Munster magic has Storm feeling their 'free-flowing' groove again

Spirit of Anzac medallist Cameron Munster said that finding “free-flowing footy” was the secret to his best performance of the year as the Storm star helped his side sweep away the Rabbitohs. 

Pre-season injury troubles contributed to a feeling of frustration that had transferred on to the field for Munster, who dispelled those concerns with a man-of-the-match effort with four try assists and a four-pointer of his own in his side's big win.

“It’s about time I did something right, hasn’t it?” he joked after the game.

“It’s been four weeks and I’ve been just slowly building and building and hopefully I can consistently stay around that.

“I think at stages [earlier in the season] I was getting frustrated with myself because I was doing a lot of preparation, a lot of rehab, trying to strengthen my core, my glutes and everything, even my groin, it just wasn’t getting any better.

"[The frustration] was coming out in the field. When I play my best footy it’s free flowing and not having a care in the world and tonight, even though it was a big occasion for the game, I just went out there and just played the free flowing footy that I know I can play.”

While Munster took the official individual honours on the night he was far from the only player that shone against Souths. It is the fourth game in a row that Melbourne have seen their first-choice spine together – Ryan Papenhuyzen, Jahrome Hughes, Harry Grant, and Munster – and the consistency is beginning to pay dividends.

“We’re very fortunate that we have a lot of players in the spine where they can try and break the game open,” Munster said.

“People are going to see different things at times and they’re going to go with their gut, and go from there – we've just got to back each other. 

“We’ve got a lot of x-factor in our team and if we can just be a little bit on the same page at times, it’s going to make the team a little bit better.”

Despite ending the night on top of the ladder with a record of six wins and one loss, there is a feeling that the Storm have still not hit their full potential. Their 34-point win against the Rabbitohs is their largest winning margin of the season by far, the previous widest being their 8-0 victory over Penrith in Round 1.

“Everyone’s got to understand, we’ve played the last six games against the top five teams [from last season],” he explained. “We’ve had a tough first couple of rounds, and at times people are thinking we’ve got to blow teams off the park.

"Ant team can beat anyone on their given day. It just shows teams can go through for 15-20 minutes and score points, and Souths did that tonight.”

“If you play some really good footy on your day, you can beat anyone in this competition at the moment and Titans showed that this week. Warriors are a great side – if you’re going to be off your game a little bit, teams will make you pay.”