Storm halfback Jahrome Hughes puts on a masterclass against the gritty North Queensland Cowboys

Star halfback Jahrome Hughes was back to his Dally M-winning form against the Cowboys, keeping the Storm in touch with the competition’s leaders.

Lance Jenkinson

3 min read

June 6, 2025 - 9:37PM

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Jahrome Hughes scores for the Storm. Picture: Quinn Rooney/Getty Images

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Star halfback Jahrome Hughes was back to his Dally M winning form as Melbourne Storm withstood a huge test from North Queensland Cowboys to win 38-14 at a chilly AAMI Park on Friday night.

Storm coach Craig Bellamy said that Hughes had his fingerprints all over the victory with the 30-year-old recording two tries, two try assists and a tidy kicking game with 386 kick metres.

“I think that was probably his best game this year to be quite honest,” Bellamy said.

“He has been playing pretty well, but that was a pretty special effort tonight.”

Bellamy said that Hughes’s season has been dogged by a number of niggling injuries impacting his influence over games.

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“To be quite honest, he’s done remarkably well to have played as many games as he’s played with some of his injuries,” he said.

“They’ve worn him down a little bit mentally, too, I think, just not being able to do the things that he’s used to doing or capable of doing, also not being able to do them as quickly.

“He’s been real brave for us, he just looked like he was back to his old self tonight, so hopefully he can stay on that track.”

Hughes and five-eighth Cameron Munster were playing for a 100th time together as a halves combination and they got the better of rising Cowboys duo Tom Dearden and Jaxon Purdue in an intriguing battle.

It was the 77th time the Storm has won with a Hughes-Munster halves combo, an impressive 77%.

Munster was a handful too with 17 runs for a punishing 181 run metres.

The Storm made it back-to-back wins for the first time since early April and recorded a first win over the Cowboys since 2021.

Chicken wing drama

Hulking forward Nelson Asofa-Solomona set the tone early for the Storm.

The big man got into the heads of the Cowboys players and prompted an ugly chicken wing tackle from Cowboys centre Viliami Vailea.

Asofa-Solomona, impactful in his 44 minutes, took exception to the tackle, launching the ball into Vailea’s head and calling on referee Grant Atkins to take action, and he duly placed him on report.

Cowboys coach Todd Payten believes there was no malice in the tackle.

“I’ll just let the match review committee deal with that,” he said.

“He just got him in an awkward spot, I don’t think it was totally intentional, it just happened quickly.”

Storm forward Eliesa Katoa, a dominant force in the game with 162 run metres and 66 post contact metres, punished the Vailea action, crossing for the game’s opening try.

Eliesa Katoa and Jahrome Hughes. Picture: Quinn Rooney/Getty Images

Stefano impresses

Storm forward Stefano Utoikamanu made a strong case for an elevation into the NSW Origin starting team with 146 runs metres and 59 post contact metres in 44 minutes.

“He was in the camp as the 19th, 20th player, so you’d think he’ll be right up there in the firing line,” Bellamy said.

“I think he’s a real big chance and I don’t think he did his chances any danger tonight.

“He was really solid and some of his runs really stood out.”

Dearden could not have done any more to put the Cowboys into strong attacking positions, but the Storm’s defence was just impenetrable at times.

Storm doubled its lead to 12 when captain Harry Grant exposed some careless Cowboys defence, patiently finding Hughes in a gaping hole to score.

It took a brilliant piercing long pass from Dearden to winger Jaxson Paulo for the Cowboys to finally cross the line.

Momentum crusher

Scott Drinkwater fumbled a try. Picture: Quinn Rooney/Getty Images

A drop from fullback Scott Drinkwater under a high ball just before half time undid all of the Cowboys good work in the first half with Hughes crossing for a second try in the half to make it 18-4 at the break.

Such was the Cowboys dominance in that half, the Storm incredibly had not been tackled in their attacking 20 for the previous 20 minutes leading up to that set, sapping all of the visitors momentum.

Hughes served up a delicious grubber kick to connect with Nick Meaney to open the scoring in the second half.

The Storm were in total control, leading by 20, until a wild Papenhuyzen pass metres from the tryline almost landed in row A and took the pressure off, and the Cowboys incredibly scored off the next two sets through Drinkwater and winger Robert Derby.

Late tries to Asofa-Solomona and Tyran Wishart secured victory for Storm, while Papenhuyzen’s perfect six-from-six conversions, plus a penalty goal, were valuable.