Melbourne have been dealt a major blow with star playmaker Cameron Munster officially ruled out of their round-one NRL clash with premiers Penrith.
Battling a groin injury, Munster trained solo at their final practice run ahead of the AAMI Park match on Friday night, with coach Craig Bellamy then ruling him out.
“We don’t think he’s going to play,” Bellamy said of Munster.
“It’s disappointing for us and for Cameron, as he’s done everything asked of him but it hasn’t got good enough for him to play.
One day it looks like he’s going to play and then the next day it doesn’t so I don’t think anyone’s exactly sure of what it is or how to fix it.”
He said that either Jonah Pezet, who has worn the No.6 jumper in the Storm’s two trial matches, or utility Tyran Wishart would start in Munster’s place, lining up against the game’s best halves in Nathan Cleary and Jarome Luai.
“We tried a couple of guys there today – Tyran Wishart is our 14 so he can play a couple of postions and young Jonah’s played our trials so we will have a look after training and make a decision from there,” said Bellamy.
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“I’m really confident both of them could get the job done.”
The Storm are gunning for a record 22 successive round-one victories under Bellamy, last losing in 2001 when Chris Anderson was coach.
Taking on the three-time NRL champions rates as Melbourne’s biggest opening-round challenge.
“Whether it’s round one or round 20, they’ve won three premierships in a row and you don’t fluke that,” said Bellamy.
We know what we’re up against and we need to stick to what we;ve practised all pre-season and what we think is going to work for us and and see where that takes us.
“We know that the opposition is going to be ready to go.”
