History says the Melbourne Storm have no chance of winning the NRL premiership after they conceded 50 points to the red-hot Panthers last week, but superstar five-eighth Cameron Munster says it’s up to the team to change all that.
Social media is quick to fire up whenever a team has 50 put on them, with stats showing that no side has ever won the grand final after conceding that many points in a game that season.
Melbourne’s 50-10 loss to Penrith was the first time in 23 years that a side had cracked the half-century against Craig Bellamy’s side, with the Panthers just about perfect in every category last Friday to hand Melbourne a third loss on the trot.
“We’ve probably been below par the past three weeks. Individually, we probably have to look in the mirror,” Munster said.
“To the Panthers’ credit, they probably played the perfect game and put a lot of pressure on us. There were some points that we could have stopped and scrambled, but they showed us where we need to be and what bar we need to set.
“It was a good learning for us and (showed) we still have a lot of improvement in us, but it’s only round five.
“There’s all doom and gloom and I know there’s a lot of history and stats around that if you have 50 points put on you then you can’t (win the comp).
“It’s up to us as a group to change that.”
Bellamy has been known to lose it in the sheds after a poor performance, but Munster says the veteran coach was relatively calm compared to the previous two losses where they blew double-digit leads to go down to the Broncos and Cowboys.
The Storm completed 94 per cent of their sets against the premiership favourites but missed 48 tackles against the only unbeaten team left in the competition.
“I don’t think it’s too much of a personnel thing, I think it’s more about attitude,” Munster said.
“It doesn’t take a rocket scientist or anyone to be able to tackle.
“Everyone is in this team for a reason because they’re talented, they can run the ball and they can defend. It’s just a matter of an attitude thing, and we need to switch that.
“There are always two sides to a game of rugby league. You can attack as much as you want, but the defensive side is what wins grand finals.”
The Storm must bounce back at home on Saturday night against a Warriors side that has lost its past two and will be missing several key men to injury.
“They probably haven’t gone as great as they would have liked the past couple of weeks,” Munster said.
“But they’re a good quality team and then we’ve got a tough couple of weeks with them and the Raiders so what a great opportunity to go up against some of the teams that were at the top last year to see where we’re at.”
