{"id":499083,"date":"2026-04-15T01:54:01","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T01:54:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=499083"},"modified":"2026-04-15T05:25:06","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T05:25:06","slug":"shocking-numbers-behind-storm-slump-as-baked-gun-survives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=499083","title":{"rendered":"Shocking numbers behind Storm slump as baked gun survives"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/sport\/nrl\/melbourne-storm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Storm<\/a> will reach a 14-year low if they don&#x27;t get a much needed win over the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/sport\/nrl\/canberra-raiders\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Raiders<\/a> on Friday night, but skipper <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/person\/harry-grant-25ml\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Harry Grant<\/a> has hit back at suggestions the side is all flash and no bang.<\/p>\n<p>Having sat on top of the ladder after round two, last year&#x27;s grand finalists have since lost their last four on the trot to sink to 13th.<\/p>\n<p>A fifth-straight loss would be the worst drought since 2012, although they still managed to go on and win the competition that year.<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/sport\/nrl\/news-2026-shane-flanagan-coaching-criticism-st-george-illawarra-dragons-loko-pasifiki-tonga-lachlan-ilias-james-maloney-20260415-p5zo34.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Flanagan&#x27;s fight to save job derailed by destructive claims<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/sport\/nrl\/news-2026-matt-dufty-return-south-sydney-rabbitohs-st-george-illawarra-dragons-super-league-stint-20260414-p5zo0p.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>&#x27;Nobody wanted him&#x27;: Poetic NRL return 1420 days in the making<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ MORE:\ufeff<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/sport\/football\/champions-league-2026-liverpool-psg-scores-atletico-madrid-barcelona-result-highlights-lamine-yamal-video-20260415-p5znz2.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Liverpool crash out of Europe, Barca star&#x27;s dummy spit<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>But the numbers behind this latest slump will no doubt have Bellamy worried.<\/p>\n<p>The Storm were +74 on for-and-against after round two, and are now only +2. In four matches, they&#x27;ve leaked 134 points and scored only 62 for a for-and-against of -72. Only the Eels have leaked more points (142) in the same period, but have scored 80 points for a slightly better for-and-against (-62).<\/p>\n<p><img data-id=\"cd7ebea7-a4fd-4612-bfda-fcab70903d4a\" src=\"https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/cd7ebea7-a4fd-4612-bfda-fcab70903d4a\" alt=\"\" data-width=\"2672\" data-height=\"1503\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The shocking run of form has led several prominent pundits to effectively declare the Storm&#x27;s premiership hunt dead and buried.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;There&#x27;s a level that we need to be performing to, and we&#x27;re certainly not there at the moment with application on the field,&quot; skipper Harry Grant told media on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;We&#x27;ve been preparing really well for games and there are answers in the team and in the coaching squad, but it&#x27;s on us to put in practice for performances on the weekend.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Grant pointed to the Bulldogs&#x27; shock win over the Panthers, who were also in a rut, as an example of how quickly things can turn. He said the side would continue to block &quot;outside noise&quot;.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Watch the 2026 NRL season live and free on Nine and<\/strong><\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/stream.9now.com.au\/IhJRsjCw00b\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"\"><em><strong>9Now<\/strong><\/em><\/a><em><strong>.\ufeff<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p><img data-video-id=\"6392955159112\" src=\"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/pickerimage-12.jpg\" alt=\"Joey:\u00a0Storm\u00a0will\u00a0need\u00a0to\u00a0&#x27;reinvent\u00a0themselves&#x27;\" data-vms-id=\"ref:cmnv6czh5001d0hs6iz00epqy\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&quot;Everyone changes their tune week after week,&quot; he said.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;I think they had the Bulldogs written off a couple weeks ago, but after the weekend they&#x27;re probably back in the loop.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;With that, it&#x27;s eliminating all the outside noise. We&#x27;ve got all the answers in the club here with the playing group and the coaching staff, but it&#x27;s just about applying it.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;People can have their opinions, but it doesn&#x27;t mean too much.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Coach Craig Bellamy said the team might &quot;need a bit of a change-up&quot; after the loss to the Warriors, but has resisted the urge to make wholesale changes for the Raiders clash.<\/p>\n<p><img data-video-id=\"6392923091112\" src=\"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/pickerimage-13.jpg\" alt=\"NRL Highlights: Storm v Warriors - Round 6\" data-vms-id=\"ref:cmnuaf1ua000s0hpjndyddl6m\" \/><\/p>\n<p>There was only one change to the starting line-up when <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/sport\/nrl\/team-lists-round-seven-2026-news-injuries-suspensions-lineups-squads-20260413-p5zngj.html\" target=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"team lists were released on Tuesday\">team lists were released on Tuesday<\/a> &#8211; winger Moses Leo axed in favour of rookie Manaia Waitere.<\/p>\n<p>Hooked from the field only 10 minutes into the second half, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/sport\/nrl\/news-2026-melbourne-storm-craig-bellamy-spray-joe-chan-trent-loiero-new-zealand-warriors-result-20260411-p5zn56.html\" target=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"having already copped an almighty spray from Bellamy at half time\">having already copped an almighty spray from Bellamy at half time<\/a>, Joe Chan kept his spot in the starting side.<\/p>\n<p>Grant was sympathetic to the 24-year-old for receiving the spray, and backed him to rediscover his form.<\/p>\n<p>But he conceded that a lift from Chan would not be the silver bullet that would make the Storm the force it usually is.<\/p>\n<p><img data-id=\"c8f8d6a6-9143-4413-a09f-3efbf248f93d\" src=\"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/c8f8d6a6-9143-4413-a09f-3efbf248f93d\" alt=\"\" data-width=\"1433\" data-height=\"806\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&quot;Everyone&#x27;s been in those shoes at times as a player &#8211; we just need Joey at his best,&quot; he said.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;When he brings his strengths to the team and he&#x27;s at his best, he&#x27;s a great asset to the team.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;It&#x27;s important that he gets back to that this week and prepares well. You can single one player out, but it&#x27;s not one player. It&#x27;s a collective 30-man squad, and that&#x27;s what it is.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/sport\/nrl\/live-scores\/canberra-raiders-v-melbourne-storm-nrl-2026\/451707713\" target=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"Raiders-Storm clash\">Raiders-Storm clash<\/a> is the early game on Friday night, with kick off at 6pm AEST.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>The Storm will reach a 14-year low if they don&#x27;t get a much needed win over the Raiders on Friday night, but skipper Harry Grant <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=499083\" title=\"Shocking numbers behind Storm slump as baked gun survives\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":499085,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499083"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=499083"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499083\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":499090,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499083\/revisions\/499090"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/499085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=499083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=499083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=499083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}