Melbourne Storms

Fa'asuamaleaui had a busy post-season at the end of 2019, going from a Storm finals campaign to the green and gold of the PM's XIII into a World Nines campaign with Samoa, back to green and gold with the Australian under-23s into a senior test debut with Toa Samoa. 

He also wore Queensland Maroon in the under-20s Origin in the middle of the year, and his impressive recent form has caught the eye of Maroons coach Kevin Walters.  

"Queensland is my first pick, 100%," Fa'asuamaleaui told NRL.com. 

It was the Raiders' third win of the season and the third time in a row they have beaten the Storm at AAMI Park, coming on the back of victories in week one of last year's finals and round 22 of 2019.

Ricky Stuart's side showed no signs of rustiness following the enforced lay-off, with English duo George Williams and Josh Hodgson in sublime form and big man Josh Papalii producing a stormer in his 200th NRL game.

The artists have been announced today as the successful applicants to design and produce the statues which will be located adjacent to Storm’s home ground at AAMI Park.

Over 25 years, Gillie and Marc have developed a worldwide reputation for delivering quality private and public artworks. 

The Warriors were penalised for holding on to Storm prop Jesse Bromwich in the play the ball, which allowed the Storm to even up the scores before kicking the winning field goal.

But NRL head of football Graham Annesley said a scrum should have been called because Bromwich did not play the ball correctly and Cameron Smith knocked on.

The top try-scorer in the NRL Telstra Premiership last year, Fusitu'a's absence would be significant blow to a Warriors side staring down the barrel of three straight losses for the first time since 2017.

Coach Stephen Kearney said the early indications were that Fusitu'a had suffered rib cartilage damage.

"Given it's a five-day turnaround to our next match I would anticipate he will be unavailable. It didn't look good," Kearney said.

"Looked like possibly rib cartilage, but I'm not 100 per cent sure."

In the second minute of extra time, all eyes were on Roosters halfback Cooper Cronk, who was playing in his first game back at AAMI Park since his 2017 departure from the Storm.

But the premiers turned to Mitchell, who slotted over the match winner from 40m out to end Melbourne's unbeaten start to the season.

It ended an epic comeback from the Storm, who trailed 20-8 at halftime as they failed to keep pace with the champions early on.

"It was uncomfortable and beautiful all in one," said Roosters coach Trent Robinson.

Vunivalu was on Monday charged with a grade-two offence for a leg pull on Canterbury fullback Nick Meaney early in Sunday's narrow win over the Bulldogs.

Meaney got up gingerly but the incident was not penalised by on-field officials, before Vunivalu was picked up by the match review committee.

The Fijian will miss just one match if he pleads guilty to the charge.

But if he contests the charge at the judiciary, he would risk sitting out the Storm's grand final rematch against the Sydney Roosters in round six.

Melbourne skipper Cameron Smith was asked in the lead-up to their Anzac Day match if a win over NRL premiership contenders the Warriors meant the Storm were back and his team gave an emphatic answer at AAMI Park in Melbourne, delivering a statement that they wouldn't be handing over their title without a fight.

The Warriors came into the annual clash, hyped up having only dropped one game, while the Storm had won their previous two after a patchy start to the season.

‌Slater has been tipped to return against the Broncos on Thursday night after over a year out of the game because of a shoulder injury. 

With the Storm playing Cronulla on Sautrday and the winner set to receive the top honour after 26 rounds, Tripp says the league won't be taken as seriously as the AFL as a consequence of the award.

While the AFL doesn't pay out for the minor premiership, it has a stepped payment system for teams as they are knocked out of the finals, with $71,000 for the first two teams eliminated with the premiers receiving $1.2 million.

The NRL grand final winners receive $400,000, meaning if a team does the double it only takes home $500,000.