Melbourne coach Craig Bellamy has made the scary remark that he thinks Ryan Papenhuyzen’s start to his 2022 campaign has eclipsed his electric early-season form of last year.
Bellamy made the formidable assessment after Papenhuyzen piled on four tries for the second time in his NRL career on Sunday evening, as Melbourne hammered Canterbury 44-0 at AAMI Park.
The megastar fullback registered seven tries over his first four games of last season and six four-pointers over his opening four matches of this year’s campaign.
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He averaged 230m over his first four appearances of last season and is averaging 144m to the same point this year.
“I dunno whether he’s even gone past last year with his last couple of games,” Bellamy said in Sunday’s post-match press conference.
“He’s taking a big hand in this side and where the ball goes and when it goes.
“He’s going pretty well at the moment.”
Last year’s wooden-spooners hadn’t lost a game by more than six points over the first three rounds of this season, but the Bulldogs were on Sunday thrashed by Papenhuyzen and his Storm teammates in an eight-try-to-zero pummeling.
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Two of Papenhuyzen’s tries displayed his exceptional support play, one was the result of a simple hit-up close to Canterbury’s line and the other came off a Jahrome Hughes inside ball around a leaky Bulldogs ruck.
The sparkling performances of Papenhuyzen and many of his teammates, including Hughes, Cameron Munster and Harry Grant, led to rugby league Immortal Andrew Johns hailing the club’s long-standing dominance.
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“You think about the players over the… years who have left the Storm. You go through them all: (Billy) Slater, (Cooper) Cronk… Cameron Smith, (Greg) Inglis left, (Israel) Folau left,” Johns said on Nine’s coverage.
“They lose champion players, but they just keep on keeping on.
“And you watch the way they attack – they are unrecognisable to how the Storm attacked three or fours years ago.
“Just incredible the way they evolve.”
The Storm is set to square off with the Raiders in Wagga Waaga in round five, while the Bulldogs will meet another monumental challenge when they face reigning premiers the Panthers at CommBank Stadium.
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