Five seasons ago when Peter V’landys and the powers that be shook up rugby league with a bell and a six-again, Melbourne’s prize-winning recruitment staff wondered if they needed to do the same.
Would this seismic change to the game have the same impact on how they scouted players?
In a word – no. Because the player who rose to prominence in the high-octane six-again era featured many of the characteristics that Storm recruitment chief Paul Bunn was already prioritising.
Fit and fast, with greater focus on reading and responding to a game than just an athlete running a cookie-cutter play.
In two words – a fullback. Cameron Munster. Jahrome Hughes. Ryan Papenhuyzen. Nicho Hynes. Scott Drinkwater. Nick Meaney. Sua Fa’alogo.
All came into the NRL as No.1s and have carved out impressive careers since, the majority of them elsewhere in the backline.
And then Munster points to the other team list in Friday’s preliminary final.
“They are freakish athletes,” he says of the Roosters’ own clutch of custodians.
“Joey Manu wins the Golden Boot playing fullback for New Zealand, then he comes back to Roosters and has Tedesco, the Australian fullback, and Suaalii who played fullback for Samoa at the World Cup – so they have three international fullbacks there.
“You could put them anywhere. You play Manu at six and he runs the ball and plays like a fullback. He roams around, and a roaming Joey Manu is a scary thought.”
Notably, neither side has been able to put a stop to Penrith’s premiership dominance during the six-again era, though Melbourne did rise to the 2020 title in the first season of set-restarts.
The Storm’s running gag in that campaign was that Cameron Smith commanded a spine comprising he and three fullbacks, with Hughes and Munster in the halves and Papenhuyzen winning the Clive Churchill medal at the back.
The greatest No.1 of all-time, Storm predecessor and attack consultant Billy Slater, says Hughes’ career-best form in 2024 can be traced to his formative fullback years.
“He’s the controlling influence over the Storm,” Slater says of the Kiwi star and Dally M medal favourite.
“He’s got a great kicking game and he brings his outside men into the game with his passing, but his number one strength is his right-foot step and his running game.
“That threat as a runner always makes you dangerous. I think that’s why fullbacks make good centres. That’s why fullbacks make halves if they can adapt to the other skills that those positions demand.”
Hughes agrees, as does Manu, with both pointing to the expectation of modern fullbacks “to be everywhere” dictating their own approaches as a halfback and centre.
“They are just people who want to get around the ball, and they just want to get around the ball,” Hughes says.
Joey Manu and James Tedesco, two world-class No.1s sharing the roost at Bondi.Credit: Bethany Rae
“That’s what fullbacks do and that’s what makes their attack so dangerous; you never know where they are going to turn up.”
“Teddy’s the leader of that I think,” Manu adds.
“There’s different styles of that. Some love running off the ruck, others have that ability to execute ball-playing skills out wide. And even though I’m out in the centres, I do try and match that involvement and get myself in the game like a fullback does.
“Sometimes it can feel like I’m playing fullback, but then that’s probably just my style no matter where I play. It doesn’t matter what jumper I’ve got on, I like to be around the ruck, supporting and getting involved.”
Manu can see a fullback’s defensive workload helping when they shift into the frontline as well.
“Counting numbers and working out [an opposition’s attacking] shape, that’s massive for a fullback,” Manu says.
“It’s the most difficult part of being a fullback, or what the best fullbacks do at a different level. So I think it helps your decision-making and [defensive] instincts for sure.”
It speaks to a skill base Slater sees as more diverse than ever for fullbacks, in turn making them more adaptable to other positions as well.
Munster, meanwhile, has moved to the back only very occasionally since stepping into Slater’s No.1 jersey almost a decade ago.
Cameron Munster goes about his business at Storm training.Credit: Getty Images
It remained his preferred position even when Slater returned from career-threatening shoulder injuries, but Munster being Munster, he still turned himself into a Queensland and Australian five-eighth.
As he’s managed his return from a groin injury that requires surgery at season’s end, the Storm pivot has found himself casting back to his NRL roots.
“I’ve probably [played] more of a fullback type role this season rather than being in that No.1 playmaker role,” Munster says.
“When you have someone like Jahrome steering the team around, I can be a little more different, maybe running the ball a little more [and] trying to change the game a little bit more.
“You always want to improve and adapt and sometimes it doesn’t work. But a lot of teams do a lot of homework on players, so I try to do something different that they haven’t seen from myself.”
Despite seeing plenty of fullback chops from Munster and friends, that point of difference makes them even more dangerous.
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