The No.6 purple jersey remains vacant five days out from Round 1 but the man tipped to wear it will be a handful for the opposition.
Cameron Munster has been the leading candidate throughout pre-season to partner Cooper Cronk in the halves this year following the off-season departure of Blake Green.
Having grown into a rising star whilst playing at fullback during his first two seasons, the opportunity has arrived for the 22-year-old to make the switch to a playmaker.
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So far the signs Munster has shown reminds Cronk of a player who made a similar positional switch 10 years ago.
“Last time we were in this situation Greg Inglis was a similar-type five-eighth and you had to accommodate his skillset as well,” Cronk said.
“There is no doubt Cameron needs to adapt to the first-receiver role and the way that we like to play. We also need to bring in his strengths, he brings different strengths to last year’s five-eighth in Blake Green.
“We will accommodate that, there is no doubt he brings some different aspects and we’ve changed our style of play to suit that but he also needs to understand the ABCs of first-receiver and work on those things as well.”
The major similarity between Munster and Inglis lies in the ever-present threat both players pose to their opponent’s line.
“The thing that Greg Inglis did well… he was a threat because of the skillset that he brings and Cameron Munster is very similar,” Cronk said.
“He is a ball runner first option, he broke a lot of tackles last year so that is a threat that oppositions teams need to look out for.
“But if they start loading up on that particular position we can take advantage of another part of the field.”
Storm finished last season with the sixth best attack in the competition, averaging 22.4 points per game.
That leaves some room for improvement and Melbourne have some things up their sleeve which Cronk believes the team is ready to show.
“I think we need to be flexible, we also need to be able to change within the flow of a game and understand how a game is reacting to our attack,” Cronk said.
“Hopefully we have worked on that, we’ve worked on multi dimensions for our attack this pre-season, our defence has pretty much stayed the same.
“Hopefully you can see a team that has evolved, stays ahead of the curve and win more games than they lose this year.
“There’s a few things to look forward to as a Storm player and Storm fan this year.”
