It could be made official next week but Melbourne halfback Jahrome Hughes has laid claim to recognition as the game's best player with a star showing in the Storm's NRL preliminary final win.
The favourite to win the Dally M Medal on Wednesday night, Hughes was already being celebrated at AAMI Park on Friday night as his hat-trick of tries helped set up a 48-18 victory over the Sydney Roosters.
He was among a swag of Storm players to shine, with Cameron Munster, Ryan Papenhuyzen and Eliesa Katoa also stand-outs.
Former Storm halfback great Cooper Cronk praised the contribution of Hughes, but said his former teammate would be solely focused on a premiership rather than personal glory at the Dally M awards.
"It was a hell of a performance," Cronk said of Hughes in Fox commentary.
"But in terms of his performance the one focus he will have will be lifting that trophy on Sunday."
First into the premiership decider, the Storm await the winner of the Penrith-Cronulla preliminary final but a win for the Panthers would set up a juicy contest between Hughes and Panthers superstar Nathan Cleary.
The Panthers No.7 has long being considered the leading NRL halfback but could be usurped this season by Kiwi ace Hughes.
Melbourne were on the back foot early after losing giant prop Nelson Asofa-Solomona to the sin-bin in the first minute, with the Sydney Roosters scoring through Daniel Tupou in his absence.
But Hughes scored twice in the first half to help the Storm regain the front-running, taking a 22-6 lead into halftime.
He showed off his array of skills, dominating through his running and kicking game.
Joining Cameron Munster to run rings around the Roosters halves, Luke Keary and Sandon Smith, Hughes added his third try at the 52nd minute mark.
Hughes left the field in the final minutes and headed straight to the sheds with a sore neck, but the early exit was deemed to be precautionary.
His coach Craig Bellamy said the performance was typical of what Hughes had delivered consistently this season.
"That's just a bit of a sign of what he's been doing all year, to be quite honest," Bellamy said of the halfback.
"He's always come up with the game that we need from him - sometimes it might be a real good kicking game, sometimes it might be a real good running game, sometimes it might be just organising and passing - he seems to be able to pick what the team needs and he can just come up with that game.
"He's very versatile in his position, obviously his running game is probably the strongest part of his game, he can just pick what needs doing and he's got the attributes and the ability to do it and he's been doing that all year."
