Melbourne Storm leaders declare time for finals turnaround

One win in four finals since the retirement of Cameron Smith has put the pressure on Melbourne Storm’s new leaders to drive success.

Jahrome Hughes has vowed the Storm will bounce back. Picture: Robert Cianflone/Getty Images

Star Melbourne Storm playmaker Jahrome Hughes has declared it’s time for the club’s leadership to “make our own mark” in the wake of the opening finals loss to Brisbane to continue the club’s proud history of success.

Melbourne’s finals record is poor since the 2020 premiership win, which marked the end of a glorious era as club legend Cameron Smith became the final member of Storm’s famed “big three” to call time on a remarkable career.

Smith handed the leadership batten to the likes of captain Christian Welch, Hughes and playmaking maestro Cameron Munster, but Storm has won just one of four finals since that triumph, including last Friday’s 26-0 thrashing at the hands of the Broncos.

Storm won 15 games during the regular season to earn their double-chance in September and Hughes was adamant a stern review had identified an “easy fix” for Craig Bellamy’s men to turn things around, with senior players putting their hands up and conceding their efforts were not up to scratch.

But Hughes also declared a meeting of the club’s senior players had determined a need to stamp their authority in the finals, as the likes of Smith, Billy Slater and Cooper Cronk did in their heyday, with the Roosters set to be in the firing line at AAMI Park on Friday night.

“We look at the history, but we don’t really want to lean on that. You know, there’s a lot of new players here now and we’re trying to make our own mark,” Hughes said.

“We’ve got a new leadership group, so it’s time for us to take a bit of ownership on that and start owning the legacy.

Melbourne Storm’s Cam Munster, Harry Grant, Jahrome Hughes and Christian Welch are ready for business. Picture: Michael Klein

“We haven’t done a great job the last couple of years, but we’re looking to keep building on that and trying to do something special every year.”

Hughes said he and Munster and hooker Harry Grant, who form Storm’s “spine”, were constantly talking and had conceded after the Brisbane game that they went away from what had been working and vowed to get back to that.

“We usually have a meeting every week and even just the corridors and in the locker room. We like talking to each other, we’re really close friends as well, so that always helps,” he said.

“We don’t want to be changing too much at this time of year and we think what we’ve been doing the last couple of weeks had been working, and we felt like we just went away from it last weekend.

“We know that’s not us, so as a leadership group and as a spine as well, we need to take control of how we want to play and talk to the boys about what each other’s job is and getting their job done.

“I feel like we play better as a team when we do have the ball in our hands, so that’s definitely gonna be a focus for us this week.”