Ryan Papenhuyzen was showing a little bit of rust in his return from a calf injury, failing to convert a “straightforward” goal-kick attempt on Thursday night.

The 27-year-old had missed the past month of action for Melbourne but was back in his usual fullback role as the premiership favourites travelled to face Parramatta.

After a back-and-forth opening 17 minutes, it was the visitors who opened the scoring through Eliesa Katoa as his incredible season on the right edge continued.

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But despite crossing right next to the posts, Papenhuyzen was unable to convert as the ball hit both uprights and bounced out in a bizarre moment.

As he was lining up the attempt, lead caller Brenton Speed described the conversion as “straightforward” and said he was kicking at 84 per cent this season.

Ryan Papenhuyzen misses a conversion. Nine

After the fullback – who was returning from a calf injury – missed the goal, Cameron Smith took the opportunity to take a cheeky swipe at his Nine broadcast partner.

“That is as good a commentator’s curse as I’ve ever seen … you got him a beauty,” the Storm legend said through laughter.

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Paramatta would soon level the scores through Josh Addo-Carr, who produced a remarkable effort to stay in the field of play and plant the ball down.

In a tough first half, Cameron Munster was penalised on two occasions for high tackles, while Mitchell Moses also found himself in hot water for a similar incident.

Melbourne moved ahead on the scoreboard heading into the break after bench prop Tui Kamikamica burst through a wide-open gap in the Eels defensive line.

Papenhuyzen wouldn’t make the same mistake twice, nailing the two points with ease.

But right on the stroke of half-time, Papenhuyzen missed a long-range penalty goal as his tough night with the boot continued at CommBank Stadium.

“We have a bit of a laugh whenever we do something silly,” Munster said to Nine.

“I just spoke to him about golf handicaps and told him he had 10 points after nine. He’s a back-nine specialist, so hopefully he can get 20 points for us in the back-end.”