An offload nightmare
How Storm almost discarded star, Papenhuyzen
THE Storm nearly offloaded star fullback Ryan Papenhuyzen after the NSW Origin bolter became stuck in a log-jam which could have cost Melbourne the NRL’s form fullback.
Papenhuyzen will make his first appearance in an NRL grand final when Melbourne tackles Penrith at ANZ Stadium on Sunday night.
He will then be named in NSW’s 27man squad for next month’s State of Origin series, capping a dramatic year which has seen him fly into the top echelon of No. 1s.
While Papenhuyzen has enjoyed a meteoric rise at Melbourne, the Storm discussed releasing him after overloading on gun fullbacks including Billy Slater, Cam Munster, Jahrome Hughes and Scott Drinkwater. After poaching Papenhuyzen from Wests Tigers in 2017, Storm recruitment chief Paul Bunn said Melbourne was unsure if he would make it at the club.
“To be fair to the Tigers, they wanted to keep ‘Paps’ but they thought they would never lose James Tedesco,” he said. “They probably felt ‘if we keep Tedesco,
we’re blocking the path for Paps’. They acknowledged he may have needed a chance somewhere else.
“There was talk of us letting him go. We ideally never wanted him sold, but we had a number of fullbacks at the time and we were weighing things up. His agent didn’t want him let go because he had full belief Paps would be the long-term fullback.
“At the time (in 2018), we had four options. Billy Slater was our fullback, then there was Cameron Munster, who wanted to play one, Jahrome Hughes and we even had Scott Drinkwater. Paps was a bit behind all of them, so buggered if we knew what we were going to do.
“But thankfully, Paps never gave up hope. He is such a competitor and he just kept plugging away. Billy retired that year, Munster ended up at fiveeighth, Drinky went to the Cowboys and Jahrome moved to the halves, so it all worked out for Paps.”
There are few more dynamic players in the NRL than Papenhuyzen, who has become a fullback revelation with his blistering speed in 41 games since debuting for the Storm in 2019.