A rare double to Brandon Smith has seen the Melbourne Storm thump the Brisbane Broncos 40-12 on the opening night of Indigenous Round.
Continuing their love affair with the lands of the Yuggera and Turrbal Peoples, the Storm posted their 23rd win from 27 visits to Suncorp Stadium in a match where both teams were guilty of committing errors.
In a first half that alluded to a competitive contest that failed to eventuate, Brandon Smith (17th minute) was able to open the scoring by spinning through the Broncos' defence before racing underneath the posts.
Called into the starting team after impressing in last week's victory against the Raiders, Cooper Johns put a well-weighted grubber in-goal for Tui Kamikamica (32nd minute) to pounce on.
Blowing the score out to 16-0 shortly before halftime, an awful pass from Anthony Milford out of dummy half provided the Storm with the field position needed to send Josh Addo-Carr (36th minute) over for his 11th try in as many matches against the Broncos.
Continuing the trend of capitalising on errors, George Jennings (41st minute) raced away untouched after David Mead fumbled an offload inside his own half.
Taking the score out to 28-0 after Johns (44th minute) crossed for his first try in the top grade, a rare error from the Storm allowed Kobe Hetherington (47th minute) to spare the Broncos the ignominy of being held scoreless.
Embarrassing the Broncos defence with further tries to Nicho Hynes (52nd minute) and a second to Smith (62nd minute), a try against the run of play to Jesse Arthars (57th minute) in between the final two Melbourne tries saw the match finish 40-12 in favour of the visitors.
Next week, the Broncos face the Dragons at Kogarah next Thursday, while the Storm will host the Titans on Saturday evening - the impact of Victoria's latest lockdown may result in the match being shifted to the Sunshine Coast or played behind closed doors.