Storm star Cameron Munster admits his side have plenty to work on to rejoin the winners circle but has belief they are the team to break a well-known rugby league hoodoo.
Coming into their Round 6 match against the Warriors having lost three games in a row for the first time since 2022, Munster said the players had to take accountability for their string of poor performances.
"We're all kicking ourselves and pretty down in the dumps", Munster said of the 50-10 loss last week at the hands of Penrith.
“We've been probably below par the last three weeks and individually, you probably still have to look in the mirror, but to Panthers credit, they played a perfect game and put a lot of pressure on us.
“There's some points there we probably definitely could have stopped and scrambled, but I guess it was just a reflection (on how well they played) …
“They pretty much showed us where we need to be and what bar we need to set, so it's good learning for us.
“We've got a lot of improvement in us ...
"It's all doom and gloom and I know there's obviously a lot of history and stats around if you lose by 50 … you can't make the grand final, but I guess it's pretty much to us as a group to be able to change that.
“Hopefully … we can train well and bring the energy back because I think the last couple of weeks, and including myself, I feel like the energy hasn't been there for us and it's not good enough."
In particular, there has been a focus on defence at training this week in preparation for the Warriors, who are looking to break a three-game losing streak of their own.
“I think it's everywhere,” Munster said of what has been going wrong on the field recently.
“I think defensively leaking too many points, edges like myself, Hughesy [Jahrome Hughes], our centres, our wingers …
“We've got the game plan and got enough talent in our team, players to score points, it's just I think at the moment, individually we're just probably trying to do it ourselves, we're not working as a team.
“We've been doing that this week, trying to get better, that's all we can try and do.
“(The Panthers last week) They were more aggressive with the ball, attacking wise and more aggressive in defence.
“They were hitting together, we were hitting one-on-one, individually, like I spoke about … blokes who were going out of the system and trying to do it themselves, so that's myself, that's everyone in our team, they've got to be accountable for that, so there's no excuses on why we're not playing that well.
“I think everyone's working really hard at training, it's just not coming together at the moment.
“It's pretty much us, not the coaching staff that can go out there and play the game for us, they've given us a system and a game plan to win games and it showed ... the last couple of years it works.
"It's just we have got to make sure everyone buys into what we want to do and that's myself and everyone around this team.
“Our spine to take responsibility, which I'm doing so we have got to be better so I'll make sure I can do everything I can this week to get us up.
“I don't think it's too much personnel for me. I think it's just attitude.
“I think it doesn't take a rocket scientist or anyone to be able to tackle.
“It's just more of an attitude thing, so everyone's here in this team for a reason, it's they're talented, they can run the ball, they can pass the ball, they can defend, it's just more of an attitude thing and we need to switch that.
“There's 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, and you've seen in the last couple of years who's won the comps because their defence is really good.
“We can get there, it's just we just got to work hard and we did that yesterday with a lot of defence.
“It wasn't a whole heap of attack for us as a 13 on the field, so we did a lot of 'd' and that's the that's the frustrating part because we're training really well defensively and we're doing a lot of contact out here, but it's just not reflecting on the field.
“Hopefully, it can come out on Saturday against the Warriors and that's all we can do."
Match: Storm v Warriors
Round 6 -
home Team
Storm
12th Position
away Team
Warriors
7th Position
Venue: AAMI Park, Melbourne
Match broadcasters:
- WatchNRL
