MELBOURNE Storm continued their relentless pursuit of another NRL minor premiership with a 46-0 triumph against Sydney Roosters at McDonald Jones Stadium on Thursday night.
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The win was the defending champions' 13th in a row and lifted them to outright competition leaders, two points clear of Penrith, who play host to third-placed Parramatta on Friday night.
The Storm, who finished on top after the 2016, 2017 and 2019 regular seasons, were in typically ruthless mood last night against the depleted Roosters.
They led 30-0 by half-time and appeared on track to emulate their 66-16 hammering of Wests Tigers in their previous outing.
The procession started in the sixth minute when Melbourne five-eighth Cameron Munster, deep in his own territory, kicked on the first tackle and flying winger Josh Addo-Carr outpaced the bewildered defence to regather the ball and score.
Storm fullback Nicho Hynes converted and added a penalty goal soon afterwards for an 8-0 lead. Hynes then scored his own runaway try after breaking the line on a kick-return and beating Test fullback James Tedesco with a dummy and a swerve.
Two crash-over tries by Dale Finucane and Kenny Bromwich, and a second long-range effort from Addo-Carr, left the Roosters facing a landslide defeat.
At 30-0 down, all that was left for the Roosters was to try to salvage some respect.
The Storm appeared to have increased their advantage six minutes after the break when Hynes again plunged over, only to be denied by the video referee for an obstruction play.
There was no such reprieve minutes later when the Storm created an overlap for Addo-Carr to make it a hat-trick, taking his try tally this season to 19 in 16 games.
It was his third hat-trick for Melbourne this year.
When Munster scored from a Jahrome Hughes grubber kick in the 59th minute, Melbourne passed 40 points for their eighth time in their past 10 games.
The Roosters then lost forward Daniel Suluka-Fifita to the sin-bin for a high shot on Munster, placing them under further duress.
A Brandon Smith try, converted by Hynes, left the Storm with seven minutes to rack up their half-century.
While the Roosters were without a host of big names, including Boyd Cordner, Jake Friend, Victor Radley and Brett Morris, the Storm had their share of absentees too, in particular Ryan Papenhuyzen, Nelson Asofa-Solomona and Harry Grant.
The match was played in Newcastle, in front of a 4289-strong crowd, because the Roosters learned last week that their home ground, the SCG, had been locked down because of coronaviirus restrictions.
It was only the second top-grade premiership match played at Turton Road between two visiting teams from outside Newcastle.
The previous occasion was in May 1985, when Canberra beat St George 20-10, in front of 15.610 fans.
