Ryan Papenhuyzen has described ‘something special’ building in Melbourne after their crushing 44-0 win over the Bulldogs at AAMI Park.
The Storm fullback scored four tries and said that he could feel the team growing better and better.
“It’s a different feel this year,” he said. “It’s another year working the combinations and another year where we’re clearer in our roles.
“It feels good to run around as a team and I just cherrypick a few tries.
“It happened last year too, and I think we’ve got something special building this year.”
The size of the win might have been a surprise – the pre-match betting line was 24 points in favour of the hosts – but the nature of the game was not: Melbourne were good value for their near half-century.
Papenhuyzen dominated the game, showcasing his speed, smarts and finishing to grab his four tries, but the performance was as much about the way that the Storm’s spine clicked into action and created the conditions for their strike player to shine.
“I don’t know if he’s even gone a little bit past last year these last couple of games,” said Craig Bellamy.
“He didn’t have a great pre- season – he rolled his ankle and probably didn’t run for eight weeks but he spent a fair time in the gym there and he’s probably a little bit of weight on and it doesn’t look like it’s affected his pace or his agility.
“He’s taking a big hand in deciding where the ball goes and when it goes so he’s playing with plenty of confidence.”
The Bulldogs had no answer and the blowout in the second half was always on the cards.
They will still be disappointed by their lack of penetration early on, when the game was still in dispute and they enjoyed the lion’s share of the ball and territory.
“We had we had a lot of ball early in the first half and we needed to come away at some points there in that first 15 minutes,” said coach Trent Barrett.
“That’ll take some pressure off your defence and give our side a bit of confidence.
“We didn’t take our chances and they did and then defensively, decisions under pressure when we’re tired.
“We’ve been up for three weeks and we got found out today.”
The start was the Bulldogs’s season in microcosm. They had three sets within 20m of the Melbourne line and it took them until the last play of the last set to ask even the slightest question.
When they did, Josh Addo-Carr was stopped short and when the Storm got their first slight sniff of field position, they scored through Papenhuyzen.
In the first 20 minutes, the Dogs had enjoyed 65% possession, completed at 90%, had 49 runs, five offloads and zero points. Melbourne had been in the Canterbury end twice and scored twice, the second via Josh King.
Trent Barrett will be concerned that he has made extensive changes to the personnel in creative roles in his side, but reliance on forward hit-ups and default option of throwing towards Matt Burton on the left remains.
Luke Thompson personally had 10 runs in the first 20 minutes and several times found himself at dummy half.
By halftime, the left centre-wing pairing of Jake Averillo and Josh Addo-Carr had combined for 15 runs: their counterparts on the right, Braidon Burns and Brent Naden, had just three.
The Storm had gone 12-0 while Canterbury had actually been playing well – albeit not threatening – but then the errors began to kick in.
Whenever Melbourne got up the field, they left with points: Kenny Bromwich the next to benefit.
After the break, things didn’t get any better. Papenhuyzen grabbed another and suddenly it looked like it could be anything.
That feeling was only accelerated as Jahrome Hughes picked up a kick, raced clear and sent the mulleted fullback in for his hat-trick, and sped up further when Xavier Coates took an interception to run in another.
Coates broke through to give Felise Kaufusi another before Papenhuyzen got a fourth, breaking right down the middle through tired, dispirited defence on an outside-in line that Melbourne have been running since the days of Cronk and Slater.
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