man with J'maine Hopgood sent to the sinbin in the opening minute after his shoulder connected with the head of Alex MacDonald in the fourth tackle of the match, ending the Storm lock's night.
But with the undermanned Melbourne forward pack making easy ground up the middle, the rest of the match was one-way traffic.
The nine-try romp by the home side inflicted the biggest loss of Eels coach Jason Ryles's career, usurping the 57-18 margin also by the Storm last year.
A shell-shocked Ryles said he didn't see the limp performance by his men coming, only completing at 61 per cent.
"They've got three of the Test spine there and if you give them that much opportunity and don't tackle well, then you get what you deserve," he said.
"If you asked me before the game was it going to end up like that, I would have definitely said no.
"If you asked me before the game was it going to end up like that, I would have definitely said no.
"It's round one, let's not lose sight of that fact ... the disappointment is probably we sort of evolved ourself to a standard of play that didn't look like that.
"We'll have a big schooner of reality and move on."
Sualauvi Faalogo scored two tries of his own, as Melbourne routed the Eels | Photo: Joel Carrett/AAP
Returning after off-season shoulder surgery, halfback Hughes had three try assists while hooker Grant's tries came after darting out of dummy half through sloppy Parramatta defence.
Grant went down midway through the second half and left the field but was later diagnosed with a cramp.
Melbourne were up 18-4 at halftime but they upped the ante in the second half scoring another six tries.
Electric fullback Sualauvi Faalogo, who has taken the place of the retired Ryan Papenhuyzen, bagged two among the haul with his second bringing up the half-century mark.
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