Match Details
Match Date	10th Mar, 2018
Opponent	Melbourne
Result	Loss 18-36
Coach	Dean Pay
Captain	Josh Jackson
Venue	Perth (Optus Stadium)
Crowd	38,824
Referee	Ben Cummins Chris Sutton

Again it was the man in the No.1 jersey who led Melbourne to a victory. Only this time it was Cameron Munster again deputising for the injured Billy Slater - who starred at fullback to help the Storm to a 36-18 win against Canterbury. Munster laid on two first half tries as the Storm exploded to a 24-12 half-time lead in front of 38824 people in Perth to kick-start Melbourne's premiership defence.

 The game looked beyond Canterbury at the break but they started the better of the two sides and were in striking distance — trailing by just six points — as they looked like they could secure a come from behind win.

But any chance of that ended when Moses Mbye fumbled a pass into Josh Addo-Carr with the flyer racing 85 metres untouched to set up a 12-point lead with 18 minutes remaining. The Bulldogs never recovered.

There were some positive signs from the Bulldogs —particularly in attack. Kieran Foran showed he was far from a spent force while the shift to fullback for Moses Mbye looks to be a winner.

Foran laid on Canterbury's opening try with a pass to Raymond Faitala-Mariner to give new coach Dean Pay a dream start to his coaching career after three minutes.

However Pay's joy was shortlived when Storm big man Nelson  Asofa-Solomona delivered the sweetest of all round the corner passes to set up Ryley Jacks four minutes later to level the scores  6-all. A Jacks cross-field kick de-livered the next points to Curtis Scott to give Melbourne a six point lead.

A cut-out pass by Matt Frawley to Brett Morris saw the Bulldogs strike back four minutes later before Munster - who finished with three try assists — came alive.

The 23-year-old showed he suffered no hang over from a dream 2017 on the field which included a premiership ring plus Queensland and Kangaroos debuts. Munster has had some off field mishaps he again showed why he is one of the most destructive ball-runners in the game.

He laid on Addo-Carr's opening try after racing away from a kick return before breaking the line to send Kenny Bromwich over to ex-tend the Storm's lead to 12 at the break, The Bulldogs crawled their way back via a Frawley try after 55 minutes but the Storm finished off the match with wingers Addo-Carr and Suli Vunivalu scoring as Munster laid on the final try.

Source: The Sunday Telegraph

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