The Canberra Raiders sent Melbourne packing from the 2022 premiership race with a 28-20 upset at AAMI Park on Saturday night.
Ricky Stuart’s team has now beaten Melbourne five times in a row at AAMI Park and they move on to play the Eels in another sudden-death clash next weekend.
After defending their line stoutly for several sets early on, the Raiders cracked the Storm when Joseph Tapine put Jack Wighton into the back field with a delicate offload.
Wighton pinned his ears back and then ofloaded a pass which was touched by Nick Meaney before landing in the hands of Xavier Savage who sent it on to Matt Timoko, the centre taking on Cameron Munster and powering over in the right corner for a 4-0 lead.
On the back of their third six-again call in the opening 15 minutes the Storm went left and Kenny Bromwich put in a grubber which Savage was forced to knock it dead to hand the home side a fresh set.
From there it was ball-players Munster and Jahrome Hughes creating space on the right for Marion Seve to put Xavier Coates away on a 20-metre run to the corner for his 14th try of the season.
Four minutes later it was Caotes doubling his tally on the back of brilliant lead-up work by Hughes, who spotted Jordan Rapana in off his wing and chipped over for his winger to touch down and the Storm led 8-4.
It took the Raiders just 10 minutes to hit back and reclaim the lead when halfback Jamal Fogarty took the first pass of a scrum 10 metres out and brushed off Meaney, Justin Olam and David Nofoaluma to score.
In the 35th minute Tapine capped a magnificent first half when he put Elliott Whitehead over from close range with another deft offload and the Green Machine was in overdrive at 16-8.
Munster and Hughes combined again in the 45th minute to put Seve away down the right side, the centre passing back to Munster who found Coates to power away for his second hat-trick of the season. Munster converted to make it 16-14.
