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\n Jonah Pezet is aiming to help steer the Storm to a top two finals berth in the absence of injured superstar Jahrome Hughes.
\n \u00a9Gregg Porteous\/NRL Photos
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Dally M Medallist Jahrome Hughes is helping rookie halfback Jonah Pezet to unleash strike second-rower Eli Katoa as the Storm plan to avoid playing in Sydney until the grand final.<\/p>\n
Pezet, who is widely considered a star halfback in waiting, is set to be given responsibility for steering the Storm around for a second consecutive week as they aim to seal a top two berth by beating the Bulldogs at AAMI Park on Friday night.<\/p>\n
A win would see Melbourne climb four points ahead of third-placed Canterbury with two games in hand and all but guarantee the Storm second spot.<\/p>\n
Even if the Storm were to lose their remaining two games against the Roosters and Broncos, Melbourne has a differential of +252 compared to +120 for the Bulldogs.<\/p>\n
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\n Jonah Pezet is aiming to help steer the Storm to a top two finals berth in the absence of injured superstar Jahrome Hughes.
\n \u00a9Gregg Porteous\/NRL Photos
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\u201cYou want to be in that top two so that you can get a home prelim or a home semi and then if you come in the top two you get two home semis so that’s pretty important for us,\u201d Pezet told NRL.com.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe love playing at AAMI Park in front of our home fans so that\u2019s what we’re striving for.\u201d<\/p>\n
With home matches against the Bulldogs and Roosters before a trip to Brisbane in Round 27, it is possible the Storm won\u2019t play in Sydney again this season unless they make the October 5 premiership decider at Accor Stadium.<\/p>\n
A top two finish would secure the Storm a home semi in the first week of the play-offs and if they were to win that they would receive a week off before hosting a preliminary final in Melbourne for a place in the grand final.<\/p>\n
Hughes is expected back from a shoulder injury for the finals but until his return the Kiwis halfback is giving Pezet advice about his combinations with Katoa and centre Nick Meaney in attack.<\/p>\n
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What a kick from Pezet<\/p>\n
\u201cJahrome has been good, he’s been sitting in meetings the last few weeks and he’s got a good eye for it,\u201d Pezet said. \u201cHe knows what Means’ and Eli\u2019s strengths are, and how I can bring them into the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we\u2019ve got blokes like Cameron Munster, Xavier Coates and Harry Grant in your team, I\u2019ve just got to get the boys around the park and kick well and they’ll find the points.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Coates the X Factor<\/p>\n
Grant snatched a controversial 22-18 win against the Panthers last Thursday night after acting on a pre-game suggestion by former Magpies and Dragons coach Roy Masters to come up with a \u201csneaky play\u201d.<\/p>\n
Pezet and Munster were set up either side of the ruck for a field goal and Grant dummied to them before racing from dummy half to score in extra time.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had a chat before Golden Point about how that is the stuff you live for, that\u2019s the stuff you play for. You want to play in big games and be able to take moments like that,\u201d Pezet said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just spoke about everyone having a smile on their face and enjoying those big moments because it’s going to happen over the next sort of four-to-six weeks, big moments like that.<\/p>\n
\u201cHarry Grant lives for those moments as we saw. Me and Mun were there ready to go and that\u2019s where all the eyes go \u2026 Harry is one of the smartest footy players in the game.<\/p>\n
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All the angles: THAT Harry Grant match winner!<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I can create as much space I can for Harry to get a quick play the ball or for Mun to run out the back of shape, or whoever it is, that’s kind of my role.\u201d<\/p>\n
After back-to-back knee injuries limited him to just 40 minutes in the 15 months until his comeback in June, Pezet had only played 80 minutes once this season in the Queensland Cup before being promoted to the starting line-up against Penrith.<\/p>\n
However, after re-signing until 2029, Pezet\u2019s future is secure and he is now focused on the Storm\u2019s premiership campaign.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just soaking up every moment that I can with these lads and just going out there and trying to find the two points every week and trying to set ourselves up for a deep finals run,\u201d Pezet said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve got a good opportunity at the moment to just keep playing minutes and keep playing footy and building my game.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m only 22 and my game’s going to keep evolving and keep developing and that’s all I’m focusing on at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dally M Medallist Jahrome Hughes is helping rookie halfback Jonah Pezet to unleash strike second-rower Eli Katoa as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":84156,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-84155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84155","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=84155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84155\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}