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Even by the low expectations of Wests Tigers fans, this was an underwhelming performance by their beleaguered team. 

The NRL’s only winless team remains so after four rounds after the Storm cruised to a 24-12 victory at AAMI Park on Thursday night.

By the high expectations of Melbourne fans, this was also an underwhelming performance but they did enough to sink the wooden spooners to improve to a 2-2 record.

The Storm were feeling the absence of top-line talent like suspended half Jahrome Hughes and injured trio Ryan Papenhuyzen, Nelson Asofa-Solomona and Tepai Moeroa while the Tigers had no such excuses.

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Pezet dispenser for attacking raids

Melbourne have unearthed another rising star with young playmaker Jonah Pezet, who excelled in the halves alongside Cameron Munster in just his second NRL game. 

The 20-year-old half set up the first try of the match with a clever flick while being tackled, which enabled Eliesa Katoa to send winger Will Warbrick over for his first NRL try. 

Pezet was again the provider for Katoa when he took the ball into the defensive line and freed his arms to send his second-rower into open space again and this time fullback Nick Meaney was the benefactor. 

English import John Bateman took it upon himself to cut the gap to six when he palmed off three defenders and drew in a fourth for centre Asu Kepaoa to score.

Brooks threw the momentum away when he kicked too long for a seven-tackle set and a Cameron Munster high kick at the end of it ricocheted back for a Justin Olam four-pointer.

Pezet kicked through a few times to nearly score but forced a line drop-out just before half-time and Munster barged over on the next set for a 22-6 lead at break. 

A touchdown by Api Koroisau when Meaney made the fullback’s error of hoping a grubber would go dead was the only try of the second half.

Pezet, whose dad Troy played for the Crushers and Eels in the late 1990s, will get another chance in the top grade next Friday on the road against Souths with Hughes to serve another match for his dangerous contact ban after losing his roll of the dice at the judiciary during the week. 

“We made it really hard on ourselves,” Storm coach Craig Bellamy said. “I thought our effort was a whole heap better than the last couple of weeks.

“We’ve still got some things to work on. We were pretty disjointed in the second half with our attack.”

Basic errors sum up Tigers’ night

There’s not enough space to list all the dopey errors but here’s a few lowlights. 

Their defence was literally getting in each other’s way with Brooks tripped up by Isaiah Papali’i as he tackled his opposing second-rower Elisea Katoa in the lead-up to the Meaney try. 

Brooks’ confidence is shot – as listed above, he booted the ball dead to gift the Storm what turned out to be a crucial extra play for the Olam try, he threw a bullet pass into a decoy runner instead of an unmarked winger to bomb a certain early try, knocked on the ball cold at one stage in the second half and as is often the case, looked like he was second-guessing himself throughout the match.

It wasn’t totally his fault but the Tigers surrendered possession after one of his scrum feeds with Melbourne’s nominal hooker, Bronson Garlick, raking it back while his opposing front-row counterpart in Bateman seemed distracted by Tui Kamikamica. 

“That was a great little play,” Storm skipper Christian Welch said.

Bateman also copped a comical falcon in the second half when a pass infield from a kick for touch bounced into his head as he waited for the tap to take place. 

They didn’t surrender at any stage and tried hard throughout the contest but the Tigers’ comedy of errors will not please long-suffering fans who thought the influx of Bateman, Koroisau, Papali’i and David Klemmer could turn the team’s fortunes around.

“We lost the game probably in the last 10 minutes of the first half when it skipped away from us. I asked them to win the second half and they did and that gave us a chance to win the game. Every option we took seemed to be the wrong option,” coach Tim Sheens said. “We had a number of chances to get back into the game.

“The effort was there but our execution was very ordinary in many ways. It’s not through a lack of trying, otherwise Melbourne would have put 50 on us.

“We’ve got some work to do there, we admit that as coaches.”

Sheens said it would take the new-look Wests line-up a bit of time to fire on all cylinders “but I can’t use that as an excuse when the Dolphins have won their first three”.

He added that Bateman played the second half with an injury issue. Sheens didn’t want to reveal the nature of Bateman’s problem but said he would need scans to be cleared to play next Saturday against the Broncos in Brisbane.

Coaches ‘never’ tell players to stay down but it happens

Players used to get a magic spray from the trainer to make them snap back into life after a heavy hit.

The referee’s whistle now has the same effect.

On a couple of occasions, players from each side copped a high shot and were rendered unable to get up from the turf to complete a play-the-ball.

But whether they received a tip-off from a touch judge or the bunker, referee Ben Cummins blew his whistle for a penalty and the fallen player sprung back to their feet. 

Coaches are adamant they never tell players to stay down. Some of them get extremely fired up if anyone dare suggest otherwise.

But some of the instances that occurred at AAMI Park couldn’t have been any more glaring.

In the age of being forced off by the bunker for 15-minute HIA breaks, players are treading a fine line if they stay down acting hurt – if they’re too convincing they’ll be hauled off.