Ryan Papenhuyzen is looming as Melbourne Storm’s finals wildcard with the star fullback a real “chance” to return in two weeks’ time after starring in the Queensland Cup on Saturday.
The 2020 Clive Churchill Medallist hasn’t played first grade in over a year after suffering a sickening knee injury in last year’s Magic Round.
Although, the explosive Papenhuyzen took a big step towards what would be an emotional return to the NRL with an eye-catching 80-minute display for the Sunshine Coast Falcons on Saturday.
He finished with a try, two line break assists, two try assists and 127 run metres in his second game back following a long recovery from a shattered kneecap.
Storm coach Craig Bellamy has been very careful to not put a timeframe on Papenhuyzen’s return, but hinted on Sunday he could be back for Melbourne’s final game of the premiership season against Gold Coast at AAMI Park on August 26.
Storm v Raiders - Round 24, 2023
“It’d be nice to get him back, but I don’t want to bring him back too early," Bellamy said after Storm’s 48-2 victory over Raiders on Sunday.
"He hasn’t played at the top level for a real long time so we’ll have a chat to him in the week and the medical team will have their say on it as well and we’ll see what happens.
“I doubt we’ll play him next week, but the following week if everything goes OK and we’re all on the same page then that might be a chance.”
Papenhuyzen’s return would see Nick Meaney shift to the outside backs after playing the whole season at the back.
Nick Meaney try 75th minute
“I haven’t actually seen his (Papenhuyzen’s) performance yesterday yet, so we’ll have a look at that in the next couple of days,” Bellamy said.
“I’ll sit down with him and see where he’s at.
“All along we haven’t had any expectations at all and we’re just going to take it week by week.
“I had a quick chat to him today and he was quite happy with the way he got through, so we’ll just have a look at that and compare notes I suppose and have a look.
“But if you had a look at Nick’s performance today, he was one of our best.
“So there’s no pressure on us to rush him back or to have him back when he’s not quite ready, whether that be footy wise or mentally.
“It would be good if he could come back because we know Nick can play any position in the backs.”
Bellamy was thrilled with his side’s big win on Sunday against a side that has troubled the Storm often in the past.
Storm: Round 24
“We had some real intent and discipline about our preparation this week with our training sessions,” he said.
“I thought we played really well.
“We weren’t that great with the ball to be honest.
“We made a lot of errors, especially in the first half, but we built our game on our defence which is a bit of old school Melbourne Storm probably, but that’s what we wanted to do.”
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