Maroons superstar SENT off in \u2018outrageous\u2019 controversy<\/a><\/p>\nHolbrook confirms Ponga will back up | 01:14<\/p>\n
ROOSTERS STAR\u2019S \u2018CRAZY\u2019 STORM CALL<\/p>\n
Roosters enforcer Naufahu Whyte doesn\u2019t care where the Storm are on the ladder because he says he\u2019s grown up seeing them in the top four just about every year and knows how hard they are to beat down in Melbourne.<\/p>\n
Assuming Whyte started watching footy when he was four, he\u2019s only seen the Storm miss out on the top four three times since the 2006 season.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s only won one of his six matches against the Storm and is stunned to see them down in 15th spot ahead of Saturday\u2019s showdown at AAMI Park.<\/p>\n
The Storm have a fantastic record against the Roosters. Picture: Cameron Spencer\/Getty ImagesSource: Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cStorm\u2019s always been a benchmark in this game, and I\u2019ve watched Storm growing up my whole life and never once did I see them outside the top four. So it\u2019s crazy, man,\u201d he told the NewsWire. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut that\u2019s footy sometimes, and things don\u2019t always go your way. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we go down there this week, we\u2019re not going to expect any less from them \u2026 On the ladder or whatever doesn\u2019t mean anything. Melbourne Storm is still Melbourne Storm, and they\u2019re still a hard team to beat down in Melbourne.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Roosters have been one of the most dominant teams of the past decade, but their record against the Storm and Panthers has been appalling with just three wins from their past 27 games.<\/p>\n
But they did right some wrongs last year when they scored 40 unanswered points in the second half to stun the Storm, while they knocked off Penrith in a round two shootout despite being severely undermanned.<\/p>\n
The Roosters thrashed the Storm in Melbourne last year. Picture: Robert Cianflone\/Getty ImagesSource: Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cI think people sleep on us a lot about going up against Penrith and Storm,\u201d Whyte said. <\/p>\n
\u201cI know stats-wise it hasn\u2019t shown, but I\u2019ll back our team to beat any pack at the end of the day. When we\u2019re at our best, we can beat anyone that stands in front of us. <\/p>\n
\u201cSo that win towards the back end of the year going into finals and everything definitely was a huge leap for us and gave us confidence going into that finals series even if it didn\u2019t come off the way we wanted it to.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven at the start of the season against Panthers, we didn\u2019t have anybody and we still managed to come away with the win. <\/p>\n
\u201cSo it just goes to show we can compete with the top teams, and I believe that we are a top team in this comp. I know when we\u2019re at our best, I know a lot of teams fear us being at our best.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Sharks have locked down exciting local product Sam Stonestreet long-term, with the winger signing a three-year extension…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":701840,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,689,341795,4565,341794,146752,13213,763,2105,15695,49979,647,4466,761,762,673,158,677,341797,13833,3247,150371,122351,4537,4439,85,670,341793,47875,660,341796],"class_list":["post-701839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-boost-foe","tag-cronulla-sharks","tag-dominant-teams","tag-dual-blow","tag-finals-series","tag-fox-league","tag-getty-images-inc","tag-jason-mccawley","tag-martin-gabor","tag-melbourne","tag-melbourne-storm","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-new-south-wales","tag-nrl","tag-oceania","tag-people-sleep","tag-press-release","tag-robert-cianflone","tag-roosters-enforcer","tag-sam-stonestreet","tag-samuel-stonestreet","tag-south-sydney-rabbitohs","tag-sports","tag-sydney","tag-teams-fear","tag-three-year-extension","tag-victoria","tag-welcome-recruiting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=701839"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701839\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/701840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=701839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=701839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=701839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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