Su’A notches double as Dragons claim Melbourne epic

It was the work of recalled fullback Tyrell Sloan however that ignited the contest mid-way through the first half as he produced one of the tries of his career off a Su’A offload.

Sloan found himself in the game early courtesy of a pair of brave kick defusals and threatening attacking sweeps in the opening exchanges.

The hosts took full advantage of a Dragons error to strike first 14 minutes in through Harry Grant after Jahrome Hughes darted into the backfield and handed it off to his skipper.

They threatened to add to their lead moments later off a penalty only for a drop in front of the sticks to put an end to the charge.

A deft Max Feagai grubber earnt the Dragons a repeat set, but points still eluded the visiting side with the finishing touches slightly off on a pair of plays.

The Dragons came up with a timely response soon after with their sideline-to-sideline ball movement unearthing attacking inroads as Su’A pounced on a Hunt grubber down the right corridor after Sloan zipped into space down the left edge the previous play.

Zac Lomax’s conversion snuck inside the right upright to tie things up at six-apiece 25 minutes into the encounter.

A piece of Sloan brilliance thrusted the Dragons ahead minutes later with a Su’A offload finding Jacob Liddle who sent his No.1 whizzing into the backfield.

The Dapto Canaries junior still had plenty of work to do with a savvy, feigned chip as he approached opposite Ryan Papenhuyzen opening up the space for him to breeze past the cover and dive over next to the sticks.

Nelson Asofa-Solomona was placed on report the following set for a high shot on Francis Molo before earning himself another talking-to moments later for sparking a midfield melee.

Grant Anderson scored in the left corner off a Cameron Munster grubber just shy of the break to cut the Dragons’ advantage down to two.

A desperate piece of scramble prevented the Storm from hitting the lead prior to the half with Luciano Leilua among a handful of Dragons to hold Alec MacDonald up over the line.

The second forty looked to have begun in ideal fashion for the Red V with Sloan finding his way over again only for the video officials to overturn the on-field decision of try due to an obstruction.

The Storm marched down the field off it with Jack Howarth held up over the line before Lomax skied to defuse a cross-field kick and earn his side a 20-metre restart.

It was again the Hunt-Su’A combination finding success for the Red V off it with the former pouring through a gap from 30 out on the last tackle and drawing the fullback before sending the latter over untouched next to the posts.

Lomax knocked over the extras from in front to put the visitors ahead by eight with a half-hour remaining before he threatened to extend the lead further off his own grubber soon after only for his grounding attempt to come up short.

Grant found a second for the Storm an hour in nudging his way over out of dummy half off a quick Munster play-the-ball to slice the deficit back to two.

The hosts stormed straight back onto the attack the next set courtesy of another Grant break with the raid coming up short thanks only to a determined Hunt cover effort.

Lomax again went close to laying on points for the Red V off it with the winger skying to reel in a Hunt bomb and finding a supporting Blake Lawrie only for the front rower to be dragged down short of the chalk.

The Storm fired in an unsuccessful challenge with 13 minutes to play after Lomax again hounded a Hunt kick and was interfered with in the process.

Hunt lodged a successful challenge moments later to earn the Red V a scrum feed 25 metres out from their own line at a decisive stage.

The Storm continued pounding on the door in the dying stages only for their final attempt at the try-line to be thwarted by a clever Kyle Flanagan marker play to force an error.

Hunt booted the ball into the crowd as the siren sounded to put a bow on a drought-breaking win south of the border.