A pre-season ankle injury meant Ryan Papenhuyzen barely booted a ball but he still wanted to be Melbourne's go-to man in Craig Bellamy's 500th NRL game in charge.
Papenhuyzen kicked the Storm to a wild 15-14 golden point victory over South Sydney in their round-two clash on Thursday night at AAMI Park.
His goal came after an epic 45 metre two-point effort by Rabbitohs fullback Latrell Mitchell in the final minute of play to send the match into golden point.
Still recovering from ligament damage which stopped him running for eight weeks, Papenhuyzen handed the first two conversions of the night to hooker Harry Grant.
But when the big play came the fullback wanted the ball.
"They're the situations you dream of being in as a kid," the 23-year-old said.
"It's exciting - you're playing in front of home fans, it's Bellsa's (Bellamy) 500th so you want to put your hand up."
The match was the first outing of the season for their star spine - Papenhuyzen, Grant and halves Cameron Munster and Jahrome Hughes.
Munster and Grant missed their round-one win over Wests Tigers through suspension.
The quarter terrorised the Rabbitohs defence in the first half setting up or scoring all three tries before the Storm fell away to let the visitors mount a late charge.
"It was good and we went well in the first half but I'm not too sure what went wrong in the second half - we had a couple of disallowed tries that could have very easily gone our way," Papenhuyzen said.
"It felt really good, the connection between us was sweet and in those bigger moments we came together to have a chat so it was good to have them back."
Papenhuyzen relished a return to AAMI Park, with the Storm only playing seven games at their home venue in the past two years after being forced interstate by the COVID-19 pandemic.
"I was talking to someone the other day and out of my 57 or 58 games I've played, I probably would have only played 12 or 13 here at AAMI Park," he said.
"You've got a different energy, you know the crowd is behind you and I think it's only a good thing."
