Ryan Papenhuyzen rejects Melbourne Storm resting claim after Billy Slater floats late-season theory

Melbourne Storm fullback Ryan Papenhuyzen has shut down claims he may be one of the players given a week off ahead of the NRL finals. Despite coach Craig Bellamy flagging some potential rests for players in the final three rounds, with a two-two spot locked in and two trips to Queensland coming up, Papenhuyzen says he is desperate to “play through” to ensure he is at his best for finals.

Having only played 15 games across the last two seasons due to injury, Papenhuyzen isn't looking for a week off. “I think everyone’s pretty keen to play. I know I’m definitely not taking a break if I don’t have anything wrong with me,” Papenhuyzen said ahead of Storm’s final home match for the regular season.

“I’d rather just play all the way through and that starts this week. I think my past couple of years have been a little bit turbulent, so understandably people are talking (about his future), but I think I just wanted to focus on playing a few games and probably part of the reason why I don’t want to be rested, I just want to keep playing and get back into a bit of a rhythm.”

And in an ominous warning to NRL rivals, Papenhuyzen believes the minor premiership favourites' star-studded spine is starting to gel at the right time. Papenhuyzen, Cameron Munster, Jahrome Hughes and captain and hooker Harry Grant only played together for the first time this year in round 21. But after four games together since Munster's return from a hip injury, the Melbourne No.1 believes their connections are growing stronger and stronger each and every game.

“I think I saw some stat the other day that we’ve played maybe 16 games together or something and we’ve won 14, so it’s pretty good,” Papenhuyzen said. “I think early on it’s hard to get your sort of bearings of when you’ve got to get up on the footy or when to back off a little bit.

“But we had a few discussions the past fortnight about how we can best play to our abilities and weave in and out of games, so I think we’ve sort of marked that off now and got a bit of a structure around it. And then once we had that structure, it was relaying it to the forward pack, being like, ‘OK, we’re going to do this at this period of time. Don’t feel like we’re taking your roles, but we’ve just got to sort of blend in and make sure we’re all getting hands on the footy rather than one of us dominating’. We’re still finding that balance, but I think the past fortnight’s been a bit of a turning point.”

Billy Slater believes team changes are on the cards in next fortnight

Storm legend Billy Slater believes Bellamy will opt to rest several players in the coming weeks after all but guaranteeing themselves a top-two finish on the ladder after beating Penrith last Thursday. Melbourne will almost certainly play a home qualifying final and will likely look to make sure all their players are fresh by giving a handful a rest.

Bellamy has often opted to rest several players from his squad towards the end of the season and Slater believes he will do so again as early as this weekend against the Dolphins, before taking a weakened side to Townsville against the Cowboys. "They've got their last home game against the Dolphins this week and given their position on the ladder, they might choose to do it (rest players) this week and next week," Slater said on The Billy Slater Podcast.

RELATED:

• How Ron Coote's selection as 14th Immortal avoided embarrassment

• Andrew Johns blasts 'disrespectful' act as 14th Immortal is named

• Walters calls for NRL change after Broncos dudded by Reece Walsh farce

"Especially (with) the Townsville trip — that's a long way from Melbourne. It's a four-hour flight going up there, playing in the heat. I wouldn't be surprised if Craig Bellamy rested his players there and potentially this week as well."

But Slater believes Bellamy will opt to play a near full-strength side in round 27 in bad news for a Broncos side who might need a win to qualify for the finals. "Given it's a Thursday night in Brisbane against the Broncos, you've got over a week to prepare for the first semi-final — I think Craig Bellamy would like to go into that Broncos game in round 27 fully fit and fully strengthened and go after the momentum," Slater added.

with newswire