I think this might blow up in Melbourne's face.

[NorfolkStreetKid]

A mate texted me last night and said..... You wouldn't want to win it with Slater out. Thinking about it , he is right. If we beat them without Slater it would always take some shine of the win. Everybody would be talking about how they would have won if he was there. Now I think we have the opportunity to have our greatest win ever. How sweet will it be to win over these mongrels? Our guys will have the motivation, and their guys might take us a bit easy because they have Slater and we don't have Cronk. Stranger things have happened and this just looks to be setting up for our greatest ever day. I reckon we will win it.

[Hawkeye]

I don't think in years to come anyone would look back and care if Slater was there or not. I mean you don't think that if Melb win, there going to think any less of it because Cronk was missing. We will think of it as a great win up against a full strength Melbourne without our half (or at the very least playing with a busted half), but I don't think anyone would've been to disheartened if we beat a Melb team without Teflon Billby !

[bondi.boy]

The only thing that will blow up in Melbourne's face will be the flames of victory emitting from those heat box things the NRL loves so much.

The whole GF thing is being set up for "a fairytale ending to Billy's career."

No Harvard degree needed for this one either.

[bondi.boy]

A mate texted me last night and said..... You wouldn't want to win it with Slater out. Thinking about it , he is right. If we beat them without Slater it would always take some shine of the win. Everybody would be talking about how they would have won if he was there. Now I think we have the opportunity to have our greatest win ever. How sweet will it be to win over these mongrels? Our guys will have the motivation, and their guys might take us a bit easy because they have Slater and we don't have Cronk. Stranger things have happened and this just looks to be setting up for our greatest ever day. I reckon we will win it.

We made 10 errors in the first 30 mins of the match against Souths last week.
If we don't improve from last week we'll get done by 20+.

The new ploy seems to be to strip the ball from our players 2 or 3 or 4 in a tackle, and the ref calls 'knock on'.

[ism22]

The only thing that will blow up in Melbourne's face will be the flames of victory emitting from those heat box things the NRL loves so much.

The whole GF thing is being set up for "a fairytale ending to Billy's career."

No Harvard degree needed for this one either.

Agreed. I will be there to support us but they will try their hardest to get the result they want for the game (i.e. one that has NRL players marching down the street the day after a Perth-based team leaves the city feeling hollow by winning the VFL).

Wow amazing board-level decision... do anything to promote the game in melbourne or AFL will take over.

[RoosterChick]

We will go in as underdogs. Storm now favourites to win. I am as angry as everyone here that justice wasn’t served last night but things are what they are and we have to deal with it and get on with the job. It’s all about us now and how we go about our work. I will be out there Sunday in the Chookpen cheerleading them on. Not to mention booing every time that liar gets the ball. You never know there might be a lot more support for the Chooks now from other fans. Maybe not! Doesn’t matter. If we play with the heart and determination we did against Souths we can win this. Even without Cronk we have a red hot team. Storm played a depleted Sharks side We convincingly beat a full strength Souths side without Latrell and Napa. We can win this GF!!!

[The Lip]

A mate texted me last night and said..... You wouldn't want to win it with Slater out. Thinking about it , he is right. If we beat them without Slater it would always take some shine of the win. Everybody would be talking about how they would have won if he was there. Now I think we have the opportunity to have our greatest win ever. How sweet will it be to win over these mongrels? Our guys will have the motivation, and their guys might take us a bit easy because they have Slater and we don't have Cronk. Stranger things have happened and this just looks to be setting up for our greatest ever day. I reckon we will win it.

I agree - let’s get over this and get positive again all this negativity is really taking the shine off what for a supporter
base should be a fun and exciting week.
Lets get over it guys and enjoy the ride - we are more than a fair chance and I think will win it anyway and it will be all that much more sweet with him playing. Imagine if it was mini - we would think the decision was the right one.

[Easts to Win]

That was really well said . I like the way you are looking at it . Half glass full sort of person . I’m bitterly disappointed with the NRL .

We will go in as underdogs. Storm now favourites to win. I am as angry as everyone here that justice wasn’t served last night but things are what they are and we have to deal with it and get on with the job. It’s all about us now and how we go about our work. I will be out there Sunday in the Chookpen cheerleading them on. Not to mention booing every time that liar gets the ball. You never know there might be a lot more support for the Chooks now from other fans. Maybe not! Doesn’t matter. If we play with the heart and determination we did against Souths we can win this. Even without Cronk we have a red hot team. Storm played a depleted Sharks side We convincingly beat a full strength Souths side without Latrell and Napa. We can win this GF!!!

[The Lip]

Not to mention the overwhelming sentiment that we are now less of a chance and if you take as read many of the comments now no chance would have on the team. They will feel this if they read these forums or not and it won’t help.
I work in finance specifically trading and the parallels it has in sport are many- it’s a confidence game it’s highly competitive and you are completely judged on how much money you make or loose each day just like a win or a loss in nrl there are no excuses just wins or losses.

There ate forums in our industry as well - not as widely used as this one but when I read them about me or my company the overall vibe effects me positively and negatively - people tell me not to read them but I do anyway. The positive comments and posts always inspire me the negative ones don’t help - sometimes they give you a kick up the arse but if the general vibe is we can’t succeed it rubs off.

Lets do do what we can for the team as a supporter base and try to inspire positivity and confidence - it’s so important for any oraganisation to believe they can succeed and we as a group can contribute to that belief or we can erode it.

[bondi.boy]

To succeed on Sunday our team has to have a 90% completion rate, make 'no' errors, and score many points.
That should be their focus.

Oh, and bash every Storm player in sight, especially Munster, Slater and Smith. [Legally of course].

[easts4eva]

Yeah I'm actually beginning to think the Nrl has done everything in its power to ensure a melb victory, thinks can only go wrong for them now.

[roosterchook]

The only thing that will blow up in Melbourne's face will be the flames of victory emitting from those heat box things the NRL loves so much.

The whole GF thing is being set up for "a fairytale ending to Billy's career."

No Harvard degree needed for this one either.

I’m convinced now the game is rigged. After the Origin debacle and now the judiciary decision there’s no doubt anymore. The sharks were destined to get their first premiership as were the cowboys, and now it’s time for a double premiership winner. Nothing, absolutely nothing can prevent that and so we just have to accept that this will be a loss. I also think soon the raiders will be compensated by the corrupt nrl and they will get a trophy soon.

[Andrew Walker]

We made 10 errors in the first 30 mins of the match against Souths last week.
If we don't improve from last week we'll get done by 20+.

The new ploy seems to be to strip the ball from our players 2 or 3 or 4 in a tackle, and the ref calls 'knock on'.

LOL It happened about 5 times last Saturday night

[Johnny Brass]

We will go in as underdogs. Storm now favourites to win. I am as angry as everyone here that justice wasn’t served last night but things are what they are and we have to deal with it and get on with the job. It’s all about us now and how we go about our work. I will be out there Sunday in the Chookpen cheerleading them on. Not to mention booing every time that liar gets the ball. You never know there might be a lot more support for the Chooks now from other fans. Maybe not! Doesn’t matter. If we play with the heart and determination we did against Souths we can win this. Even without Cronk we have a red hot team. Storm played a depleted Sharks side We convincingly beat a full strength Souths side without Latrell and Napa. We can win this GF!!!

I like your attitude RC and positive outlook and energy, its time to move on and stop kicking stones .It's a contact sport and anything can happen ,Slater or Smith could get hurt in the first set of six . It's a heads up contest we aren't out of this by any means .

[roosterchook]

We’ll do our best I know that and I believe we are a lot better team than Melbourne just we have to be at our best on the day. Napa and Mitchell have had an extra week’s rest which should play in our favour. I think the fact Cronk said to the press that they weren’t to know is saying that it’s not as bad as at first thought and he could play. If we are at our best we will win because no one can beat us in that form. I think they will have a hard time trying to contain Tedesco, Keary and Mitchell.