- Raiders have conceded 6 tries per game for the last three weeks
- Raiders have been scored on by a Left side CTW in all but one game
- Raiders have been scored on by either a FLB or Right side CTW every week
- Kaeo Weekes and Savelio Tamale are responsible for 8 of the Raiders’ 20 tries
- No Raiders player or position has scored in more than two consecutive games
- The Storm have conceded 21 tries in the last three games
- The Storm have been scored on by Right side CTW for the last 5 straight games
- The Storm have been scored on by Right side 2RF for the last 4 straight games
- Sua Fa’alogo has scored in 5 out of 6 games
- The Storm have only scored more than 2 tries once in the last four weeks
Analysis:
There are many intense team rivalries in the NRL. The Roosters and Bunnies come to mind. Or the Broncos and Cowboys… Or the Roosters and Dragons… Or the Roosters and everyone. You wouldn’t be entirely stupid as fuck for thinking that the Storm’s biggest rival is the Manly Sea Eagles, given their raucous grand final history together since the turn of the millennium, but you still would be wrong. I can tell you right now as a Storm fan (impartial, and I’ll prove it. I don’t have very nice things to say about them this week), that the most heated nemeses in the game right now are the Melbourne Storm and the Canberra Raiders. This is entirely due to the Maverick/Iceman relationship that Ricky Stuart and Craig Bellamy have spent their entire careers cultivating. A Storm player once told me that losing to the Raiders basically loses them any sort of privileges or autonomy for the year, and that even extends to their reserve grade team – Yes I know I talk heaps of shit, cunts, but I assure you this is hilariously true.
Despite how hard the Storm will be going purely just because it’s the Raiders, they are also trying to fight off their 5th loss in a row, and I think they might be in trouble here.
The Storm having a shithouse CTW defence is nothing new. In recent seasons, it’s almost as though they exclusively funneled opposition tries through their wings as some sort of cost already figured into their try-budget. Where they might be fucked however, is that Melbourne have already given up TWO MORE tries to opposition 2RFs in the first 6 games of this year than they did in ALL OF 2025. That is an unreal fall from grace.
The only thing that gives the Storm hope this week is the fact that the Raiders have given up one more try to 2RFs than they have, and their nearly unstoppable forward pack have been unusually quiet this season so far.
Melbourne have been giving them up pretty regularly to both wings, but the Raiders are clearly getting smoked up their left side.
Canberra are loathsome against opposition halves so it’s possible Jahrome Hughes makes an appearance over the try line, since Cam Munster seems to have retired from scoring tries this season.
Otherwise, this is in danger of being a disgusting, hard slog and you should exercise extreme caution here punters. If you see anyone offering odds on Craig Bellamy to be lurking around GIO Stadium after hours and stumbling upon a secret room filled with hundreds of glass tanks of dead Ricky Stuarts, I would definitely put a tenner on that.
Raiders Try Scorers: Seb Kris/Matt Timoko, Hudson Young/Noah Martin
Storm Try Scorers: Manaia Waitere/Nick Meaney, Sua Fa’alogo, Cooper Clarke
Degen Bets: Sua Fa’alogo/Matt Timoko FTS, Jahrome Hughes, Jed Stuart, Shawn Blore
