{"id":26523,"date":"2025-07-28T03:24:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-28T03:24:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/26523\/"},"modified":"2025-07-28T03:24:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-28T03:24:10","slug":"why-boring-footy-will-be-the-key-for-melbourne-storm-without-jahrome-hughes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/26523\/","title":{"rendered":"Why ‘boring footy’ will be the key for Melbourne Storm without Jahrome Hughes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Melbourne’s first efforts without Jahrome Hughes helped propel them to one of their best wins of the season, but if the Storm are to continue their premiership charge they’ll need plenty of the same for as long as the reigning Dally M medallist is sidelined.<\/p>\n

The Storm are hopeful Hughes can return from a dislocated shoulder for the finals and rallied against the Roosters for a win that showed their toughness and character.<\/p>\n

It was a seminal showing but only a taste of what’s to come. In the meantime, they’ll face a six-week fury road that may define or destroy what’s possible once the New Zealand playmaker is fit again.<\/p>\n

The Victorians have a tough run home, starting with a rejuvenated Parramatta side on Thursday before they take on Brisbane, Penrith (away) and Canterbury before facing the Roosters and Broncos (away) again.<\/p>\n

Hughes avoids surgery, hopes for finals return<\/a><\/p>\n

Melbourne Storm halfback Jahrome Hughes is expected to return to the field for the NRL finals, after scans on his left shoulder revealed he does not need surgery.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Right now, the Storm are comfortably in the top four, but nothing is certain given the quality of their opponents on the way home.<\/p>\n

Melbourne are expected to welcome back Cameron Munster and Ryan Papenhuyzen for Thursday’s clash with the Eels while Tyran Wishart is tipped to take over at halfback.<\/p>\n

The utility is a quality replacement \u2014 he made himself a star filling in for Munster in the halves last season \u2014 but it will require an adjustment of style for Craig Bellamy’s side.<\/p>\n

“One of the strengths of our team is depth, it’s getting tested at the moment with a few injuries and other circumstances but our depth will come into play now,” Wishart said.<\/p>\n

“[We have to] narrow the focus and playing to individuals’ strengths and the team’s strengths. Playing to our strengths is the main thing.<\/p>\n

“Boring footy is good footy. You could see that against the Roosters, it was boring \u2014 we just kicked to corners, but luckily it worked for us.<\/p>\n

“Off the back of that you can get combinations going.”<\/p>\n

Hughes has not hit the heights of his superb 2024 season this time around but was coming into that kind of form at just the right time \u2014 he’s the equal leader for try assists in the NRL and over the last 18 months has re-emerged as Melbourne’s best and most consistent player.<\/p>\n

Without him, Melbourne will look to play more direct and through the middle of the field. They’ll rely more on their forward pack to create ruck speed and on their spine to take advantage of it.<\/p>\n

The Roosters game can be something of a blueprint, with that style bringing them plenty of joy with hooker Harry Grant playing his finest game of the year.<\/p>\n

Working off Grant and Munster, who missed last week to attend his father’s funeral, will be crucial if the Storm are to lock up a top-four spot in Hughes’s absence.<\/p>\n

Once Munster returns he is expected to take control as the side’s main organiser \u2014 a task that is newer for him, but one he performed beautifully for Queensland in this year’s Origin series.<\/p>\n

“I think we’re both naturally runners, but Munster’s really good at organising as well. I didn’t mind doing that [against the Roosters] when I had to,” Wishart said.<\/p>\n

“The more you train with someone, the more games you get together, you work out a combination.<\/p>\n

“One of the strengths of our team is depth, it’s getting tested at the moment with a few injuries and other circumstances but our depth will come into play now.”<\/p>\n

ABC Sport Daily podcast<\/a><\/p>\n

ABC Sport Daily is your daily sports conversation. We dive into the biggest story of the day and get you up to speed with everything else that’s making headlines.<\/p>\n

Wishart and Munster have already played one game together this year, a forgettable 14-8 loss to the Dragons in round four where the Storm attack struggled to fire a shot.<\/p>\n

Now they’ll have more time on their side but losing Hughes for this crucial stretch, plus the high re-occurrence rate of shoulder problems meaning he’s no guarantee to last once he does return, has put their premiership charge in the balance.<\/p>\n

But it’s far from impossible. Penrith have won the last two premierships despite Nathan Cleary carrying a similar shoulder problem into each finals series and with the Storm’s talent behind them they’re not giving the doubters a moments thought.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We wouldn’t pay too much attention to that. We know what we can do, our team isn’t based on individuals and that’s our main strength,” Wishart said.<\/p>\n

“People can say what they want, as long as we believe in ourselves we can do it.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Melbourne’s first efforts without Jahrome Hughes helped propel them to one of their best wins of the season,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26524,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,4575,4466,761,762,158,159,85,25724],"class_list":["post-26523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-jahrome-hughes","tag-melbourne-storm","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-rugby-league","tag-sports","tag-tyran-wishart"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26523\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}