Slater superb as Storm sink Souths

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RABBITOHS coach Michael Maguire was entitled to think he'd learned enough from Craig Bellamy prior to Friday night's meeting.

Yet even after six seasons under Bellamy's watch in Melbourne, Maguire still left ANZ Stadium under no illusions that his old mentor had schooled Souths in the fundamentals of controlling a footy game.

Billy Slater was superb as the Stormpunished South Sydney in the first half. Source: News Corp Australia

Superstar trio Cameron Smith, Billy Slater and Cooper Cronk produced a pre-Origin clinic to manufacture Melbourne's most complete performance of a patchy season thus far, the final 27-14 scoreline a partial reflection of the visitor's dominance.

Down 20-4 at halftime, Souths only threatened for a brief period shortly after the break when they posted consecutive tries on the back of five consecutive penalties. The prospect of a memorable comeback only lasted a few minutes before Slater sliced through some disorganised defence to restore the comfortable advantage for the remaining 24 minutes.

Cooper Cronk was also instrumental in Storm's victory. Source: Getty Images

A George Burgess fumble on the opening set established the disrupted tone for Souths, whose halves Adam Reynolds and John Sutton could not come close to matching Cronk's superb kicking game. Touted as joint candidates for the Blues halves, the Rabbitohs pair will not expect to be re-acquainted with Smith, Slater and Cronk for Origin I after Friday night's display.

"My kicks and Adam's kicks were way off and we didn't build any pressure," Sutton lamented.

The Storm defence gets to grips with George Burgess. Source: Getty Images

"I'm disappointed with my kicks, I didn't get them on the money. I spoke to Adam about it afterwards. We have to get better."

Having engineered four wins from his team's past five matches, Maguire described the result as "a hard one to take".

"The boys are putting the hard work in, but we learned some lessons from tonight's game," he said. "The precision of our play was the biggest thing."

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With the numerous haters joyfully predicting Melbourne's long-awaited demise after such sustained success, the Storm front rained perfection for the first time this year.

Slater's uncharacteristic errors have led to calls for his Friday night opposite - Greg Inglis - to steal his Maroons No. 1 jersey. But in an ideally-timed cameo, Slater out-pointed Inglis with a two-try haul that was deserved reward for his involvement and energy.

Sutton and Reynolds combined to keep South Sydney in the game. Source: Getty Images

Cronk grabbed a try of his own, set up three others and potted the match-sealing field goal with six minutes left. And apart from a blow-up at referee Gerard Sutton, who penalised Storm utility Ryan Hynchcliffe for an innocuous charge down on Reynolds, Smith was once again composure personified.

"We can get a little bit paranoid with player safety," Smith said of the Hynchcliffe penalty.

"I'm all for player safety, but everyone knows when a player goes out to attack the legs (of a kicker). I can't see what else Ryan Hynchcliffe is meant to do there. We are playing rugby league."

Greg Inglis finds the door is closed this time around. Source: News Corp Australia

Thanks to a welcome bye, it's a game Melbourne won't be playing next weekend.

Injury-hit Souths, however, face the task of re-grouping for a tricky match against Cronulla at Remondis Stadium. Origin will rob them of Inglis, and possibly back rowers Chris McQueen and Ben Te'o.

For not the first time this year injuries decimated their bench, with Kyle Turner succumbing to his second concussion in just the 13th minute. Rookie Kirisome Auva'a was replaced with the same affliction early in the second half, but Maguire played down concerns that hooker Api Koroisau had aggravated his shoulder injury.

The Rabbitohs look dejected after being outclassed by Melbourne. Source: Getty Images

On the plus side, the Rabbitohs could welcome back Issac Luke (shoulder) next week.

MELBOURNE 27 (B Slater 2 C Cronk S Waqa tries C Smith 5 goals C Cronk field goal) bt SOUTH SYDNEY 14 (A Johnston 2 A Reynolds tries A Reynolds goal) at ANZ Stadium. Referee: Gerard Sutton, Gavin Reynolds. Crowd: 18,508.

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