Storm towel up Raiders
Storm warning: Melbourne's seventh straight win continues its run at the top.Melbourne has consolidated its spot on top of the NRL ladder with a 26-0 thumping of the Raiders in Canberra on Sunday afternoon.
The Storm's seventh win in a row extended a winning streak that began after a loss in round 10, coincidentally at the hands of the Raiders.
Matthew Duffie bagged a double as Ryan Hinchliffe, Cooper Cronk and Jesse Bromwich all joined in on the five-tries-to-nil rout.
The Raiders shut-out provided Josh Dugan with a return from injury, but the result is one the representative full-back will likely erase from the memory.
Canberra remains mired in 14th place and faces the near impossible task of qualifying for semi-finals in 2011.
Duffie opened the scoring for the Storm after just three minutes in an evenly-contested opening stanza, but the complexion of the game changed on the stroke of half-time when Hinchcliffe added his side's second.
That setback seemed to rock the Raiders' confidence, and their enthusiasm was not matched by their execution, with Blake Ferguson twice dropping the ball when in good field position.
Poor completions and handling at key moments meant the home team was unable to build any momentum against coach Craig Bellamy's well-disciplined side.
The game was effectively ended as a contest in the 53rd minute when Cronk scored for the Storm following a brilliant 50-metre run from Billy Slater.
Duffie added his second in the 66th minute, before Bromwich put the finishing touches to a brilliant crossfield move late in the game in which the ball changed hands five times.
Coach David Furner's injury-hit Raiders side, who were without star forwards Tom Learoyd-Lahrs and David Shillington as well as five-eighth Terry Campese with long-term injuries, will realistically need to win every remaining match to be any hope of repeating last season's stunning run to the play-offs.
Melbourne: 26 (M Duffie 2, R Hinchliffe, C Cronk, J Bromwich tries; C Smith 3/4 conversions)
Canberra: 0
Source: abc.net.au
Topic: Storm towel up Raiders
